Packing boxes

[Fennelandlovage]

Hello - we are moving soon for the first time in quite a while. We have lots of books, tools and breakables and just a lot more stuff than last time we moved. Whose boxes are strongest and best value? Any other tips for protecting furniture etc. Thanks.

Don’t know whose are best but Buy boxes of the same size, removal men hate having to fit in lots of odd shape boxes, also put breakables in draws in with your clothes and make sure all drawers your taking are full as it saves on boxes, better still pay the removal company to pack for you it will save you so much time And you’ll get less damage because they do it all day everyday, assuming you use a reputable company, and if you’re moving yourself, good luck, you don’t realise how much stuff you have Acquired until you Have to move

Are you using a removal firm? They usually supply packing cases for you.

You dont want big boxes for books because they are too heavy - pack a few books with other lighter things or use smaller boxes for books.

Go down your local supermarket - they usually give away fruit and wine boxes which you might find useful for packing within larger boxes - to protect breakables.

we found when we moved an easier way of moving books was putting them in permanent 50p aldi shopping bags as they have handles easier to pick up

Oooh some great suggestions already thank you - keep them coming because I have a feeling I will be overwhelmed once I start.

user I'm interested in you advice aout packing breakables in drawres with clothes - clever! As I have lotds of those, I think I should try it when I move - but I'm concerned that removals men will say this makes the chests of draweres too heavy? or are they used to this method?

sorry about the million typos!

We bought packs on Amazon and they were quite cheap. Last time we moved we did the whole trying to gather them for free from supermarkets etc but it was hit or miss with quality, condition and size. The small expense on Amazon was well worth it for the convenience. They're nice and sturdy and seem to be holding up well with all our stuff.

I used laundry bags, like Ikea bags for a lot of the stuff, and OH works for Tesco, I had dozens of crisp boxes!
What was really handy was a wide gun type tape dispenser for strengthening and closing, think it was about £10 from amazon

Ikea have two big boxes for £3.50 I've always found them pretty good

Any tips for records? Old school I know by they are so heavy.

I bought the 18x 12 x 12 double sided boxes from www.kitepackaging.co.uk for all my books, and a slightly larger size for everything else. I'm short with short arms, the ones my removal company gave me were as big as me!

Wonderful experience!!! The custom packaging boxes are sturdy and great looking and the experience start to finish was so pleasant and easy.

Wonderful experience!!! The [url=packagingprinting.co.uk/]custom packaging boxes[/url] are sturdy and great looking and the experience start to finish was so pleasant and easy.

Wonderful experience!!! packagingprinting.co.uk/ The custom packaging boxes are sturdy and great looking and the experience start to finish was so pleasant and easy.

Sold our house earlier this year and now living in late parents house until our newbuild is ready so had lots of experience of packing and dealing with removal firms. Had the second round of removal firms around for quotes this week and while they were all very complimentary of what we have done they have all regaled us with horror stories of what many people do (bags, shrink-wrap, newspaper, thin cardboard boxes full of heavy / fragile items etc etc etc........).
Removals companies will pack for you but you will pay extra, personally I preferred to do it myself as that way I knew exactly what was going where plus 80% of our possessions have remained boxed up while we are living in the temporary house. Also it means that when in our new house there is no rush to unpack. To help I clearly wrote on each & every box with a large black marker (on at least two sides) the basic contents, floor & room. In addition they were all marked with different colour gaffa-tape for my own reference, ones marked with red not being required in the temporary house and even when in our new house not until we are settled in (saves having to read the contents, a quick glance at the tape shows whether it is to be opened or not).

Cardboard boxes. You want twin-wall which can be stacked on top of one another. Plenty of firms on Ebay selling used boxes (they bring their products in from overseas and then sell the empty boxes, very green and gives you great value for money). Various sizes available but generally they are about £10 for ten (inc. delivery) so in no way expensive. Various sizes available. For books and other V.heavy items I used the smaller boxes keeping the larger ones for lighter or bulky items. When you have moved, boxes can be passed on to someone else who is moving (local FB groups are good for this).
Furniture. They will wrap & protect. With chests of drawers etc leave clothes etc in the drawers as they just move the whole item complete.
For wrapping you can used scrunched newspaper but also bubble-wrap is ideal. I buy it in 100M rolls (about £10 each inc. delivery) and in total used over 1KM! No waste as it all gets recovered and will be reused by me or passed onto someone else who is moving.
I also bought a large number (i.e. over 70!) of Tote attached-lid stackable plastic storage boxes (56L & 80L). Some were bought S/H (ex-shop items) and are ideal for items from my garage & workshop while others are brand-new and are used for very fragile items (glassware etc). When we have finally unpacked the older boxes will be sold (plenty of takers out there) and the new / almost new ones will be used for storage.
Pictures & mirrors. Wrapped in bubblewrap and then sandwiched in large cardboard boxes (flat of course), that way each picture has at least two twin-wall layers of cardboard on each side and the overlap at the edges means even if it were dropped the cardboard will absorb the impact long before getting to the edge of the frame.

For materials Ebay really is your friend. Bubblewrap & boxes mentioned above, brown parcel-tape (12-rolls for £8 inc. delivery), fragile tape (6-rolls for £7 inc. delivery), thick black indelible markers (12-markers for £3 inc. delivery).

@CatAndHisKit

user I'm interested in you advice aout packing breakables in drawres with clothes - clever! As I have lotds of those, I think I should try it when I move - but I'm concerned that removals men will say this makes the chests of draweres too heavy? or are they used to this method?

Removals companies are used to this …. And carry the furniture with drawers removed

"Removals companies are used to this …. And carry the furniture with drawers removed"

With ours they kept the drawers in place but then we only had clothes in them and at both ends they had easy routes with the vehicles being parked on the driveway and a direct walk through the front-door and up the stairs. I can imagine that if the units were tall, drawers heavily packed and they were having to move around tight corners etc then yes, they would remove the drawers first. For this reason my OH had checked all the drawers to make sure they weren't overloaded (i.e. items falling out if the drawers were removed) but it didn't happen.

Our removal co brought us a massive stack of boxes. Also packing paper and tape.

We found using the removers' own cardboard boxes worked best. They stack in the vans more efficiently. They came to look at the house when they quoted and assessed how many of each size of box they thought we'd need, and supplied them in advance (as we packed). The boxes came flat, we just had to pop them up, pack them, and tape them up. They told us what was the max size for books. They took away any we emptied on the day, the rest we returned later, they gave us our deposit on them back when we returned them. They didn't mind if we wanted to keep them for a few weeks to unpack at our own pace.

Pay the removal company to pack, it was the best £350 I ever spent. No hassle, just wrote a list of what went in each box and which room it came from and stuck it on the side, so it can be read when stacked.
Removal companies supply their own packing cases.
No need to empty drawers etc, they remove the drawers and then the carcass to the van before refitting drawers.
Put colour coded stickers on the boxes according to the rooms you want the boxes placed in at the new property and then put a matching sticker on the room doors. It makes it easy for the removal men to get things in the right rooms without lots of questions.
Pack, mugs kettle and brew kit last, along with the vacuum cleaner and cleaning gear, that way it first out to brew up and wipe down the new house.

Agree with pp if you are using removals firms, check how much extra it costs for them to pack. Having it done for you is amazing, not very expensive in the grand scheme of things and we had everything labelled so well that we found our stuff in the boxes really easily.