Packing Tips for Fragile Items and Pictures

China and porcelain — the right technique

The single biggest mistake people make: stacking plates flat. Plates lying flat break. Plates standing on edge survive.

• Wrap each plate individually in two sheets of acid-free tissue. Tape closed.
• Stand them vertically in the carton — like books on a shelf. Pad the bottom of the carton with crumpled tissue first.
• Fill all gaps with more tissue or with smaller items wrapped separately. The plates must not move when the carton is shaken gently.
• Cups go separately — handles broken off cups are the second most common fragile damage. Wrap each cup with tissue stuffed inside the bowl (so the handle has support), then wrap the outside.
• Saucers stack horizontally with tissue between each one, in their own column inside the carton.

Framed pictures and mirrors

Glass under tension breaks easily. Three steps:

• Tape an X across the front of the glass with low-tack painter’s tape. If the glass breaks in transit, the tape holds the pieces together and prevents them slashing the frame and the canvas behind.
• Wrap the whole frame in tissue first, then bubble. Tissue protects gilt and lacquer; bubble absorbs impact.
• Use telescopic mirror cartons for anything over 60cm. These adjust to any size and have corner padding built in. Plain corrugated wrap is fine for smaller pieces.

For genuine art — original oils, watercolours, antique prints — we strongly recommend either using our full packing service or our custom timber crates for higher-value items.

Lamps, ornaments and ceramics

• Lamps: shade separated from base. Shades wrapped in tissue and packed loose (not crushed). Bases wrapped in bubble.
• Bulbs out and packed in their original sleeves or a labelled bag.
• Ornaments — individually tissue-wrapped first, then bubble. Standing them on a layer of crumpled tissue in the carton.
• Ceramic figurines (Lladró, Royal Doulton): tissue between every limb and accessory. These are particularly vulnerable at the joints.
• Vases — fill the inside with crushed tissue before wrapping. Empty vases collapse under sideways pressure.

Pack room-by-room — and in the right order

Most of the damage we see at the other end isn’t the result of a single bad pack — it’s caused by packing too late, too fast, and in the wrong order. Working room-by-room (instead of grabbing whatever is to hand) gives you a complete inventory, fewer move-day surprises, and far less breakage. It also costs you nothing except a couple of evenings’ planning.

Start with the rooms you use least. The spare bedroom, loft, garage and outbuildings are the ideal first targets. They tend to contain the items most easily forgotten in a panic-pack: framed photographs, archive boxes, retired crockery sets, garden ornaments, seasonal decorations. They’re also where dust, damp and time will already have weakened cardboard and old packaging — so anything sitting up in a loft for years needs fresh boxes and fresh tape, not the original Amazon carton from 2014.

Finish with the kitchen and the bathroom. These are the rooms you genuinely use every day right up to move morning. Packing them early means living out of half-packed cupboards for weeks. Pack non-essential china, baking trays and serving platters two to three weeks out; pack everyday cookware, glasses and one cutlery set the day before, alongside a clearly labelled ‘first-night’ carton containing a kettle, two mugs, tea, biscuits, kitchen towel and a phone charger. Tape that carton red and load it last; it comes off first at the new house.

Within each room, work top-down. Take pictures and mirrors off walls first — corner-board, bubble, vertical stack against a packed wall. Then move on to breakables on shelves and in display cabinets. Then ornaments, books and everyday items. Furniture pad-wrapping happens last, ideally on the morning of the move — but always before the item leaves the room, never in the corridor or the lorry. The few extra minutes spent wrapping a chest of drawers in the bedroom save a long argument over a scratched sideboard at the other end.

Keep a running inventory as you go. A single A4 sheet per room, numbered cartons (1.1, 1.2, 1.3 for room one), and a brief contents note alongside each number. Five minutes a day across two weeks of packing turns into a complete, searchable record at the other end — and is invaluable in the rare event of an insurance claim. Customers using our full packing service get an itemised inventory as standard; if you’re self-packing, copy the same discipline.

Stack packed cartons against an interior wall, not by the doorway. Boxes against an outside wall get cold and damp from overnight condensation; boxes near a doorway get knocked, kicked and used as seats by visitors. Leave a clear path through every room for the crew — typical loading speed almost doubles when corridors are unobstructed and the team can keep a rhythm.

One last room-by-room habit: photograph the empty room before you leave. Take a wide shot of each wall plus a close-up of each socket and switch plate. Two minutes per room. If the landlord at your old property challenges your deposit return, or if your buyer raises a question about a fitting six weeks later, those photos are the cleanest evidence you can have.

None of these habits cost anything extra; they simply spread an hour of admin across the packing weeks instead of compressing it into a panicked half-hour on move morning. Customers who pack room-by-room consistently report fewer breakages, faster unpacking, and a much quicker first-night settle-in at the new house.