Packing Supplies: What You Need for Successful Moving and Storage

Boxes and containers are the big thing that most everybody wants to know about. If you’re starting the process, we suggest you start by choosing and finding your moving boxes. But if you’re like most people, you’ll also have a handful of questions about packing supplies including wrapping materials, packing tape, vehicle loading, and general organization.

Packing Paper, Bubble Wrap, Tissue Paper, Etc: It’s not a good feeling to spend countless hours packing, storing, and moving items to a new location only to open the boxes up and find things damaged and ruined. It happens all the time. Often, it’s a combination of factors including containers sliding inside a moving vehicle, items shifting inside their boxes, and old and worn-out boxes themselves. Here’s what you should be thinking about when choosing packing paper and bubble wrap for your smaller, fragile items.
Packing Tape: Have questions about packing tape? Trying to minimize your moving and storage costs? Or are you more concerned about minimizing the time commitment and the hassle that’s involved? Have nuanced environmental impact questions? Or is it enough to simply know that it’s okay to recycle cardboard with plastic tape on it? Here are the details compiled in a handy list of different topics about packing tape.
Tape Dispensers, Guns, and Applicators: All too often, people spend all their prep time on boxes and packing tape that they give short thrift to the advantages of using a quality tape dispenser. Whether you’ve used the cheap plastic dispensers in the past or you prefer a high-quality applicator gun, you want to have tape dispensers you know you can count on before starting your moving or storage project in earnest.
Shrink Wrap and other Large-Item Packing Supplies: Get the result you’re looking for without the headaches or time-consuming mistakes. Whether it’s oversized bubble wrap or old blankets, whether it’s shrink wrap or self-sealing furniture bags, whether you simply need a protective layer for moving or a breathable cover for long-term storage, our furniture storage guide has the information you need.
Secure Hauling and Cargo Holds: Look, if the weather is nice, if you have plenty of straps, and if you have the time to snugly fit furnishings into an open trailer or coverless truck bed, then you can probably move across town with little more than your friend’s truck and an extra set of hands. For most people, however, moving involves some type of vehicle rental and/or professional moving service. You may rent a moving vehicle for half a day for the big stuff, and still end up borrowing your friend’s truck or SUV for the majority of your smaller items. Looking for helpful resources for hauling and cargo holds? Here’s a great list of products and ideas.

Personal Tips and Solutions

There are some tips for moving supplies that are relevant to most any project, but take a moment to consider what’s most important to you. Many questions have multiple answers simply because there are different types of moves and moving priorities based on your personal circumstances and philosophy. Take shirts and tops, for example…

A person moving across the country on a budget with a car loaded up to the gills and a 48-hour marathon driving schedule is more likely to use T-shirts as a secondary packing material for their larger kitchen and bedroom boxes. So long as this person gets one decent night’s sleep after making the drive, then it’s okay if takes a couple extra hours unpacking and reorganizing everything.
Another person may be in the market to sell their current home and then buy their new dream home. Home staging and listing season is most often done in the spring. In this case, a moving project more often involves storing heavy sweaters and winter coats to make the staging/selling easier and to make a temporary living situation workable while you’re waiting to move into the new home.

Don’t Overlook the Intangibles

The most common hazard is often a classic case of butterfingers. Carelessness isn’t entirely random. Minimize the risk by preparing ahead of time and giving yourself enough time and patience to pack everything without an undue amount of stress. We get it: It’s a lot easier said than done. Nobody likes packing, but the ability to focus on the task at hand can’t be underestimated.