Use Your Bathroom Scale
The scale hiding in your bathroom, the one we all religiously avoid, is a quick and easy tool for weighing your packages. Shipping on Ship.com only requires measurements that are accurate to the pound. Since you don’t need to determine the exact weight of your package, your home scale should work just fine. For packages that weigh several pounds, you can place them directly on the scale to determine how much they weigh.
If your package weight is too small to be measured by your scale, simply weigh yourself first without the package and then weigh yourself again holding the package. Then, simply subtract your original weight from the second weight with the package and the resulting number is the weight of the package.
Use A Kitchen Scale
If you’re diet-conscious or maybe a home chef, you may already have the perfect package scale hanging out in your kitchen. Kitchen scales can be used to get accurate measurements for ingredients, portioning and packages. In addition to being highly accurate, newer versions of the compact scales can even weigh packages up to 40 pounds or more.
Estimate the Combined Weight of Items and Packaging
It’s fairly easy to find the weight of most consumer items with a simple web search. It may be a little bit more tedious, but you can look up each item individually and then add their combined weights to the weight of your packaging. Carrier DHL has a page on their website that can help you estimate the weight of your package by comparing it to everyday household items.
The good news is you don’t have to get an exact measurement. If you’re unsure, the best practice is to always round up. If your guess is under, your package may be delayed while the carrier contacts you regarding the additional shipment costs. Most likely, the carrier will add the additional shipment costs to whatever form of payment you used to purchase the original shipping label.
Use a Weighing App
Just like the apps that are available for measuring your package’s dimensions, there are even a few apps that may be able to give you an approximate weight for your package. If you’re weighing a large package, you’re better off using a scale. If your item is smaller, the app may be able to work with your device’s accelerometer, also known as the touchscreen’s pressure sensor. Unfortunately, none of the digital scale apps for phones will be able to weigh large loads, which is probably good because you wouldn’t want to put a heavy item on your phone’s delicate screen anyway.
Be sure to read the app’s description carefully to see if it can give you a relatively correct approximation. Not every app will work on every phone, the app may be limited by the hardware within your device. It’s also important to note that there are a lot of ‘prank’ apps that are only designed for fun and not an accurate weight measurement.