How to Pack Plates, Glasses and Fragile Items for Moving Day

The Most Common Reason Fragile Items Break in Transit

Fragile items rarely break from rough driving or bad handling. They break because they have room to move inside the box. A plate wrapped individually and packed tight will survive almost anything. The same plate wrapped loosely in a half-empty box will crack before the van’s even left the street. That’s the whole job: eliminate movement. If you’re booking a man and van service and handling the packing yourself, this guide covers how to do that for each category of fragile item.

What to Wrap With

The wrapping material matters, particularly for anything that will sit directly against a surface. Good packing services will use a combination of these depending on the item:

• Packing paper — the right choice for wrapping crockery, glassware, and ceramics directly. Clean, soft, no ink transfer. Available in rolls or sheets from removal suppliers and most large supermarkets.
• Bubble wrap — better as a second layer over packing paper than directly against china or glassware. It can leave pressure marks on delicate surfaces if it’s the first thing touching them.
• Newspaper — works as filler or an outer wrap but the ink transfers onto anything it touches. Put packing paper between newspaper and anything you care about.
• Tea towels, soft linens, clothing — work just as well as packing paper for wrapping individual items, and they’re free. Particularly good for filling gaps once the main items are in.

How to Pack Plates

The instinct is to pack plates the way they sit in a cupboard — flat and stacked. That’s the wrong approach. A horizontal stack transfers every bump from plate to plate through the whole pile. Stand them on their edge instead, like records in a crate. The edge is the strongest axis and they’re far less likely to crack that way. For fragile item transport of any kind, this principle applies to anything disc-shaped.

The method:

• Sheet of packing paper flat, first plate in the centre, fold up and over. Add a second sheet for the next plate. Each one gets its own paper layer.
• Group three or four wrapped plates into a bundle and wrap the bundle in another sheet of paper or a layer of bubble wrap.
• Bundles go in standing on their edge, vertically. Tight enough that they can’t tip, not so tight the paper is compressed flat.
• Top and sides get filled with crumpled paper, tea towels, or soft clothing until nothing moves when you shake the box.

Don’t mix significantly different plate sizes in the same bundle. Larger plates will work against smaller ones if there’s any give between them.

How to Pack Glasses and Mugs

Glasses are most vulnerable at the rim and the stem. The stem on a wine glass will snap under almost no lateral pressure — these need extra care and, where possible, a cell box. Cell boxes have cardboard dividers that give each glass its own compartment. Removal suppliers stock them and they’re worth getting for anything with a stem or a fragile rim.

For everyday glasses and mugs:

• Wrap each glass in packing paper. Tuck paper inside the glass too, not just around the outside.
• Stand them upright, base down. The base is the strong point; the rim isn’t.
• Don’t stack glass directly on glass. If the box needs two layers, put a sheet of cardboard across the first layer before adding the second.
• Fill all gaps with crumpled paper. If it rattles, it can move.

For wine glasses and anything with a stem, use a cell box if at all possible. If not, wrap the stem in several layers of bubble wrap before wrapping the rest of the glass, and pack them upright with plenty of paper between each one.

How to Pack Bowls

Bowls can be nested, but not without a paper layer between each one first. Bowl rim against bowl surface is how chips happen. Wrap the first bowl, nest the next one in, wrap that, and so on. Three or four wrapped bowls stacked together can then be wrapped as a bundle before going in the box. Like plates, on their edge is better than flat.

How to Pack Ornaments, Vases, and Ceramics

Irregular shapes need more wrapping material and more thought about where they sit in the box. The principle is the same — eliminate movement — but the method varies by item:

• Packing paper first, bubble wrap over the top.
• Hollow items like vases need crumpled paper stuffed inside before you wrap the outside. Without it the walls can flex inward under pressure.
• Heavier ceramics at the bottom of the box, lighter and more delicate items above.
• Nothing heavy sitting directly on top of something fragile. If you need to layer items, put a sheet of cardboard between layers first.
• Fill all gaps before sealing. Give the box a gentle shake. If anything moves, more packing goes in.

Mirrors and Framed Pictures

Flat glass items should never travel flat under other things in the van. They go vertically, on their edge, leaning against the van wall, where the glass is under compression rather than bending stress. Before loading:

• Put masking tape across the glass in a cross or star pattern. It won’t stop the glass breaking but if it does, the tape holds the fragments together. That’s better for everything around it and considerably easier to deal with.
• Wrap the whole item in bubble wrap and tape around the bubble wrap, not the frame.
• For large mirrors, purpose-made mirror boxes (two-part telescoping cardboard) are available from removal suppliers and worth using.
• Stand them vertically in the van, secured so they can’t tip. Don’t lean other items against the glass face.

Box Weight and Labelling for Fragile Boxes

Fragile boxes should be lighter than standard ones. Not because the contents are light, but because a heavy fragile box is more likely to be put down hard, stacked under heavier items, or handled in a way that causes impact. Keep fragile boxes to a weight you can lift comfortably with one hand while the other steadies the bottom. If a box of crockery is too heavy to carry carefully, at some point it will be carried carelessly.

Label fragile boxes on the top and at least two sides. FRAGILE in large letters, THIS WAY UP with an arrow. A label only on the top of a box that ends up in a stack is effectively no label at all.

What Not to Pack With Fragile Items

A few combinations that consistently cause damage:

• Heavy books with crockery — books shift and compress the packing material around fragile items over the course of a journey.
• Glasses with plates in the same box — different weights and shapes make it difficult to pack tightly without one putting pressure on another.
• Anything sharp with anything fragile — loose cutlery, tools, or picture hooks in a box with ceramics will find the weakest point.
• Liquids with breakables — bottles go in plastic bags first, and ideally in their own box away from fragile items.

Fragile items travel best with other fragile items of similar weight, in a dedicated box, filled completely so nothing moves, and loaded where heavier items can’t go on top. When in doubt, use more packing material. An extra roll of bubble wrap costs far less than replacing what it was protecting.

More Packing Guides

Part of a series covering the practical side of packing for a move:

• How to Pack for a Move: What Actually Works (and What Slows Everything Down) — containers, principles, and what not to do
• How to Pack Your Belongings for a Move: Room-by-Room Practical Guide — the right container for each type of household item
• How to Tape and Seal Boxes Properly for Your Next House Move — the H-tape method, double-taping, and which tape actually works
• Moving Checklist: What to Pack, When, and in What Order — a timeline from four weeks out to the first evening at the new property