How to Pack Fragile Items on Your Upcoming Move
Do you know that beautiful antique flower vase in your home or that costly glass cup you bought for rare and special occasions? They could get broken if you are not careful enough or patient. Part of what comes with moving is the need to get things done on time. The whole rush and process of moving things around can make you a little confused, and you will eventually break things. You need to be calm when trying to pack delicate and fragile items.
Certain items cannot be replaced. Certain gift items that you might probably never find anywhere else. Or even things passed on to you from your parents and grandparents. You don't want to break the beautiful antique your grandparents gave you. Damaging any of these delicate items can be a disaster. To avoid these types of tragedies, you need to make sure you follow these tips.
1. Proper preparation
The first thing you need is to plan properly. Nothing beats a very decent preparation done over a long time. First off, you need to make sure you get an accurate detail of the fragile items you have in your care. Start from taking the list of kitchen items, antiques, wine glasses, and every other thing you feel might get broken at the slightest contact with a hard surface. Once you are done with the list, you can proceed to take taking the items to a place.
Remember that this is not the time to rush. If you are not going to hire any of the local moving companies to help you, then you can do it yourself. Get the items and put them together in a spot or a room. This way, you will be able to keep track of the fragile items because they are in one place. The next thing to do is to make sure your pets or your children are restricted from going to that spot or area where you have kept the items. In case you are wondering why this is necessary, you will understand it when you lose your items, it's better to be safe than sorry.
2. Get packing supplies
The next thing you need to realize is that you need to get supplies for packing the fragile items. The fragile items are not the other items that can be thrown into a box or a bag. They need to be attended to separately and more carefully. So the first thing to do after sorting and deciding what you need to pack is to get the boxes as well as paddings to get your properties safe.
For the supplies, you might be needing lots of brown paper, bubble wrap as well as special packing paper. Just in case you can find some of these immediately, or you run out of those, you can improvise by using some of your blankets, or even your duvet to protect delicate items. So let’s start with some practical tips to help you with the wrapping process.
3. Wrap with the bubble and paper wraps
Now, you want to make sure you do an excellent job wrapping the items. Remember that they are not like regular items. Any form of sudden or harsh collision could cause major damage. You should try covering the items first with more than one layer of bubble wrap. After that is done, you can go ahead and wrap it with the paper wrappers. After the wrapping is done, you should use a bit of tape to seal the layers, so it stays in place. This type of protective wrapping ensures that your items would be safe during the moving process.
4. Extra cushioning
Even after you might have done a perfect job in wrapping the items, it is never wrong to take extra measures. As a way to take additional measures, you can get paper. Either brown papers or even newspaper. Before you arrange any of the items into the box, you can add lots of paper at the bottom of the box. Carefully place all the wrapped items in the box. After arranging the items, you can also add a lot of paper to make up for the spaces. This extra measure helps in creating the perfect padding and cushion to your items. If you want to be a little extra, you can go to the extent of adding paper in between to make sure they are tightly packed.
5. Label the boxes to identify them
When you have done the needful, you need to create a way of identifying the boxes. Most of these boxes will look alike, so you need to label them properly to be able to handle them with care. In the same manner, you can keep the boxes aside and write on them so that you can know them differently. You can explicitly write the names of the items on the boxes, for easy identification. The labeling will help the movers and yourself identify the boxes filled with fragile items. The packing and unpacking process will also go with a lot of precision and caution when you label the boxes.
6. Pack them separately
You should try as much as possible to place no other items with fragile ones. The whole essence of packing and labeling them is to protect them from damage. If you have done all these, it will make no sense to have items placed on top of the fragile items. Separate the fragile stuff from the big non-fragile ones. So as a rule of thumb, always leave space between the items that you are packing. If you have to pack them in a separate truck or car, then you should do it to avoid regretting that your hard work didn't pay off.
How To Pack Some Items With Specific Detail
Glasses and glassware
To do this process successfully, you will need a good box and some newspaper. First, remember what we said about how to pad the boxes. Get the newspaper and put some of it at the bottom of the box. Then get your glasses and glassware in place. Stuff a good amount of paper into the glass cups, and make sure you wrap them. After the wrapping is done, you will also need to tap them a bit, so the padding doesn't come off.
The next thing you want to do is to arrange the glasses according to weight properly. The heavier ones should be at the bottom, while the lighter ones should be above. To have a better experience, you can get pliable cardboard and arrange the glasses in layers as you keep adding them into the box. Please note that the box might be heavier than you expect because glasses are little and when combined, can be very heavy.
Plates
Plates are a bit different from the glasses and glassware and need a different packing method. We know your plates are of different kinds, but we will try to cover the ones we can. If they are just regular plates, you will have to use bubble wrap to wrap each plate. Then you use tape to hold it in place. After this, you should always remember to put the plates in a vertical position. This is the best position to store your plates so that the amount of contact between them is reduced.
For the fine china plates, you will need more than mere wrapping and a vertical position. More to it is the introduction of pliable cardboard to the entire process. The pliable cardboard is to be placed between each plate, as well as the top and bottom as well. If you can't get the cardboard, you can use cushion foams instead.
If there are empty spaces in the box, again fill them all up so that the amount of movement inside the box is reduced. Also, be sure to pack the boxes according to the limit it can take. Don't stuff a box more than what it can take. You'll end up having the box fall from beneath.
Other items like mirrors and bigger glass items
Mirrors and other larger glass items have to follow another procedure to be protected. You have to use tape to form a star=like shape from the middle of the glass. These is the same methods companies use in keeping their glass intact. The edges and corners are the most important parts of the mirror, so you have to protect them by using tape and foam frame protectors. After that process has been done, remember to have the entire glass wrapped in a bubble wrapper.
If the mirror or glass is not so big, then you can get a corrugated box specially designed to help transport the mirror during a move. They have the right padding to help absorb the vibrations that can cause the mirror to break or crack while being moved.
Another thing you must note when you are moving more than one piece of glass is that they must be arranged well. You need to sort them out according to size and have them stacked upon each other. The big ones should be stacked together, while the smaller ones should be stacked together too. As you stack them one over the other, you need to place a good amount of paper between them to have the cushion effect. The goal is to make sure they are not broken or damaged.
Bubble wraps and brown papers are the most important things you will need in all of these processes. You can also use newspapers, they work very well, but you must have lots and lots of them to make this work. You can always make do with the items you find in your home. The blankets can also serve as a good padding or cushioning material for your glasses. When you have this in place, you should only pray for a smooth ride from your former home to your new home. This is what will make you happier.
Packing your instruments
Instruments are an entirely different item. If you play the guitar, you should have a case for it, and you need to make sure you carry them along so that you don't feel regrets when the strings are broken by someone, or the fretboard gets damaged. Try always to keep it within your eyesight. And if you do not have a case, you should get a case at once, if you truly love your instrument. But that only applies to a little instrument like the guitar. You will face a bigger problem with a bigger instrument.
An example of such an instrument is the baby grand piano, or the piano itself. It weighs a lot, and it's not something you can carry all by yourself around the house down to your truck. It should be in your best interest to hire professionals who can help you with the disassembling and rearranging process. If you do not do it, you stand at risk of losing your piano for good. You should also know better than to have all your piano moved in with other heavier items. Fragile items like their space and you need to give them, so they don't cry.
Conclusion
We hope we have been able to give you some of the best tips you can ever imagine when it comes to packing for your fragile items. There is a reason why they are called fragile. Most of them are expensive, and most of these things are rare, so you need to do all your best to make sure they are kept safe and sound. Once you are ready to pack, put these things into consideration.
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