Having moved a million-bajillion times, there are only so many free newspapers you can swipe to pack your breakables in. Bubble wrap and materials can get extra pricey, especially if you move more than once every decade, so instead turn to your cupboards and cabinets. Here are 5 items you probably already own that can be put to use to cushion the blow!
Here are a few of the things I've used in the past to keep my boxes from squishing and my breakables from losing an arm or a leg. Do you use something different? Share your ideas in the comments below!
1. Linens: The first and most obvious choice is to put your towels, sheets, and other linens to use. Don't forget about things like shower curtains as well. They're great at placing between kitchen goods or wrapping flat breakable items like picture frames.
2. Clothes: Clothing boxes are ridiculously expensive. Although it's convienant to roll up to your new place and unpack things straight into your closet, clothing can save you big bucks in the packing material department. If you don't want to wash or iron everything, try using bulky items like sweaters or scarves to help stuff between breakables.
3. Pillows: From bed pillows to throw pillows and even your pet bed, pillows can be great at the top of the box to keep the pressure off the contents inside.
4. Zip Top Bags: Plastic bags are great at holding air, especially if they've been sealed with a line of tape in addition to their closure method. They're perfect for glassware and things that need pressure without any points that could press too hard on something fragile. Think about how Amazon ships things, you're just making your own inflatable pouch. Likewise, if you happen to have a vacuum sealer, those work amazing for this purpose.
5. Pantry Goods: Even if you're not keen on the idea of keeping your food mixed in with other things, bagged items like beans, rice and lentils can fill small nooks and crannies in boxes where items might otherwise shift. Plus, there's a good chance they won't be in your emergency food box anyway. Save the peanut butter for that box! If you're nervous, just put them in an extra bag. Oh, and don't forget, popped popcorn and peanuts in the shell work out brilliantly (plus you can still eat the peanut later while you procrastinate unpacking).
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If you use clothes for packing it is also very helpful to do some careful labeling or inventorying so that you know where that sweater or jacket ended up!
You can also use the cushions and pillows from your couch, or rugs. We used a number of rugs to protected our framed art/photos and they worked great. We used a lot of our large tupperware and pots and pans as boxes for breakables. Important documents and things that could not be lost went into extra suitcases. That way we knew anything in a suitcase was either staying with us, or contained something we might need.
I have always used old phone books, which the interwebs have rendered otherwise useless, to pack dishes and glassware.
I have been doing this for years! I started with towels for my college dishes, since they aren't as bulky and still fold flat. But I've also used sheets for flat objects, and pillowcases for the insides of glassware.
I've always moved the extremely fragile items in clear, plastic bins. That way, you know exactly what is in it, and exactly what is keeping it from breaking.
Numbering and inventorying boxes as you pack helps a ton too.
I love doing this, everything needs to be packed anyways!
we also recently moved and I used our stash of plastic grocery sacks as cushion! We save these for things like dog detail, and once we are unpacked we just put them back in their spot to continue to reuse!
Plastic grocery bags are also great. I have been trying to use reuable bags lately, but I still had a lot saved up plus the ones my husband brings home. I also stole a few bags of them from my mom. Works well for wrapping glasses and other breakables, I've never had anything break with that method and I've moved a couple times using those. I bagged them all up after the move and now they're waiting to get recycled.
The ziploc bag full of air is a great idea. I never would have thought of that. But I use linens and towels to pack breakables all the time. And I have experience. From college to the present (a total of 9 years) I have moved 13 times. Plastic tote boxes with lids and linens are totally your friends.
I've also used plastic grocery bags. They are perfect for wrapping glasses - especially stemware.
I wonder if party balloons would work as well as ziplock bags? They are certainly cheap. And festive!
For my move across the country, I used my scarves as packing material for wine glasses and mugs. Made it really convenient for a summer move!
I keep "funky" clothes (clean but ratty) for when we plan to walk on the beach, explore a trail, etc. I'm often out of room in my suitcase anyway so I use them as packing material and towels as well.
I always pack my clothes in suitcases... not immediately relevant to the post at hand, but might help some ppl.
If you use dryer sheets, the used ones can cushion small objects.
Toilet paper and paper towel tubes can provide cushion between objects, and smaller objects can be stuffed inside.
love the balloon idea, rexrayfan! wish i would have done that this last time! certainly would have been more fun than hanging on to amazon bubbles. :)
I used pages from magazines last time I moved. Somehow I always end up with a pretty large pile before I purge.
A couple months before I need to move I'll start saving them again. You'll be surprised by how big of a pile you'll get once you start crumpling all the pages up.
My husband and I collect shot glasses from places we've been and we use socks as packing material. Since our collection isn't to be used, it's not gross and they fit perfectly.
I also have a tip for picture frames. I cut my hand once on a piece of glass that had broken during a move, I started taping the glass on picture frames with painters tape. On smaller frames, I just do an X, but on larger frames, I do an X and a +. It won't keep them from getting broken, but it will usually keep any broken glass in place and keep it from sliding around and accidentally cutting you.
Also, I'd check out the local wine/beer places in your area before your move and see if they have toss the cases that have the dividers in them. Those are excellent for packing glasses!
One more thing, I never, ever take my clothes off the hangers and pack them in boxes. I buy a box of cheap trashbags, make a hole in the bottom, slide the hangers through the hole, and tie the bottom closed. That way, you can hang the clothes up or slide them in small spaces without worrying that they will get dirty. Then, when you get to your new place, just take off the trashbags and hang them in the closet.
And the trashbags can still do double duty as bags for packing paper, protection of hardwood floors from random objects, or paint can drip protectors.
Your old newspapers are good for filling in spots in boxes or wrapping dishes/glasses/whatever, but for those who are wary of ink rubbing off on anything (even tho ruboff has been reduced over the years), newspaper printing plants usually have end rolls of plain newsprinting paper that they're willing to part with. They're long and not lightweight, and you usually have to sign a paper promising to return the core, because the printing plants need the metal endcaps back.
Old newspaper are excellent, in huge quantity: I used the brown tape (the one for parcels!) to keep the newspapers wrapped around frames, and then put them in boxes using crumpled newspapers to separate each frame from the next one; same thing with china and tableware, wrapped individually in newspapers and then separated by newspapers (or table clothes). It's time consuming and you'll have to wash everything after opening the boxes, but at least you won't find anything broken!
For clothes, I used cheap and ugly chinese zipped plastic bags with handles, making groups (shirts, socks, underwear...) and separating summer and winter clothes, so I knew where to find my things in the new home.
I do the same thing as asm198. I dislike hanging up clothes so it's easier to just bundle them together and keep them on the hangers. Takes about 2 minutes to get the closet all functional that way.
I usually take my clothes over in my car the day before I move in but when I moved cross-country a while ago I bought wardrobe boxes. Yeah, really expensive and a total waste of money. I knew I wasn't going to have much closet space where I was moving so I was thinking it would be nice to have them as extra storage. But when they arrived one was completely smashed down and the other had some serious structural damage to one side. I should have just packed my clothes in boxes (still on the hangers).