How to pack for a house move

What do you need to pack for a house move?

Get your supplies in before you start, so you are not stopping halfway through a room to find tape. You will need:

• Boxes in at least two sizes. Small, strong boxes for heavy things, larger ones for light, bulky things. Book boxes and wardrobe boxes save a lot of trouble.
• Strong packing tape and a tape gun.
• Packing paper for wrapping and filling gaps, and bubble wrap for anything that can break or scratch.
• Furniture blankets and stretch wrap for furniture.
• A mattress bag for each mattress.
• Thick markers, and sealable bags for screws and fittings.

Sal Removals sells packing materials from £49 per starter pack, so you can get boxes, tape and wrap in one go rather than collecting supermarket boxes of every size.

Before anything goes in a box, clear out what you will not take. Every item you sell, donate or bin is one you do not wrap, carry or pay to move. Our guide to decluttering before you move covers how to decide.

What order should you pack in, room by room?

Pack the rooms you use least first and the rooms you live in last. Work one room at a time and finish it before you open another, so boxes from different rooms never get mixed.

1. Loft, garage and shed. Garden tools, decorations, suitcases and anything in storage. These often need the most sorting, so start here.
2. Spare rooms and the dining room. Ornaments, pictures, spare bedding, board games.
3. Books, CDs and display shelves in the living room.
4. Out-of-season clothes and shoes. See our guide on how to pack clothes for a move.
5. The rest of the living room, leaving the TV, remotes and a few mugs’ worth of comfort until the last day.
6. The kitchen, apart from a kettle, a pan, a plate, a cup and cutlery each. Pack glasses and plates upright in divided boxes.
7. Bedrooms and the bathroom, in the last two days.
8. The essentials box, on the final evening.

Within each box, the heaviest items go at the bottom and the lightest on top. Fill every gap with paper or soft things like towels, because a box that rattles is a box where things break. Close the box with tape across the middle seam and along both edges, and tape the bottom twice.

How should you label moving boxes?

A good label tells you where a box goes without opening it. Use the same system on every box:

1. Room first, in large letters: KITCHEN, BED 2, BATHROOM. Name rooms as they will be in the new home, not the old one.
2. A box number. Number every box in order as you pack it.
3. A short contents note: “saucepans, oven trays”.
4. FRAGILE and an arrow for this way up where it matters.

Write the label on two sides, not on the lid. Lids disappear when boxes are stacked. A coloured sticker or tape per room makes it quicker still, both for you and for the crew carrying boxes in.

Keep a simple list, on paper or your phone, of each box number and what is in it. If a box goes missing you know exactly what to look for, and when you need the bread knife on day two you know it is in box 14.

Stick a sign on each door at the new home with the same room names, so nobody has to ask where BED 2 is.

How do you pack books for moving?

Books are heavy, so they go in small, strong boxes only. A large box of books will split or hurt someone. The box should be light enough for one person to lift comfortably.

1. Sort first. Donate or sell books you will not read again, and pack the ones you will not need in the next few weeks early.
2. Tape the bottom of each box twice and line it with a sheet of packing paper.
3. Pack books flat, or upright with the spines against the side of the box. Never spine up, and never leaning at an angle, which bends the covers.
4. Put the heaviest hardbacks at the bottom and paperbacks on top.
5. Fill gaps with paper so nothing slides, and label the box with the room and “books”.

Wrap valuable, old or rare books one by one in acid-free paper, pack them upright in their own box, and mark it fragile. If rain is likely on moving day, put a plastic bag inside the box before the books go in.

How do you wrap and dismantle furniture for moving?

Most furniture damage happens at corners, legs and glass, and most of it can be avoided with a blanket and ten minutes’ work.

1. Empty it. Take everything out of drawers, cupboards and shelves. Loaded drawers strain the joints and make the piece far heavier.
2. Clean and dry it. Grit under a wrap scratches, and damp trapped in plastic marks wood.
3. Take it apart where it comes apart easily. Bed frames, table legs, sofa legs, shelves and glass panels. Photograph each stage so you can put it back together. Put screws and bolts in a sealable bag, label it, and tape it to the largest part of that piece.
4. Protect the weak points. Card or corner guards on corners, bubble wrap on legs and handles.
5. Blanket first, then stretch wrap. Wrap wooden and leather furniture in a blanket and put the stretch wrap over the blanket, not straight onto the surface. Fabric sofas can take stretch wrap directly to keep them clean.
6. Tape the wrap, never the furniture. Tape on polished wood or leather pulls off the finish.
7. Secure doors and drawers that stay in place with stretch wrap, not tape.

A few pieces need their own method. Mattresses go in a sealed mattress bag and travel on their side. For bed frames, headboards and divans, follow our guide on how to pack your bed for moving. For a dining table, take the legs off and wrap the top in blankets; for a dresser, empty it and wrap it whole or remove the drawers and wrap them separately. Glass, mirrors, marble, TVs and pictures are covered in our guide to fragile and awkward items.

In the van, heavy furniture goes against the walls and is strapped so it cannot tip. Nothing heavy is stacked on a table top or anything with glass.

How do you pack a small flat for a move?

In a small flat the problem is not the packing, it is where to put the full boxes while you still live there. A few habits help:

• Stack packed boxes in one corner or one room, floor to shoulder height, heaviest at the bottom, labels facing out.
• Pack in fewer, fuller boxes. Use suitcases, laundry baskets and drawers you are moving anyway as containers.
• Vacuum-bag bedding, duvets and winter clothes. They shrink to a fraction of the space. Our space-saving packing hacks have more of these.
• Nest things. Pans go inside pans, small boxes inside big ones.
• Take down flat-pack furniture early if you can live without it, and stand the panels flat against a wall.

If the new place is smaller than the old one, or the dates do not line up, put what does not fit into storage rather than squeezing it in.

For a studio or one bed flat, a two-person man and van is often all you need once the boxes are packed.

What should you not pack for a removal?

Some things should not go on a removal van at all, and some should never leave your sight.

Your essentials box travels with you, not in the van. Pack it on the last evening with toiletries, medication, a change of clothes each, phone chargers, a kettle, mugs, tea, snacks, loo roll, bedding for the first night, a torch, scissors and the basic tools for reassembling a bed.

Should you pack yourself or pay for packing?

Packing yourself saves money, but it takes longer than most people expect, and a crew can only protect what has been packed well. If you are short of time, moving a family home, or have a lot of glass, china or artwork, professional packing is often worth it for those rooms alone.

Sal Removals packs as part of a house removal, from £199 for a one bed home, or kitchen and fragiles only from £99. Materials are supplied, and our own team takes furniture apart and puts it back together at the other end.

For everything else to do in the weeks before the move, work through our moving house checklist and our wider moving house tips and advice.

Call 020 3475 0377 or get a free quote for packing, materials and your move.