Packing Fragile Items: Tips to Prevent Damage During Moving

Sanjay and Rishika had recently bought a new house in Whitefield, Bangalore and were extremely excited about shifting to the new house. Since they were only a few miles away in Koramangala, they thought that moving to Whitefield would not be a major hassle. As a result, they did not put much thought into planning and executing the shifting process properly.

The day before they shifted, Sanjay booked a truck which came on the next day with two helpers. They loaded all the furniture and a few boxes full of clothes, cutlery, show pieces and electronic items into the truck, and moved them to the new house.

It was easy, cheap and safe, or so they thought till they unpacked the boxes. When they started to unpack their belongings they were shocked! Almost every fragile item which they kept in the boxes is either broken or damaged. Sanjay’s effort to save some money by cutting corners had backfired badly. The cost of the damaged fragile items was much more than the money they had saved.

If you want to avoid a sad incident, here are some tips that you can use while packing the fragile items:

✔ Go slow:

Fragile items deserve all the care that you can give them and the best way to handle them is by being as gentle as possible. While packing before a move, spend lots of time in packing the present items. If you rush, you may drop them or bang them against each other, damaging them in the process.

✔ Use proper packing materials:

It is a no brainer that fragile materials have to be packed in a special way. This means that you cannot use the same packing materials to wrap furniture and a crystal showpiece. The ideal way to pack the fragile items is to use the original packaging in which they had been sold to you. If you no longer have those, use commonly available materials like blankets, corrugated fiberboard, bubble wrap, heavy grade paper, etc. If possible get hold of some partitioned moving boxes to pack the different items.

✔ Do the packing properly:

Many of us incorrectly think that packing means simply wrapping the goods with paper and bubble wraps. While this might be fine for the unbreakable items, fragile items required special treatment. Let us now look at how to pack some of the common fragile items that are present in every household:

• Glasses and cups: Take newspaper or packing paper, crumple them and put them inside the glasses to reduce the empty space. Thereafter wrap the glasses in packing paper. Always pack the glasses individually, otherwise will bang against each other and get cracks on their surface. After putting them in boxes, put layers of newspaper to fill the empty spaces. This will prevent them from rolling over when the boxes are moved.
• Plates: The best material to pack plates is bubble wrap. Take individual plates, wrap them carefully, and stack them vertically inside packing boxes lined with thick layers of paper. Do not put too many plates inside the same box and keep the boxes light.
• Electronic goods: Gadgets like TV, music systems, etc. should be wrapped in foam and bubble wraps. If you have retained the original packaging of the electronic goods, use that as far as possible. Look for alternate packing materials only if the original packaging is not available anymore. If you take the help of any professional moving company, then they will supply you with special boxes that are of the same shape and size as your electronic items.
• Lamp Shades: These should be dismantled from their stands and packed separately. The ideal packing material for lampshades is bubble wrap and tissue papers. One very important thing to remember here: never pack the shade and the base together, otherwise they will collide against each other and break.

✔ Mark the boxes clearly:

The boxes containing fragile items should be clearly identifiable so that they can be handled with special care while moving. These days, boxes with the word "fragile" written on them are easily available. You can buy a few of these, or simply demarcate the boxes by putting a sticker or writing on them. If you think that doing this by yourself is going to be a hassle, then you can always hire a reputed professional moving company like Pikkol to help you out. We provide special boxes and wrapping materials that go a long way in keeping your valuable secure. Our services will ensure that the goods that are so precious to you reach the destination intact and the heartbreaking prospect of those getting damaged is eliminated completely.

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