Next in our series on how to make moving home as stress-free as possible, we’re taking a look at how you can pack, wrap and protect your precious belongings to keep them safe in the van, when moving home.
Clothes, jewellery and personal effects
Most clothes are best packed in bags and suitcases, which doubles up as an efficient way of transporting your luggage to the new place.
Roll everything you can rather than folding – it conserves space and helps to protect against creasing.
Some man and van services will have rails, hooks or handles inside their vehicles on which you can hang a couple of suit or dress bags – but always ask about this in advance, as it’s not a certainty.
It’s best to keep high-value jewellery separately and transport it yourself if you can – especially if it’s valuable enough to be insured, as sending it off with a driver may void the terms of the insurance.
Keep a few t-shirts and pairs of socks out till later, as they can be useful for packing and protecting other objects.
Household Electronics
For large items such as televisions and monitors, it’s a good idea to save the boxes they came in and pack them in those when you move. If it’s too late for that, though, you can buy TV-shaped moving boxes online.
Most other things are more likely to fit inside standard moving boxes. Either way, wrap all electronics in towels, blankets or bubble wrap if you have some and use padding to hold them still once they’re packed.
Kitchenware
To safely transport plates, bowls and other crockery, line the box with bubble wrap and wrap each individual dish in tissue paper or newspaper. Stack them in the box as tightly as possible and then fill in any gaps to stop them moving – clothes, teatowels, newspaper and bubble wrap are all good for this.
Don’t stack glasses unprotected; this makes them more likely to break. If you can, find a partitioned box with a slot for each glass. Otherwise get a layer of paper or similar between each glass, and pack them in the same way as crockery.
Sharp knives must have their blades wrapped in several layers of bubble wrap and taped securely. Never just throw them into a cardboard box – this can be extremely dangerous.
Mirrors, Picture Frames & Ornaments
Mirrors and framed pictures can be packed in special mirror boxes available online, which are made of multi-layered cardboard and can be adjusted to fit.
Towels, blankets and bubble wrap are your friends – and make sure you know which is the glass side, so that you can avoid leaning anything against it while it’s packed up.
Before packing anything with a breakable pane, stick a cross of masking tape in a large X across the glass. This is just a precaution – but it means that if something does break there won’t be so much glass everywhere.
Soft Furnishings
Pick up a mattress protector bag online to cover your mattress when you move. Moving vans can get quite dusty, and you won’t want all that in your bed on the first night!
Similar protectors exist for sofas and armchairs, though these can be trickier to fit – a dustsheet over them in the van will also work fine.
Cushions and pillows can be helpful when padding out other boxes to keep fragile items from damage, so pack those last.
Don’t forget to label your boxes well, and use FRAGILE tape on any that contain particularly delicate objects. Your driver will gladly take into account which boxes need careful handling, but they do need to be able to tell at an easy glance!
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