If you’ve already started the packing marathon as a result of an impending house move, then sooner or later you’ll move the packing action into your kitchen. Now, packing up a kitchen is very different from let’s say, packing your bedroom all because of the overwhelming number of kitchenware skillfully hidden in endless cupboards, drawers and cabinets – all kinds of utensils, pans, bowls, pots, cups, plates, saucers, and of course – glasses.
Together with wrapping up oddly-shaped kitchen pieces and wrapping up safely sharp-edged cutlery, another big challenge you will face is finding the right answer to the question how to pack glasses for moving so that your fragile items reach the kitchen of your new home in one piece and even without a single scratch on them.
So, how to pack glasses when moving house?
We have handpicked for you the best tips for packing glasses. Because when it comes to protecting such delicate and fragile kitchen items, the best advice for packing up glasses always means one thing – safety.
What to do before packing glasses for a move
Believe it or not, the preparation stage is crucial for the success of your packing project and before you begin to wrap your delicate glassware for shipping, here are the two major tasks you need to complete in order to guarantee the well-being of your kitchen breakables.
Find quality packing supplies
Above all, you need to have the appropriate packing supplies to get the job done the way a pro packer would. Here’s what to use to pack glasses safely and quickly:
Moving containers. Regular medium sized cardboard boxes in good condition will do just fine but your best option is to purchase special dish boxes from your local moving company. Also known as dish barrels, these moving containers are manufactured from thicker and stronger cardboard and as a result, they do a much better job absorbing any shocks during transportation and providing a much better overall protection for your glass breakables. You should be okay either way provided that you prepare each cardboard box properly /read on for details/.
Bubble wrap. Yes, you will need to buy a good deal of the world famous air-filled bubbly protective material, especially when packing stemware glasses.
Soft packing paper. You will need the softest packing paper you can find to avoid even the tiniest of scratches on the surface of your glassware. A little piece of advice: purchase more packing paper than you think you will need.
Plain newsprint. You must have old newspapers lying around in your home so make sure you put them to good use. Newsprint is the cheapest packing material you will ever find, but be careful when using it to wrap glasses for moving. Read on to find the limited use of newspapers.
Packing tape. Do not underestimate the important role of good quality packing tape for securing the boxes for packing glasses.
Black marker. Who’s going to label correctly your glasses-filled boxes if not you?
Sort out your glassware
How to pack glasses in a box safely and quickly? Before learning how to pack glasses in a box, take some time to figure out if all of your glassware pieces are worth your packing time, packing energy and transportation costs. In other words, it’s time to inspect all the kitchen glasses you own and see whether or not you can optimize their number to make things easier on yourself.
For this purpose, arrange the entire glassware collection onto the kitchen table and initiate the inspection. Don’t hesitate to throw away any glasses that you find to be considerably stained, cracked, chipped or damaged in any other way unless a glassware piece has sentimental value for you. Remember that you can save valuable time by choosing to recycle inexpensive sets of glasses instead of packing and moving them to your new home.
How to pack wine glasses for moving
Packing up your collection of wine glasses can be rather tricky due to the fact that the stems are, without a doubt, the most delicate parts of stemware. So how do you pack wine glasses so that they, and especially their super fragile stems, don’t get broken, smashed or snapped in two while on the road to your new home? The short answer is: with extreme care!
Here are the consequential steps that describe the best way to pack wine glasses:
Step 1: Double-tape the bottom and the sides of the moving boxes you will use for storing your kitchen glassware. The quality packing tape will guarantee that the moving boxes won’t accidentally break under the weight of the packed glasses.
Step 2: Take approximately 10-12 newspaper pages, crumple them into loose balls and place the latter along the inside bottom of the first moving container. The idea is to create a protective layer of crumpled newspaper balls that will absorb any travel shocks by acting like effective springs of an automobile.
Step 3: What is the best way to pack wine glasses? Wrap the stem of a wine glass with multiple sheets of bubble wrap until the width of the wrap itself matches the width of the glass bowl. Tape the bundled stem to make sure the bubble wrap won’t unfold later during transport.
Step 4: First, place your partially wrapped glass wine in the middle of a stack of 3 sheets of packing paper. Then, tuck the first corner of your 3-sheeted packing paper inside the bowl of your wine glass (do this slowly and gently), and do your best to fill in the bowl volume with as much paper as possible. Finally, wrap the other three corners of the 3-play paper around the entire glass as carefully as you possibly can. Tape the wrapped up stem glass piece.
Step 5: Place the wrapped up bundle inside the moving box and over the bottom layer of crumpled paper. Make sure you arrange your packed stem glasses with their mouths facing down as this orientation has been proven to absorb much better the shocks, vibrations and jerky motions along the road trip.
Step 6: When you’re done with the first row, place a protective sheet of bubble wrap before starting the second row if the space allows. The minute the moving box is sensibly filled up with your stemware glasses, fill in any remaining room inside the box with crumpled pieces of newspapers so that no undesirable shifts occur during transit. Finally, place a final padding layer of crumpled newsprint balls on the very top between the glasses and the lid of the container.
Step 7: Tape the medium sized box shut, take out your black marker and label it “FRAGILE”, “KITCHEN GLASSES” and “THIS SIDE UP”.
Step 8: And you’re done! Now you know how to pack wine glasses for moving.
How to pack drinking glasses for moving
How do you pack drinking glasses? Luckily, inexpensive glassware pieces like everyday drinking glasses are easier to pack than wine glasses and champagne glasses not only because they lack super fragile stems, but also because they are usually thicker and less prone to breakage.
Step 1. When packing drinking glasses for a move, follow exactly the same logic of the above step-by-step guide to packing glasses. Of course, you only need to skip step 3 as drinking glasses don’t have delicate stems in needs of adequate protection.
Our tips for packing glasses for moving end with one important piece of advice: if you’re packing drinking glasses and wine/champagne glasses in one single box, make sure the lighter and much more delicate stemware are always arranged along a top layer.