Handle with Care – Packing Fragile Items

By Scott Boone

Image courtesy of Pixabay

When it comes to moving, the last thing you want to find when you unpack are items that were

broken in transit.  While some people blame the movers, 99% of breakage happens because homeowners don’t know how to pack fragile items properly.  To keep you from experiencing heartbreak during your next move, I will devote this week’s blog to helping you properly pack breakables.

Give Me a Break

It isn’t unusual for a mover to get blamed for broken glasses, dishes, china, and crystal.  The problem is unless you pay the mover to pack your breakables, it usually isn’t their fault.  Unless a member of my crew drops a box or puts a package labeled FRAGILE on the bottom of the stack, the responsibility reverts to the homeowner.  You don’t know how many times we pick up a box only to hear the clink, clink coming from the other side of the cardboard.  This tells us that several items are banging together.  Even worse, some of these items are fragile, which is a recipe for breakage.  Rather than take a lot of time to tell you some of the horror stories I have seen, let me take the time to tell you how to pack breakables properly.

Cover Your Glass

Image courtesy of Pixabay

Glasses are like a time bomb waiting to go off.  They’re so fragile; they can get broken before the box that contains them ever gets moved.  The problem with glasses is that they have narrow rims that take only a slight tap to crack.  Wine glasses have thin stems that are all too easy to snap.  If you pack glasses in a standard cardboard box with little padding between them, breakage is all but guaranteed. 

To begin with, you need to sort out your glassware.  Segregate them by type.  Wine glasses over here and tumblers over there.  Heavy beer mugs need to be kept far away from fragile brandy snifters.  Once you have sorted your glassware by type, then it’s time to assess their condition.  If you detect either a crack or a chip, you need to discard the glass.  If you pack a damaged glass, not only is it guaranteed to shatter in transit, it can take the adjacent glasses with it.

Pick the proper paper packing.  By that, I mean you should never use newspaper to wrap a glass.  It provides little padding and newsprint has a tendency to rub off on glassware.  While packing paper can suffice for sturdy beer mugs, I recommend you wrap wine glasses and tumblers with bubble wrap.  Speaking of wine glasses, you need to wrap the stems as well as the goblets. 

Choose the appropriate boxes to protect your crystal and glassware.  By that, I mean small boxes as opposed to large.  Start at the bottom of the box by layering several sheets of bubble wrap.  What I recommend is pulling several feet of bubble wrap up the sides of the box as well as on the bottom.  Once the box is full, you can fold the remainder of the bubble wrap over the top.  Wine glasses should be packed upside down to avoid stress on fragile stems.  Never pack glasses sideways.  They’re sure to break.  Never pack more than one layer of glassware in a box and always stuff every nook and cranny with paper or bubble wrap.  When you shake a box of glasses, you shouldn’t hear any clinking or detect any movement.  Don’t forget to label the box: FRAGILE – GLASS. 

What’s Up with Cups?

While coffee cups are fairly sturdy, China cups are as fragile as egg shells.  Like glasses, they have fragile rims. Plus, their handles are extremely delicate.  This means while packing paper could be sufficient to wrap coffee cups, provided you use enough paper, I recommend bubble wrap for fine China. 

As with glassware, cups are best-packed upside down to protect fragile rims.  If you wish to pack two levels deep in a box, I strongly advise you to separate each level with a piece of cardboard.  Also, make sure you pad the top and bottom of the box with something more shock absorbent than paper.  Once a layer of cups has been loaded, fill every nook and cranny with paper.  If the cups can move, they can get broken.  Always pack the saucers separately. Label the box KITCHEN CUPS.

Flying Saucers are Real

Image courtesy of flickr

Speaking of saucers and plates, here is another word of warning: Pack them standing on their side as opposed to lying down.  This will keep them from getting broken.  If you pack plates lying flat on their backs, it is all too easy for the weight of a box placed atop it to crack or shatter every plate contained therein.  While slotted dish boxes offer the best protection, dishes can be packed in a standard cardboard box, provided you pad it sufficiently.  Just as with glassware, you should always include several layers of bubble wrap on the top, bottom and sides of boxes intended for dishes. 

While you can get away with packing paper to wrap dishes, make sure you use plenty.  Just as with glassware, if you shake a box full of dishes and hear any clinking sounds, open the box and add more padding.  Bubble wrap, while more expensive, still provides better protection for dishes and saucers.  Another mistake many homeowners make is to use insufficient tape to seal boxes containing dishes.  Since a box of plates can weigh several pounds, make sure you use plenty of tape to seal the bottom of the box.  The last thing you want to find out is that flying saucers are real as your movers pick up a box containing them only to have the bottom fall out.

Knickknacks and Bric-à-Brac

Even the terms knickknacks and bric-a-brac denote fragility.  As any ten-year-old will attest, you can practically break them just by looking at them.  Since these delicate little sculptures are oh so fragile, special care has to be taken to pack these precious mementos.  If made of ceramic or glass, knickknacks need to be padded and packed, so they won’t come into contact with one another.  If they are made of metal, they need to be sequestered away from their more fragile brethren.  Other than using a ton of packing paper or several layers of bubble wrap to protect each and every one of them, one of the ways I pack these delicate art objects is to repurpose a wine shipper.  These specialty boxes contain 12-15 egg carton-like cylinders that are designed to get a dozen or more fragile bottles of wine from coast to coast without breaking.  That makes them ideal for protecting fragile figurines.

Provided you take into consideration the inherent vulnerabilities of fragile items, you should be able to pack them safely away for shipping.  If not, then the only thing you can be assured of being broken is your heart when you discover some prized possession has been damaged in transit.

With over 5,000 moves, Scott's Discount Movers has handled moves of all sizes, including local and cross country. If you are looking to move your home or office, you can depend on Scott's Discount Movers to provide a stress-free relocation.