Almost nothing breaks because the van hit a pothole. Things break because they were packed with room to move, or because something heavy was stacked on top of them, or because a carton was lifted from the bottom and the bottom gave way.
That is good news, because all three are packing problems rather than luck. This is how our crews at Soni Packers and Movers pack breakables, and it is written so you can do the same for the items you would rather handle yourself.
The principle behind all of it
A packed carton should behave like one solid object. If you can lift it, tilt it gently and hear or feel anything shift inside, it is not finished.
Everything below is a way of achieving that. Wrapping protects a surface, but it is the filling of empty space that actually prevents breakage, because an item that cannot move cannot build up momentum and hit something.
Three rules carry most of the weight:
- Wrap each item individually. Two glasses wrapped together will find each other.
- Fill every gap, including the middle of a stack and the corners of the carton.
- Heavy at the bottom, light on top, inside the carton and inside the vehicle.
What to pack with
You do not need everything on this list, but you do need something in each role:
- Cartons in two or three sizes. Small ones for heavy items, larger for light bulky ones. A large carton filled with crockery becomes too heavy to lift safely and is the classic cause of a burst base.
- Bubble wrap for hard surfaces, edges and screens.
- Packing paper or plain newsprint for wrapping and for filling voids. Printed newspaper transfers ink onto crockery and light-coloured surfaces, so keep it for gap-filling rather than direct wrapping.
- Corrugated sheet for flat separation between layers.
- Strong tape, and a marker.
Old bedsheets, towels and clothes are genuinely useful as padding, and using them means less material to buy and fewer soft items to pack separately.
Crockery, glassware and kitchen items
The kitchen usually holds more breakables than the rest of the house combined, and it is where a bad packing job shows up fastest.
Plates travel on edge
Lay a plate on a sheet of paper, fold the paper over it, add the next plate, and continue until you have a bundle of three or four. Tape the bundle.
Then stand the bundles on their edge in the carton, like records in a rack, not stacked flat. A plate stacked flat takes the full weight of everything above it on its centre. On edge it takes the load through its strongest axis. This single change prevents most crockery breakage.
Glasses and cups
Wrap each one individually. Push a little crumpled paper inside the bowl of the glass first so the walls are supported from within, then wrap from the outside.
Stand them upright, never on their side, with the heaviest at the bottom of the carton. Divided cartons help if you have them, but paper between each glass works.
Bowls and serving dishes
Nest them only with a sheet of paper or a layer of bubble wrap between each one, and only two or three deep. Nested items that touch are two items grinding against each other for the whole journey.
Finishing a kitchen carton
Line the base with two or three centimetres of crumpled paper before anything goes in, and top it off the same way before closing. Then lift it and tilt it. If anything shifts, open it and add more filling. Tape the base along the seam and across it, because kitchen cartons are the heaviest in the house.
Electronics and appliances
Photograph the back before unplugging
Take a picture of the cable layout behind the television, the router and the computer before you disconnect anything. Reassembly stops being a puzzle. Bag the cables for each device and tape the bag to that device.
Screens
Televisions and monitors are damaged by pressure on the panel, not by weight in general. If you kept the original box, use it. If not, use corrugated sheet cut to the size of the screen face, taped in place, then wrap the whole unit.
A screen travels upright, on its edge, never flat with anything resting on it. That is also how it should sit in the vehicle.
Computers and small electronics
Keep them in a carton you carry yourself rather than one that goes on the van, if you can. Wrap in bubble wrap, fill the gaps, and mark the carton clearly.
Refrigerator
Defrost it at least a day ahead and dry it out completely. A fridge with water inside it will smell by the time it arrives. Tape the door closed for the journey but leave it slightly ajar afterwards.
After the move, a refrigerator should stand for a few hours before being switched on so the compressor oil settles. Ask whoever is moving it what interval they recommend for your model.
Washing machine
The drum moves freely and can damage the machine if it swings during transport. Front loaders normally have transit bolts for exactly this. If you no longer have them, ask your mover how they intend to secure the drum. It is a fair question and a real one.
