Help! I just picked up my picture frames, but how do I get them home in my car?

So, how to get home with picture frames, especially large ones?  The photograph shown here succinctly depicts how some Customers leave our store with their   newly-purchased picture frames and load them into their cars for their trip home. Not uncommonly what we see, horrifies us! With little or even medium sized picture frames we don't see all that much wrong but with larger size (90cm plus wide) picture frames we witness customers' loading misdeeds which inflict visual tortures to our picture framers' hearts and minds. We appreciate that mums with kids are busy but they really seem to be   the worst offenders.

They come in with the boot of the cars absolutely chokers with shopping, groceries, party dresses, carnival masks dance tutus, schoolbags, sports gear, huge football poles protection pads, footballs, soccer balls, sport clothes, gym balls, swimming floaters, fins, goggles, snorkels, beach umbrellas, beach chairs, camping tents, camping bags, cricket bats, cricket pads, cricket bags, helmets, baseball bats, referee's flags, coat hangers full with clothes, excitable or snarly dogs, hissing or spitting cats, garden chairs, massive Bunnings indoor an outdoor furniture and garden flat-packs tables, small trees, big shrubs, carpets, sinks, you name it, we've seen it.

Of course when a busy mum opens the tailgate or hatch-back gate there's no room for medium or big size picture frames. So frustrated mum more often than not drops the frame gets to the ground or footpath, re-arranges all the gear which is in the way and then tries to literally cram or shove the frame on top of all the stuff at the back. A couple of customers have actually cracked the finished picture frames' glass because of all the shoving and twisting trying to force their freshly-collected picture frame inside the car. Some other have sheepishly brought back the frame that they've just scratched back for touch-up, repairs or even re-framing.

We're not being sexist and just blaming mums because dads and men do this too but it seems that mums tend to finish work earlier and they get lumbered with all sundry goods pick ups and collections. What's also not helping all this is that all cars have got smaller during the last twenty years or so.

We never saw that much loading damage when customers rolled up int their Holden or Ford station wagons but as people bought smaller cars, bumps, scratches, sprung or twisted frames and broken glass became more frequent. Of course when we see these things happening or about to happen we don't just sit there and laugh, we're proactive, we warn, advise and talk to customers.

We now ask them, if they can, to back their vehicles into our store's driveway, and we always offer to help with carrying and loading saying that if the picture frame gets damaged from our store to their car, it's on us. Most mums readily agree to this free service and everybody's a winner. Sometimes though we have to draw the line at unpacking and removing 100 kilos of shopping and re-packing it as it'd simply take too long or the baggage is too heavy for one person. In these cases we ask the customer to come back with at least a relatively empty car and we still proffer our service.

We need to add that when we finish a picture frame we always put a quality cardboard picture frame protector in each corner for added safety. That said, here a few tips to help in the collection, loading and transportation of picture frames.

1) Do carry picture frames securely, with both hands, holding at least two sides and not just by the cord. Carrying and walking stresses the cord or hanging device far more than when just hanging it on the wall

2) When stacking picture frames do so face to face or glass to glass so that will not suffer hardware scratches because of the fitted corner protectors.

3) When placing multiple pictures in the car, do not stack them like pancakes, doing so might damage the first or bottom picture frame because it's not designed to support axial loads such as half a dozen of frames on top of it. Rather, stack them vertically, like books, standing up, between blankets, rugs or soft supports.

4) Make sure that your picture frames are all fitted with cardboard corner protectors on all four corners. If they're not, ask your friendly picture framer do give you some, they're cheap enough.

5) Drive carefully, no rally or 4WD terrain driving, slow down at speed humps, potholes, bumps, obstacles, etc, to avoid rocking, rolling, shaking or rattling the picture frames.

To avoid disappointments and extra, unnecessary expenses, do review and consider the tips we listed in here, these will help ensure that you can get home with picture frames undamaged, unbroken and in one piece.

Of course if customers cannot collect their work, or the picture frame is too large or too heavy, or there are too many picture frames, we can try and do it for them by delivering with our van, subject to our conditions and limitations. If so, please just call us or Contact us!  Thank you for reading this post "Help! I just picked up my picture frames, but how do I get them home in my car?".