Top tips for moving house & packing your special items

When you’re moving house, there’s nothing worse than unpacking and finding your prized possessions in a million pieces. Whether it’s your Grandma’s antique vase, champagne flutes, or a dinner set, packing up your breakables takes a little thought and preparation. 
And with the amount of waste created by a house move, and the large number of boxes needed, it’s important to consider the environment too. Choose recyclable packaging and environmentally friendly materials wherever you can. Here we share some top packing tips using some of our recyclable materials for your smoothest move yet.

Get organised

When moving house and packing up your fragile items, get organised. Sort out in plenty of time what fragile items you have and need special care when packing. Good packing takes time to do – when you rush, things may get broken. 

Use quality materials

Being organised gives you time to source quality and recyclable materials for packing too. You will need packing tape, a tape dispenser, bubble wrap or honeycomb wrap, packing paper, sturdy recyclable boxes and a decent surface to pack on – a dining room table is ideal! Skimping on old, wobbly boxes may be ok for non-breakables such as clothes or bedding, but not worth the risk for your fragile items. As for other moving essentials? We’ve compiled a list of handy tools and gadgets to help on move day, too.

Preparing your boxes

When putting your boxes together, don’t hold back on the tape, particularly when sealing the base. The last thing you want is for the bottom to fall out. For an environmentally friendly option, try using Australia Post’s Paper Packaging Tape made from recyclable paper. Give boxes a sturdy soft base with a layer of bubble wrap, packing paper or even towels to avoid unnecessary environmental waste. Before you seal them, do the same on the top. Remember to pack heavy items at the bottom.  Australia Post’s paper packaging tape can be recycled with the box via kerbside recycling bin.

Use smaller boxes

To reduce weight, consider using smaller boxes that are dedicated just to fragile objects. Australia Post has a range of smaller boxes that are built to protect fragile items and made from recyclable materials. Or see if you have any used Australia Post boxes that your online shopping deliveries have come in. They are sturdy enough to be re-used, but can go into your kerbside recycling bin at the end of their life. Consider putting your smaller fragile boxes in the car and let the removalists move the big things.

Wrap your valuables

For hollow fragile items like glasses and vases, fill the void with packing paper before wrapping each item individually with Australia Post’s bubble wrap. For plates, you can bubble wrap each and stand them vertically with paper in between. Avoid using newspaper for packing because it can leave unwanted marks. For an eco-alternative to bubble wrap, try Australia Post’s Quickwrap Nano honeycomb-style wrap packaging made of recyclable material. After the move Quickwrap Nano can be disposed of via kerbside recycling. To dispose of big pieces of bubble wrap, chop them into A3 pieces.

Mind the gaps

When packing your boxes, use packing paper or bubble wrap to fill any gaps in between the objects so the items can’t move around. Old rags or tea towels could be an environmentally friendly alternative too! For extra protection, particularly for wine glasses with stems, consider using a box with dividers.

Loud and clear

To help you and the removalists move smoothly, mark up the contents of each box and what room it is going into. Consider numbering boxes and keep an inventory of the contents on file. If it’s breakable contents, make sure it screams Fragile. Try using Australia Post’s orange Fragile tape so everyone knows to treat the box with kid gloves.

Don’t spill a drop

When moving your favourite drops, make sure you use a purpose-made wine box with inserts to protect each bottle. Australia Post has a range of wine boxes made of durable cardboard to suit different configurations of bottles, and they’re recyclable via kerbside recycling. It’s a good step towards keeping your wine rack intact.

Reuse and recycle

After the move, put thought into how you can reuse or recycle your materials. Re-use your boxes and packing materials where you can and perhaps advertise on a community page to pay them forward to another household on the move. Once they reach the end of their life, recycle, recycle, recycle.

Article was originally published on 2 June 2022