Delicate and fragile items carry a high risk of being damaged or broken during the process of packing, moving, and unpacking. It’s worth it to adopt a series of safety measures to preserve the physical integrity of your property when moving your home and business; these measures range from industry standard to totally improvised. Different categories of items require different packing methods; but if you follow these tips, all your stuff will remain totally safe throughout the entire move.
Advance Prep and Required Tools
Make sure to start packing before moving day – packing items safely has many intricacies. You will need quality boxes of different sizes, bubble wrap, packing paper, cardboard, scissors, and packing tape – as well as a large table to put all your items out on.
Lamps
Lamp bodies and shades should be packed separately. Box the lamp shades (flat side down) separately, and put the base in a large box, and wrap it in bubble wrap.
Pictures / Paintings / Frames
Frames should be placed in small-medium boxes lined with paper – if they are larger than about 8 inches they should be left standing, with crumpled up paper in between each piece. Wrap all frames in packing paper, and place lots of packing paper on top of the frames to makes sure contents don’t move around inside the box. Very large pictures should be plastic wrapped, secured with a moving blanket, and moved separately.
Plates
Stack all plates vertically in medium size boxes with crumpled up packing paper on the bottom and top. Wrap each plate in bubble wrap, and then fasten the wrap with tape and put the paper between the plates. Don’t over pack or over stuff the box – it’s better to have a few boxes with less plates then all of them stacked together.
Glasses
Make sure each glass is individually wrapped with packing paper, placed in a small or medium box with crumpled packing paper filling all the empty spaces for shock absorption. Line the entire box with packing paper, and surround the glasses with them – more is better, glasses are delicate. Put the heaviest items at the bottom of the box, with less-heavy items placed on top.
Rare or Specialty Items
Any strangely shaped, large fragile items should be packed with careful consideration of the shape and size of the piece, as well as any handles or protruding aspects that could easily break off. Wrap the piece in bubble wrap completely, securing it with packing tape. Place it on a piece of cut cardboard, and place an identically sized piece of cardboard on top of the item, bend the cardboard ends to meet, and secure it with tape. The more tape, the tighter it will hold – it’s best to have objects securely and snugly packed. Put the piece inside a paper lined box about the size of the object (to minimize shifting) – making sure to put crumpled packing paper in any gaps in the box. Tape up the box and mark it as being FRAGILE.
