When you plan a move the initial thought is generally excitement. It’s thrilling to think you’ll be relocating and have the opportunity to create a new home, starting with a blank canvas.
But, shortly after the excitement sets in you’ll realize the scale of the task.
Moving means a lot of paperwork and you need to pack up your home and move everything to the new location.
That means, you’ll want to find a great moving firm, that can ensure your belongings are safely transported between locations.
But, unless you’re prepared to pay for the full service, that still leaves you packing the boxes.
In short, if you pack them badly your favorite ornaments and even your large-screen television will end up broken.
You need to know how to pack fragile items properly.
Find The Right Boxes
The first step is to locate boxes. It can be tempting to hit your local stores and see what boxes they have available.
However, when you adopt this approach you’ll end up with a variety of boxes, all different sizes and of varying sturdiness.
This will make it difficult for the moving company to pack everything safely in their vans and you won’t be able to guarantee how strong the boxes are.
Don’t forget, when you’re moving the boxes will be stacked on top of each other in the vans, the ones at the bottom may have a lot of weight resting on them, they need to be able to handle it.
Instead of looking for what boxes are available, talk to your removal firm.
You’ll find most firms rent or sell you boxes that you can use. These are all the same size and are extremely sturdy.
Get Packaging Material
The next step is to make sure you have plenty of packaging material. Ideally, you want to choose a material that can be easily recycled.
Newspaper is a good option but you may struggle to find enough of it. Using newspaper can also mean you have to wash everything when you unpack it.
Bubble wrap is a viable option for covering fragile objects. This will help to protect them.
But, to ensure your fragile items won’t get broken, you also need to have foam peanuts or something similar.
This can be packed around every item in the box to ensure things can’t move around.
The packaging protects items from being broken by crashing into each other.
They also provide impact protection, absorbing the majority of the shock when the box is dropped or another is put on top of it.
This can make a big difference to the survival of your precious items.
Have Plenty Of Packing Tape
When you have finished packing a box you’re going to want to seal it shut. The simplest way to do this is to use packing tape.
You can even invest in a packing gun to make the dispensing of tape easy.
You’ll want to carefully tape every edge of the box, both at the top and the bottom.
This will help hold it together, no matter how badly it is handled.
You should note, failing to tape the bottom often means the box will fail and your contents will drop out of the bottom. That will almost certainly break everything inside.
Mark Every Box
Every box should be clearly labelled. The first step is to ensure you have written everything that is in the box.
If this is too big a list to write on the box then code each box and write the items on a separate list.
There’s a good reason for this, it will help you place each box in the right room of each home.
It will also allow you to track your most fragile items.
This brings you to the second reason to mark your boxes, you can clearly state that they are fragile.
This will help you and your moving firm to handle the items with care. But, don’t label every item with fragile, just the ones that really are.
Keep Original Packaging
Many people don’t think about moving when they buy a new appliance or even an ornament.
But, everything is packed in special boxes to minimize the chance of breakage.
By keeping the manufacturer’s box you can place the item back into it for your move.
This box can then go inside one of your moving crates, offering the fragile item additional protection.
Allow Plenty Of Time
One of the biggest mistakes most people make is leaving the packing to the last minute.
Doing it this way means that you will be rushing and you are more likely to cut corners when packing. Your fragile items will pay the price.
Once you know you are moving, start packing the ornaments and similar items away.
You don’t need them and it will keep them safer while making the move easier.