Moving your home is never an easy task, but maybe the most tricky and sensitive part of that process is – packing dishes. It has a lot of steps that need to be taken seriously if you want to get everything from one place to another in one piece. There are a lot of potentially damaging situations that can occur if you are moving long-distance. Thankfully, we have prepared some handy tips to help you pack your plates, glasses and other fragile dish items safely.
What Kind of Packaging do You Need for Moving Dishes
There are two lines of defense you are going to have to consider when preparing your glass and ceramic dishes before shipping them in a truck– the outer packaging and the padding inside the box.
Tips for Securing Your Dishes From the Outside When Moving
Using sturdy dish boxes, plastic containers, paint buckets and any other kind of durable packaging material is the safest way to transport your dishes. The outer packaging is the first barrier of security for your fragile china, plates, glasses, coffee mugs, and other easily damaged items. Your plates should lay flat in the box without much possibility of rolling over, but with just enough space to stay flatly stacked on top of each other. The box should be approximately the same height as your glasses and mugs. Try to pack them in one row since it is the safest way to transport them. It is essential to keep the boxes with your utensils separate from the rest of the items that are being moved since heavy objects could damage your fragile possessions if they tumble during transport.
Tips for Packing Your Dishes Inside the Dish Box
Even though dish boxes usually have separate compartments inside for each dish, that doesn’t mean they provide complete safety if they are not padded correctly. Therefore, the padding materials inside the box are your second line of defense. You can use many materials for this purpose, like bubble wrap, or packaging paper, padded divider sets, packaging foam, and packing peanuts. You can usually find them all in specialty moving stores. If you don’t pad each dish separately, there is a possibility that they will damage each other on the bumpy road during transport. The padding material you can utilize and you don’t have to pay for is your clothes – it is a free and secure padding material.
How to Pack Your Glasses and Mugs
Packing items like glasses and mugs is a dreary job. All the different sizes and shapes of your glasses make it hard to pack a lot of them into one box since you shouldn’t put one on top of each other. The best solution is to wrap them in paper and put a lot of packing peanuts or your old clothes in between them. Mugs might look sturdier, but they can easily chip if they bump into any other hard material. So don’t forget to enfold them in a lot of paper. You can even utilize all those newspapers that you have laying around, so as soon as you know you are going to move, start hoarding them.
How to Organize Plates When Packing
The biggest predicament that you will encounter when you start boxing dishes is how to organize them. You have to make use of all the space available without overcrowding the boxes. Here are some tips on how to organize all those bulky possessions for the optimal use of space during packing.
Pack, Wrap and Stack Every Dish Individually
It is time to use all those newspapers that you’ve been hoarding for your moving. Wrap each plate separately and stack them on top of each other according to their size. If you pack your plates this way, you will save a lot of space. Prevent any possible damage by putting a lot of cringed paper or your clothes inside the box. Don’t forget to write FRAGILE on your boxes and ask movers to be extra careful with them. Labeling is a proper way to prevent damage as much as a tool for organizing boxes for the unpacking in your new home. Later on, you can load boxes for each room separately into the truck.
Carrier Bags – Much-Needed Money-Saver
Use your old carrier bags as an alternative, homemade solution. Stuff bags with bubble wrap or paper and place your less fragile utensils like pots and pans inside. They can be used as additional storage for some small, delicate items. Fill your pots with some clothes and put figurines, small picture frames and similar things inside.
All in all, if you organize your dishes well, you have a good chance of transporting them from one place to another, all in one piece. One crucial step you should not overlook is hiring a reputable moving company that will guarantee you professional services so that all your belongings are treated safely and with care.