Our own approach to appliances and packing materials is set out on the packing, loading and unloading page.
Mirrors, frames and anything flat
Flat glass fails from flex, not impact. A large mirror carried flat by two people bows in the middle, and that is where it cracks.
- Tape a large X across the face of the glass. It does not stop breakage, but it holds the pieces together if it happens.
- Cover the face with corrugated sheet, then wrap.
- Protect the corners separately. Corners take the knock in a doorway.
- Carry and transport it vertically, resting on a long edge.
- In the vehicle it should stand against a flat surface, not lean against a stack.
Picture frames follow the same rules at a smaller scale. Several small frames can travel face to face with padding between them, standing on edge in a carton.
Lamps and light fittings
Remove the shade and the bulb and pack all three separately. Shades crush rather than break, so give them their own space and do not fill the inside with heavy items.
Labelling, because it prevents the second kind of damage
Most breakage after a well-packed move happens during unloading, when nobody knows which carton holds what.
Label every carton on the top and at least two sides. A stack shows you its sides, not its lid.
Write two things:
- The room it is going to at the new address, not the room it came from. The label is an instruction for the person carrying it.
- FRAGILE, plus which way is up, if the contents need it.
An arrow marked THIS SIDE UP is only useful if it appears on the sides, where somebody stacking the carton will actually see it.
Keep a short list
Number the cartons and keep a note of what is in each. It takes a few minutes and it tells you immediately whether anything is missing at the far end, before the crew has left. The house shifting checklist covers where this fits into the wider timeline.
Loading order, which is where the packing gets tested
Good packing can still be undone by bad loading.
- Heavy, flat, sturdy items go in first and low: appliances, sealed furniture, book cartons.
- Fragile cartons go high and last, never with weight on top of them.
- Mirrors, screens and glass tops stand on edge against a flat wall of the load, secured so they cannot slide.
- Gaps between items get filled with soft goods. An unfilled gap is where things move.
If you are loading yourself, resist the urge to fit one more thing on top of a fragile carton because there is space. That space is doing a job.
What to carry yourself
Some things should never go on the vehicle at all: jewellery, documents, medicines, laptops, and anything irreplaceable such as a single item of sentimental value. Not because a mover is careless, but because their value is not replaceable and their volume is trivial.
When to let someone else pack it
Packing your own books and clothes saves money and costs you nothing but time. Some items are a different calculation.
Worth handing over:
- A glass-topped dining table, which needs the top removed, wrapped separately and often crated.
- Marble or stone tops, which are heavy, brittle and crack along the grain if carried flat.
- A large aquarium, a chandelier, or anything mounted that has to be taken down first.
- Anything that needs a timber crate built around it. If an item cannot be protected by wrapping alone, crating is a job with tools and materials rather than a technique you can improvise.
We handle packing as part of a full house move, and also on its own if you have transport arranged and only want the breakables done properly. Both are described under house shifting and packing, loading and unloading.
If you are weighing up how much packing to take on yourself, what actually affects the cost of a move explains how the packing choice changes the quote.
Common questions
Is bubble wrap or paper better for fragile items?
They do different jobs. Paper wraps and separates individual items and fills empty space; bubble wrap cushions hard surfaces, edges and screens. Most cartons need both. Printed newspaper is fine for filling gaps but transfers ink, so keep it off crockery and light surfaces.
Should plates be stacked flat or on edge?
On edge, standing like records in a rack. Stacked flat, the bottom plate carries the full weight of the stack through its weakest point. On edge the load travels through the strongest axis, and it prevents most crockery breakage on its own.
How do I know a carton is packed well enough?
Lift it and tilt it gently. If you can hear or feel anything move inside, there is a gap that needs filling. A finished carton behaves like one solid object.
Can I pack the fragile items myself and have you do the rest?
Yes. Partial packing is common and perfectly sensible. Tell us at the quoting stage which items you will handle, because it changes the materials and the time we allow.
What should never go in the moving vehicle?
Jewellery, cash, identity and property documents, medicines, laptops and anything genuinely irreplaceable. Keep them with you. Their volume is trivial and their value is not recoverable.