Click-and-send your Christmas presents

Welcome to a sponsored post* brought to you by Australia Posts new click-and-send service. I wish there were more things you could do online. I already bank, grocery shop and socialise online. I find that it saves me time and keeps me focussed (I’m also really lazy and love being able to conduct my life while sitting on my bottom).

The new Click and Send service from Australia Post is particularly exciting for me because it combines two of my favourite things: my computer and the post office.

I’m not joking about the post office. I love it. I have a PO Box so I spend A LOT of time there and I find it oddly soothing. It’s always very calm, very organised and pleasingly quiet. And it’s not just about the mail. There are so many thing TO BUY.

While waiting in the queue to collect my parcels, I’m forever darting over to various displays to grab bits of stationary, greeting cards and gifts. Post Offices have changed in the last few years. Maybe this is because the idea of sending a letter has become so quaint. Like vintage clothes. So they’ve diversified and now they sell a whole lot of stuff very cheaply. Like kids books and toys and gift vouchers.

I love this because – as regular readers will know – I am hopelessly disorganised and try to keep a stack of kids’ presents and cards and wrapping paper on hand always. Because those damned kiddie birthday parties? They’ll sneak up on you and mess with your mind. EVERY WEEKEND.

A while back, I became a little bit unhealthily obsessed with my local post office. “The post office is AMAZING!” I gushed to my husband. “You can buy, like, EVERYTHING there.”

Pause.

“Can you buy milk there?” he asked? “What about cars? Do they sell cars at the post office?”

They do not. And I didn’t appreciate him totally not entering into the spirit of what I was trying to say.

But anyway. That’s not even what this post is about.

One thing that does do my head in a little bit is the idea of sending parcels overseas. Like many people, we have various friends and relatives living overseas and they’re forever having babies or birthdays or celebrating Christmas. Selfish, aren’t they?

So there are gifts to be sent ALL THE TIME. The thought of doing this, however, is often too overwhelming for my easily overwhelmed brain. The thought of buying something and then schlepping it to the post office and then finding the right post bag or box to send it in and then standing in the queue full of people who keep bloody darting around the place to stock up on presents (!) is all just too…..much.

So I don’t do it. And I feel guilty.

So thank you Australia Post for inventing Click and Send. This service launched earlier this year but it’s really going to come into its own in time for Christmas. Finally, you can do it all online. You can even pay a bit extra and get your parcel COLLECTED FROM YOUR HOUSE. So you can seriously not even leave your virtual life for a moment except maybe to go to the loo. And even then, if you have wireless, you can take your laptop with you. Some do. Not me. But I”m just saying.

Anyway, you certainly don’t need to walk outside your front door if you don’t want to. Yes, the post office will now come to you. I like the sound of that.

With a few clicks you can fill out all the paperwork online, choose how fast you want it to get there etc, print your labels out and then either pay on the spot and have it collected from your house the next day or take your completed paperwork into Australia Post and pay there – while you pick up some more gifts while waiting in the queue. Naturally.

Give it a go. I’m going to use it to send copies of my book to my girlfriends who are living in South Africa, London, New York and Singapore and who are too cheap to buy flights home so they can purchase it themselves.

You can visit the Australia Post Click And Send homepage here and have a poke around. All your questions will be answered and your life possibly changed. Especially if you are an eBay seller or small business who ships internationally…

If you have any other time-saving tips to share with Mamamia readers, go for your life in the comments below.