How To Pack Your Items For Moving

by Grace Bailey
(UK, London)

When it comes to packing up your items and belongings in preparation for a move, there are a few things you should keep in mind.

If you have gone with the decision to do the packing yourself rather than hire some experts to do it for you, then there are a few things to be aware of.

"Do Not Move" labels can be useful if you intend to leave items behind. This helps the removal service a great deal as they know not to take them with you! Vulnerable and fragile items should be labeled clearly for similar reasons. Consider a color-coded system when labeling your boxes. This will help the movers identify everything.

For oil paintings, you will want to cover them over with a non-acidic clear wrap and then use bubble wrap or blankets to wrap them. Then place them in a suitably sized picture box or flatten out a box to fit. Pictures in glass frames should be wrapped up similarly in blankets and then boxed up again as such.

For mirrors, small sized mirrors can be well wrapped in paper and then packed in cartons for putting in the removal van. For a large mirror, you need a different approach. Create a cardboard case by cutting up pieces of corrugated cardboard roughly the same size as the mirror. And mark it with "GLASS" in various places so the removal team know not to mishandle it.

For packing dishes and other plates, you should individually wrap up each piece. If you are going

to use newspaper, then make sure you first wrap them up in plastic bags. This will save you from doing a load of dish washing on your arrival at your new property (as otherwise you can end up with newspaper print all over them!). You can place cups and bowls inside each other with wrapped paper on all of them, to save space and ensure a tight fit so they don’t jangle around in transit.

For rugs or carpets, make sure you give them a good run over with the vacuum first and then sprinkle them with moth balls. Then roll up and tie them in three places using twine. Remove tacks and then roll the carpet up. But as you do so, try to avoid bending the carpet as this will end up making it a lot more difficult to relay (when you arrive at your new home, if intending to take the carpet with you!).

Garage contents often have to be dealt with by yourself and when going through everything stored in the garage, it is worth noting that most of it needs to be left behind or simply gotten rid of. Brilliant removal services won’t move flammable substances under any circumstances, so get rid of them in a sensible fashion. This also goes for creosote, paraffin, matches, gas bottles, or old tins of paint and similar items. All of these invalidate any insurance cover and cannot be brought with you, aside from possibly causing all of your items to inadvertently go up in flames!

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