How to Ship a Package from Home Without a Printer

These days, a lot of people ship packages from home because it saves them time, money, and trouble. However, in order to send a parcel from home, you need to purchase a shipping label online, print it, and affix the label to your parcel. But what if you don’t have a printer? Are there any ways to ship a package from home without a printer?

Let us start with addressing a common misconception. Many people think that you need a special thermal printer for self-adhesive shipping labels if you want to ship packages from home. However, this is not the case. The United States Postal Service (USPS), UPS, FedEx, DHL, and most other major postal and courier companies accept shipping labels printed on regular paper and attached to packages with the help of self-adhesive pouches or clear packing tape.

So if you don’t have a shipping label printer but have a regular one, there is nothing preventing you from shipping packages from home. You can use an inkjet or a laser printer; both will do as long as the printed label is high-quality (not too pale, not smudged, etc) and protected from the elements during transit.

However, if you don’t own a printer, or your printer is broken, or you’re out of ink or toner – this is where things get tricky. You can’t just stick a handwritten label to your package because a valid shipping label must have a carrier-generated barcode for processing purposes. Luckily, there are ways to work around that and ship a package from home without a printer.

Once you purchase and generate a shipping label, you can save it as PDF instead of printing it right away. Then you can email the file to someone who has a printer and ask them to print the label for you and drop it off at your place (of course, if it is not too much trouble for them) or drop by yourself to collect it.

Another option is saving the label to a USB drive/external hard drive (or emailing it to yourself) and printing at your local public library or print shop. In addition, some carriers’ drop-off locations, such as FedEx Offices and UPS Stores, offer in-store printing services, so you’ll be able to print your prepaid shipping label when dropping your package off for shipping. Of course, this is not exactly “shipping from home”, but this option is still cheaper and less time-consuming than shipping your package the “traditional” way.

Some carriers have special features for customers who purchase shipping labels online but don’t have access to a printer. For example, the USPS has Label Broker, a special option integrated into its Click-N-Ship service for purchasing and printing shipping labels online.

Shipping labels generated with Label Broker have a unique ID and a specially formatted QR code. Customers can use their Label Broker ID to print their shipping labels from the USPS.com when they find a printer, have the QR code scanned by an employee at the Post Office counter to print the label, or scan the QR code and print the label at a Self-Service Kiosk.

UPS offers another option to customers who want to ship packages from home but don’t have access to a printer. It is possible to schedule a package pick-up and arrange the delivery driver to bring a shipping label with them. Of course, you will have to pay the driver (postage + associated fees); the package pick-up request form has the checkbox titled “I will pay my driver using Check or Money Order” you’ll need to check.

Generating shipping labels online is generally more affordable than paying for shipping at a post office / carrier’s location, and having no printer at home should not be an obstacle. You can save your shipping labels as PDF and print them elsewhere, or look into other options that your carrier of choice might offer. Even if you don’t own a printer, shipping packages from home is still an option!