Packing Fragile Items When Moving

Moving always comes with a lot of challenges, and one of the most challenging is packing fragile items. Glass, porcelain, ceramics, and electronics require special care to avoid damage during transportation. This is especially true if you have a long journey ahead, such as moving from Miami to Boston. In this article, we will tell you about the best ways to pack fragile items that will help keep your belongings safe and avoid unpleasant surprises.

Classification of Fragile Items

In fact, there is no strictly defined classification of such items. However, in general, we can come up with the following definition: fragile cargo during transportation and packaging includes any items that require additional protection against falling, mechanical damage during careless handling or falls, as well as from storage with increased lateral or upper load.

Accordingly, we can conditionally distinguish several types of such items:

• dishes and additional table setting;
• musical instruments and accessories for them;
• various electronic equipment, laptops, personal computers and peripheral devices, smartphones and tablets, and other gadgets;
• vases, mirrors, chandeliers, lamps, and any other interior items that contain glass or fragile plastic elements;
• ceramic tiles;
• a fairly wide range of spare parts and components for automotive equipment (windshields and side windows, mirrors, sensors, and much more);
• plumbing;
• household items and decor, plants;
• a number of building and finishing materials (gypsum board, stained glass, and regular glass).

The above-mentioned items can be damaged quite easily during careless transportation, which often happens. For these reasons, items lose their attractive appearance and consumer properties. It is important that fragile goods are transported as carefully as possible and in compliance with a number of simple rules when packing them.

All such goods have their own specifics in terms of transportation and packaging, so it will not be possible to derive uniform rules and advice for absolutely all fragile things and objects. The choice of materials for packing the items being transported directly depends on the dimensions and features of what you need to pack.

The Main Methods of Packing Fragile Items And The Materials Used For This

High-quality packaging, which is ensured by the correct selection of materials for different types of fragile items, as well as the time spent on packaging, is the thing that allows you to minimize the risk of damage to things and simplify all stages of transportation, regardless of the chosen method. Nowadays, the most commonly used types of packaging materials for fragile items are:

1. Bubble wrap. It is used for a large number and range of fragile goods. It has excellent performance properties and an adequate price.
2. A wooden box of appropriate dimensions can accommodate various fragile goods. The free space can be filled with foam or tightly compressed lumps of wrapping paper.
3. Kraft paper is used to wrap various things in it for subsequent placement in another, larger package. Wrapping paper will also protect fragile goods from friction and a number of minor mechanical damages.
4. Foam is valued in packaging due to its high level of shock-absorbing properties. It is most often used for packaging new household and digital equipment, most often used once due to its high fragility.
5. Corrugated cardboard is used both to create boxes and to fill the internal voids in large containers. The boxes are filled with cargo, which is pre-packed in other types of materials.
6. Foam rubber is also used as a packaging material due to its high level of shock-absorbing capacity, most often small fragile items are packed in it. Foam rubber is also often used as a layer between several rows of goods or things.

Features of Packaging Fragile Things

The secret to reliable packaging of fragile items is quite simple. Each item is first packed separately and then placed inside a larger container. In order to minimize the impact of shaking on the packed items and eliminate the risk of individual items inside the box or crate colliding with each other, a method of filling all the voids with different types of packaging material is used. For this, foam plastic, tightly crumpled paper, foam rubber, and other materials are used. It is the voids inside the large container that are the main negative moment during loading and transportation, so they need to be filled as much as possible. It is also important to ensure that individual items inside the large container do not touch each other at all, if possible.

Most often, the packaging should also protect the packed items or goods from the effects of a number of negative environmental factors: pressure drops and temperature and humidity conditions, dust, and other types of contaminants.

Let’s look at how to pack various individual categories of goods with increased fragility:

1. Large and medium household appliances. These items, like small electronic gadgets, should be carefully packed in cardboard boxes of appropriate dimensions, where each component of the packed items is located separately. Figured pieces of foam plastic are used as a material for filling internal voids, and small parts and remote controls should be wrapped in polyethylene or bubble wrap.
2. Musical instruments are best transported inside the cases in which they are sold or carried. If the instruments need to be transported over a long distance, then they should be additionally protected with bubble wrap.
3. The most vulnerable and fragile component in TVs and monitors is the display, which should be packaged with the utmost responsibility. It is easiest to protect it during transportation using thick cardboard.
4. Mirrors and shelves made of tempered glass should be transported by placing them vertically in the car. Foam sheets, polystyrene foam, or soft rags are placed between them. On the outside, it is worth additionally packing shelves or mirrors of any size using corrugated cardboard and adhesive tape.

Wrapping It Up

Proper packaging of fragile items is the key to their safety during any transportation, especially such a long one as moving to Boston from Miami. You should use high-quality packaging materials, do not forget about fillers, and pay attention to the reliable fixation of items in boxes. If you are looking for a reliable company for transporting things from Miami to Boston or between other cities, we recommend paying attention to the Paradise Moving & Storage company. In addition to transportation, the company also provides storage services, which may also be necessary for many people who are moving to another city. In addition to all these services, you can also use the loading and unloading service of things.