Match the Container to What You Are Packing
Most of what ends up in a house move isn’t fragile, valuable, or complicated to pack. The challenge is volume. A three-bed house uses roughly 40 to 60 boxes, sometimes more, and at that scale decision fatigue sets in fast if you’re working it out on the fly. The guide below covers the main categories of household items and how to handle each. If you’re booking a man with a van service for the move, having everything boxed and labelled before the van arrives makes the whole day go faster.
Books and Heavy Items
Books are the most common packing mistake in a house move. A full medium box of books can hit 20 to 25kg, which is too heavy to carry safely and will split the base of a standard box. The rules for books are worth knowing if you want professional packers to sign off on what you’ve done:
- Small boxes only. Never medium or large.
- Tape the base with two or three strips before you start loading
- Lay books flat rather than on their edge. Flat stacking spreads the weight across the bottom rather than concentrating it on the spine corners.
- Leave a small gap at the top and stuff it with crumpled paper so nothing shifts in transit
Same logic applies to anything dense: tools, records, tins, ceramics, bottles. Dense stuff goes in small boxes, light stuff in big ones. Put a cast iron pan and a duvet in the same box and you’ll regret it halfway down the stairs.
Kitchen Items (Non-Fragile)
Non-fragile kitchen items — pots, pans, baking trays, Tupperware, chopping boards — can go together in medium boxes without much thought. Stack heavier pans at the bottom, nest them inside each other where you can. Utensils go in a single layer or into a plastic pouch that sits in the box. Nothing in this category needs wrapping. For a full house and apartment removals job, the kitchen is usually the biggest single source of box volume after books.
Small appliances (kettle, toaster, microwave, air fryer) pack individually or in pairs. Original packaging is ideal if you still have it. If not, wrap the cable around the unit and pack with something soft on all sides so it can’t move inside the box.
Bedding, Towels, and Soft Items
Duvets, pillows, towels, and blankets go in laundry bags. They’re bulky but light, and they squash down well. A full laundry bag of bedding takes up roughly the same floor space as a medium box but can be pushed into the gaps between rigid items in the van — which nothing rigid can do.
Use soft items as padding while you’re at it. A folded duvet laid flat across the top of a layer of boxes protects what’s above and below. Towels wrapped around awkward items reduce the need for bubble wrap. Bedding and towels earn their place in the van twice over.
Clothes
Clothes fold into laundry bags or medium boxes. Fill them properly and seal them. Wardrobe boxes are worth using only for suits, formal dresses, and anything that creases badly. Everything else folds fine. Vacuum bags are genuinely useful for bulky winter coats and heavy knitwear that take up far more space than they weigh.
Take clothes off hanging rails before move day. A loaded rail can’t be stacked, takes up floor space that would hold several boxes, and the clothes fall off it during loading. There’s no good reason to move a rail still loaded.
Electronics
TVs, monitors, computers, and gaming consoles are the highest value fragile items in most properties and deserve more care than crockery. Before packing:
- Photograph any cable setup you’ll need to reproduce at the other end — the back of a TV, a desktop PC, a home sound system
- Unplug cables and bag them with a label saying what they connect
- Use the original box if you have it. Nothing protects electronics better than the packaging it was designed for.
- Without the original box, wrap in bubble wrap with extra on the corners and use a box that’s only slightly larger than the item, packed tight with soft material
TVs travel standing upright against the van wall. Don’t lay a TV flat. The screen wasn’t designed for that kind of pressure and if anything gets put on top of it, you’ve probably got a cracked panel.
Bathroom Items and Toiletries
Anything that can leak needs attention before it goes in a box. One bottle that opens in transit can ruin everything around it. Wet cardboard goes soft, soap gets into things, and whatever was packed nearby is now a problem.
- Put any part-used bottle in a plastic bag before boxing it
- Liquids go at the top of the box, not under heavier items that compress the caps
- Pack cleaning products separately from anything food-related
- Half-empty bottles of things you haven’t used in a year aren’t worth transporting
Food
Only take food that’s sealed and non-perishable. Pasta, tins, jars, and dry goods pack fine into a medium box. Anything open, anything from the fridge, anything frozen — use it up or give it away before the move. Transporting fridge contents on moving day creates more problems than it solves.
If you’re moving locally and genuinely need to shift a full freezer, cool bags with ice packs work for a few hours. Beyond that, assume it’s defrosted.
Kids’ Toys and Games
Toys are mostly light and non-fragile, which makes them easy to pack into medium or large boxes. Sort by type as you go: LEGO and small parts in one box, soft toys in another, board games stacked flat. It makes unpacking much quicker. Tape board games and puzzles shut before boxing or the pieces will be all over the inside of the box.
For anything a child uses every day, pack it last and keep one or two familiar items accessible during the move. A favourite toy or bedtime book that’s easy to find on the first evening saves a disproportionate amount of hassle.
Tools, Garage and Shed
Hand tools and dense garage items go in small boxes for the same reason as books. Weight adds up quickly. Power tools pack best in their original cases. If you don’t have those, wrap them in a towel and box them individually. Drain any petrol from lawnmowers or strimmers before the move. Fuel shouldn’t travel in a removal van.
Long-handled garden tools (rakes, spades, brooms) can be bundled with tape or cable ties and loaded alongside furniture rather than boxed.
Drawers: Empty Them or Leave Them In?
Whether to empty a chest of drawers depends on weight:
- Heavy solid wood furniture — empty the drawers. A loaded chest is significantly heavier and puts stress on the carcass when it’s carried.
- Lightweight flat-pack furniture — drawers can usually stay in if the contents are soft and light. Remove any drawer that doesn’t lock in position or it will slide out during loading.
- Never leave heavy items in drawers regardless of the furniture. Books, tools, anything dense — out.
If drawers do stay in, tape them shut with masking tape so they can’t open in transit.
Lamps, Mirrors, and Awkward Items
Not everything fits in a box. Floor lamps, framed artwork, large mirrors, potted plants, exercise equipment — these travel as themselves, wrapped and handled individually:
- Lamps: remove the shade and bulb and wrap each separately. Shades crush easily and can’t have weight on them.
- Mirrors and framed pictures: apply a cross of masking tape across the glass (contains fragments if it breaks), wrap in bubble wrap, and load vertically against the van wall
- Plants: only worth moving if you genuinely care about them. Box pots individually and keep them upright. Most ordinary plants aren’t worth the effort of a long-distance move in a dark van.
- Exercise equipment: dismantle where possible. A folded treadmill takes up a fraction of the space.
What to Keep Out for Move Day
Everything can be packed in advance except what you’ll need on the day itself. Set aside:
- Kettle, two mugs, teabags, and a small carton of milk
- Phone chargers and a power bank
- A change of clothes and basic toiletries
- Toilet roll
- Any medication
- Keys and any documents needed for the day
Pack these into one bag or box that goes in your car or the van cab, not in the main load. This is the box that gets frantically hunted for at the end of a long moving day if nobody set it aside deliberately.
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 Plates, Glasses and Fragile Items for Moving Day — wrapping and boxing crockery, glassware, mirrors, and ornaments
- 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
