If you choose not to buy an urn from your funeral home or crematorium, they will likely send the deceased's ashes in a plastic bag in a cardboard box.
When moving the ashes to the urn, many people are tempted to "pour them in." However, our advice is that you keep them in the plastic bag and place the plastic bag containing the ashes into the urn.
This adds an extra layer of protection for the ashes and will make it easier for you to transfer them to another urn in the future if that's something you wish to do.