When packing and moving, one of the major considerations is making sure things make it to their destination in the best possible condition. If you’re hiring a full-service moving company, packers will ensure that everything is packed securely, as the insurance the company provides partially depends on this. However, if you’re packing the items yourself, you need to follow a few simple rules if you want to ensure that your grandmother’s china will make it across the country in one piece.

When in doubt, wrap it again. Add additional paper, use moving supplies such as bubble wrap or moving blankets to protect delicate items. You can also cover the inside of a box with any of the three items before you place any objects inside to ensure nothing will break even if the boxes bump into each other.

Make it tight. Don’t leave extra space for items inside a cardboard box to ship or slide. This will cause things to crash against one another and increase the chances that items will chip or scratch. If there’s empty space in the corners or at the top, use bubble wrap or paper to fill it out.

Stick to smaller packing boxes. Large moving boxes are heavier, more likely to break or sag and less likely to be filled to the brim with stuff. As a note always fill empty space in your boxes with crumbled packing paper or newspaper.

Label the packing boxes. Buy Fragile stickers to indicate which cardboard boxes need to be handled with extra care.

Don’t pack anything that has sentimental value. Insurance from the moving company will not cover items with sentimental value, such as photo albums, documents or even DVDs. If you bear the idea of losing something, take it along rather than putting it away with the rest of the items to be shipped.

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Items of sentimental value should not be packed and shipped in cardboard boxes. This is especially important as a personal protection, as shipping companies cannot insure items that have no real value. Also, there are no guarantees that the items will arrive in optimal condition. To avoid potential problems, some companies prohibit the packing and shipping of personal items.

Items considered as having only sentimental or personal value include:

• Prescription Medicine
• Computer Discs
• DVDs and Tapes
• Address Books
• Cell Phones, PDAs and Personal Organizers
• Jewelry
• Wedding Dress
• Financial Documents
• Photo Albums
• School Records
• Medical & Dental Records
• Keys (to car, safe, home)

If you need to ship any of these items, you have two options: either pack them inside furniture or their own containers before placing them into the cardboard boxes, or consider taking them along with you when you move. Since these items cannot be ensured, you will not be able to claim a lost if they’re damaged in transit.

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Keep Packing boxes dry on rainy moving day

We can’t control the weather forecast on moving day but what we can do is be prepared for bad weather. Rain and cardboard boxes are not best friends but we can help them get along. If you are self packing your moving boxes or if you have the movers do it for you, just remember to use one of the below helpful tricks to keep your stuff dry and protected from the rain.

1) Stretch wrap. Using moving supplies such as stretch wrap to cover your packing boxes is a great trick to keep your cardboard boxes and everything within them dry. The great thing about the stretch wrap sold on DirectMovingBoxes.com is that it comes on a handle which makes your wrapping very fast and easy to do.

2) Garbage bags. If you happen to run out of stretch wrap you can use garbage bags as a secondary backup solution.  Now a very important thing to keep in mind is the size of your packing boxes vs the size of your garbage bags. If your garbage bags are to small then you may have to cut them and use more then one to cover your cardboard boxes. Remember to use some packing tape to hold them on to your moving boxes. 

The reason that stretch wrap is better then using garbage bags is because it is clear and if you label your moving boxes on the box itself you will still be able to read it. So to protect your stuff on those rainy moving days, keep your cardboard boxes covered and use stretch wrap.

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After hours of stressful packing, moving and shipping, there are few things worse than discovering your collection of wine was destroyed en route. For one thing, there will be nothing to celebrate with that first night over pizza while sitting on boxes. And broken wine bottles can be a mess.

Moving boxes and packing supplies for wine take a little extra consideration, but with a few extras there is no reason you cannot enjoy that Oregon pinot noir without any drama.

• For wine bottles, packing boxes are best chosen in the case size. A case of wine contains twelve bottles at 750 milliliters. Any wine store receives their wine in cases. However, most of these boxes are of the thin variety and are not made for lengthy transport.
• Bottles are separated from each other in these boxes with interlinking cardboard in the shape of a grid. This type of box will generally be fine.
• Other considerations include not stowing wine in the back of a vehicle where they are most likely to get bounced around. Also, wine is effected by temperature. 55 degrees is the ideal for transport.
• To further protect a case, layer the bottom of the box with one layer of bubble wrap and then a towel on top of that. This will give some extra protection from a rough ride.

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Silver can be packed into moving boxes and is easy enough to do. There is one thing that should be considered with silver and that is that it tarnishes when exposed to air or moisture. Though this is no more than an annoyance and can easily be remedied by polishing, it can be avoided simply by first wrapping individual pieces of silver in packing paper. Stretch wrap can also be used as an alternative. Additionally, Hollowware (an item that is plated more thickly in silver layers) should be packaged as a fragile item.

Another thing to think about is that there is some chance that silver items can be scratched during the move. A way to lessen this possibility is by purchasing smaller packing boxes so there is less chance that the weight of the items will cause damage. When packing silver, place items inside moving boxes so they fit quite snug to make certain there are no dings or dents.

Finally, keep in mind that silver is valuable. Make certain you have your items insured. The policy should cover loss or theft during transport. If the items make up the family silver, consider taking the box with you personally as you travel.

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Packing a favorite painting or other piece of even somewhat valuable art requires careful planning if the items are to arrived unscathed.

For simple, framed work, place similar sized objects into a packing box separating each with a piece of cardboard that entirely protects the glass of the frame. Packing smaller frames together increases the chances of glass being broken.

For a single picture, with an expensive frame, for example, place the picture in the middle frame boxes and set it in place on the bottom and sides somehow. Cutting two, one-inch wide pieces of cardboard (that are as long as the interior of the box) and then stapling them to the bottom of the box a little more than the width of the frame will do nicely. The frame can then be pinched between the two strips, holding it in place. The same can be done on the sides.

A line of foam or bubble wrap should be placed between picture frames and moving boxes so nothing is damaged. After this, fill the packing boxes with both rolled up packing paper and bubble wrap. If you are using newspaper then place it furthest away from the picture, as the ink could possibly rub off on the art, and the softer bubble wrap against the frame.

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One thing everyone is going to need in their new home is a source of light. Here are some suggestions for safely and properly placing your lamps in moving boxes:

• Start by unplugging the lamp and then unscrewing the light bulb.
• Next, unscrew the lamp harp from the stem (the lamp harp is usually two pieces of thick, curved wire mounted below the socket and used to hold the lampshade in place as well as a sort of safety so lampshades cannot come into contact with the bulb). The harp can be disassembled usually by unscrewing the finial base at the top of the harp.
• Wrap the harp, bulb and lamp base in packing paper separately. Use different moving boxes for each if they are fragile.
• Fill spaces in the moving boxes with crumbled up packing paper.
• Lampshades are usually more fragile and should be packed separately. Moving boxes for lampshades should be lined with clean paper and light foam padding or bubble wrap before the lampshade is placed inside. When choosing cardboard boxes, pick a box that is a few inches taller than the lampshade so if the box is crushed somewhat the lampshade will not be damaged.
• For high-end lighting, like expensive tiffany chandeliers, it is best not to use moving supplies but instead, contact a moving company that specializes in precious items.

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