For a home move to be a success, the packing materials needed for moving place need to be both high quality and very durable. You’ll want to ensure that your items are protected for the entire duration of the move, packing materials improve protection against chip damage, scratches and scuffs.
Preparing properly in advance is the key to having a smooth home move. Having the correct prior knowledge about the most appropriate materials to move your items safely from one place to another, will help take all the stress and worry out of your home move.
Suitable packaging for lightweight objects are paper based where a lightweight suffices for protecting against most types of damage. Protection for heavier items requires packing materials that offer great cushioning capabilities.
Here we list the must have packing materials for moving place, ensuring you have an easy and stress free transition.
Protective Padding
Paper Stuffing
Paper stuffing helps fill in the empty space inside boxes or containers carrying your items. As we know, the key to keeping your boxed up items safe is to prevent excessive movement within the box during its transit.
This protects items inside from being damaged by each other, usually caused by them banging and crashing into each other while they’re being moved. In addition they help prevent items from damage by impacts against the box itself.
An additional bonus is that they’re an eco-friendly filling material, 100% recyclable, and can often be had at bargain prices.
Honeycomb Packing Paper
Honeycomb packing paper is made from 100% recyclable Kraft paper. It provides your items with a protective layer that prevents scratches, chips and scuff marks. It works well when used together with other void fill packing materials such as paper stuffing, or crinkle cut shred fill.
Honeycomb packing paper is best used for:
- Ceramics
- Books
- Wine and spirit Bottles
Plastic wrap
Plastic wrap provides high levels of protect of your items during their transportation. For your most fragile items this is a must for minimizing damage, especially for your delicate items that are at risk of shattering. Plastic wrap is almost essential for all your items that are prone to scratches and scruffs.
Plastic wrap is great for protecting a wide range of items including:
- Frame pictures
- Artwork
- Wide screen TVs
- China kitchenware
- Glassware
For protecting delicate items such as paintings, a combination of protective packing guarantees the best results.
Crinkle Cut Paper Shred Filling
Crinkle cut Kraft paper shred filling is best used for small packages. They are lightweight and cheap void fill solution allowing you to fill the spaces inside packages so they have an extra layer of protection.
Crinkle cut paper shred filling is best used for:
- Protecting your items against scratches
- Small items packaged in small boxes
- Filling in smaller gaps
In addition they also look great as bedding in small boutique gift packages for displaying products.
Packing Boxes
TV Boxes
These boxes are must haves if you want to send your TV to it’s new destination safely. They’ll keep your TV free from any scratches, scruffs and screen damage.
Often under utilized, these boxes protect one of the most fragile and expensive items in your home.
These boxes excel at keeping the TV locked in place, often with the help of some extra padding. This gives a protective barrier by providing space between the TV and any potential outside hazards that could cause some type of damage.
You could say they act as a little extra insurance policy for a fragile item, that can be a potential high cost replacement item.
Find out what our top recommendations are for TV moving boxes here.
Carton Moving Boxes
Corrugated cardboard moving boxes are essential packing materials for moving place. You can find them in a wide variety of sizes with varying levels of wall thickness.
Some include extra useful features such as sidewall handles to help you carry them around more easily, or removeable lids to give you easy access to the items inside at any time.
They’re super cheap and you can often find them for a discount, especially when buying in bulk quantities.
The best part is that they ship flat for space saving purposes. Once you’re done with them, simply fold them away neatly out of sight, ready for the next time you need them. Alternatively you can recycle them as they are constructed entirely from cardboard.
Find out what our top recommendations are for large moving boxes here.
Useful Tools
Hand Truck
Moving hand trucks are vital for your ability to move boxes around faster with less effort.
You can stack up several corrugated cardboard moving boxes on a hand truck from your home straight into the moving van.
Doing this protects your back from the strain of lifting and moving heavy boxes, by wheeling them around in a much safer manner.
You’ll be saving way more time moving multiple boxes at once rather than a few at a time.
To sum up, the main bonuses of hand trucks for moving boxes are:
- Protects your back, arms, hands, and legs from strain during moving
- Increases the speed you can load and unload boxes between the moving vehicle and your home
Packing Tape
If you want to use packing boxes, tape is required to keep them closed and secure. General packing tape is good enough to keep items secured if you use the correct taping technique.
Use two taped pieces near the edges of the box across the closed folded top seam, then a long piece of tape along the folded seam itself for the best seal.
Work Gloves
Gloves help protect your hands when moving rough and heavy objects. During your move, its easy for your hands to get cut, scraped and scuffed in many ways. Loading and moving boxes is a labour intensive job. The most injury prone area during these activities are your hands.
Lastly, these gloves provide an increase in grip, decreasing the chances of items slipping out of your hands and causing damage to you or the boxed up items inside. Taking small steps to protect them will go a long way, you’ll be asking yourself why you hadn’t purchased a pair sooner.
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