Packing materials for moving are one of the few parts of a house move where spending a little more saves you a lot of time. My crew and I see the same pattern on most jobs: a pile of mismatched supermarket boxes, a roll of bubble wrap that ran out after the first cupboard, and one roll of tape that has been hunted for all morning. Our guide on how to pack a house for moving covers the order to pack in. This one is about what to pack with, and how much of it you need.
The short list of packing materials for moving
For a normal house move, this is everything that earns its place:
- Double walled cardboard boxes in two or three sizes
- Plain packing paper, a lot more than you think
- A roll or two of bubble wrap, kept for the genuinely fragile things
- Good quality brown parcel tape and a tape gun
- Thick marker pens, one per room being packed
- Mattress bags and a few old blankets or furniture covers
- Small sealable bags for screws, bolts and fixings
That is it. Everything else on a "moving supplies" list is either a nice extra or something you already own. If you are booking a crew, ask your removals company early what materials they bring and what they expect you to have ready, because it varies, and it is best agreed when you get your quote rather than discovered on the morning.
Boxes: sizes and how many
Get proper double walled boxes. They stack squarely, which matters more than people realise. A load that stacks square stays put in the van. A load of odd sized supermarket boxes shifts on every roundabout between Dunstable and wherever you are going.
Buy small and medium, not just large. Small boxes are for heavy things: books, tins, tools, records. Medium boxes do most of the kitchen and the general bits. Large boxes are only for light, bulky things like bedding, cushions and lampshades. A large box full of books cannot be lifted safely and usually splits.
Work out quantities room by room. Rather than trusting a generic figure, stand in each room and count the cupboards, shelves and drawers that need emptying. One shelf of books is roughly a small box. One kitchen cupboard is often a medium box or more. Add it up, then add a fifth on top, because everyone underestimates the loft, the shed and the cupboard under the stairs.
Wardrobe boxes are worth it for long clothes. They let hanging clothes go straight from the rail into the box and back onto a rail at the other end, still on their hangers. For a family house it is often the single biggest time saver at the unpacking end.
Paper, bubble wrap and what to wrap with
Plain packing paper does most of the work. It wraps plates, bowls, glasses and ornaments, and scrunched up it fills the gaps that stop things moving inside a box. Newspaper does the same job for free, but the ink can rub off onto plates and pale fabric, which means washing everything again at the other end. If you use it, keep it for the outer layers and for filling gaps, not for wrapping china directly.
Bubble wrap is for the few things that need it. Pictures, mirrors, screens, lamps and anything with a delicate edge. You do not need to wrap every mug in it. Paper plus a well filled box protects most kitchen items just as well. For glassware in particular, our guide on how to pack glasses for moving goes through it step by step.
Use what you own for soft padding. Towels, tea towels, jumpers and bedding are good padding around awkward items, and they have to be moved anyway.
Tape, pens and labels
Cheap tape is the false economy of moving day. It does not stick to cardboard properly, it splits on the roll, and a box that opens in a stairwell costs more than a better roll would have. Tape the bottom of every box along the seam and then across it, and do the same on top.
Write the destination room on the top and on one side of each box, so it can be read when boxes are stacked. "Back bedroom" helps a crew far more than "misc". Mark anything fragile and which way up it goes.
Covers for furniture and mattresses
Mattresses should travel in a mattress bag. It keeps them clean and dry between the house and the van, which matters on a wet day. Sofas, wooden tables and wardrobes need blankets or covers to stop scuffs on door frames and against each other. If you are using a man with a van or a full removals crew, check which of these they bring as part of the job.
When you take beds and tables apart, put every screw and bolt in a small sealable bag and tape it to the piece it came from. Nothing slows a rebuild down like a missing bolt.
What you can skip
- Packing peanuts. They get everywhere and do less than scrunched paper.
- Specialist kits for every item. Dish packs and glass dividers help, but a medium box and plenty of paper does most of the same job.
- Huge boxes. If you cannot lift it full, it should not exist.
- Vacuum bags for everything. Useful for spare duvets, not worth it for the clothes you will wear next week.
When to get it all
Have your boxes and paper in the house about two weeks before the move, so you can start on the rooms you use least. Keep a spare roll of tape and a few flat boxes back for the last evening, because there is always one more cupboard. Our house moving checklist sets out what to pack in each of those last weeks.
If you are moving in or around Luton, Dunstable or anywhere across Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, tell us what you are moving when you ask for a quote and we will tell you what to have ready before my crew and I arrive.
Want this priced properly?
Send us the two postcodes and a rough idea of what is coming, and we will give you a fixed price in writing. No obligation, and no follow-up pestering if you decide to go elsewhere.