How to Pack Fragile Items Like a Pro

The golden rules

• Small, strong boxes for heavy fragile things — never giant boxes
• Two inches of padding between every item, and between items and box walls
• A box packed full is a box that survives — fill every void with paper
• If it rattles when you shake it gently, it isn’t packed yet
• Tape the bottom seam twice; a fragile box failing from below is the classic disaster

Dishes, glasses and stemware

Plates travel on edge, like records — never stacked flat. Wrap each plate in paper, bundle three or four, and stand the bundle vertically on a thick paper cushion. Glasses and mugs get stuffed with paper first, then wrapped, and always ride in the top layer. Stemware deserves a divided dish-pack box; it’s the one specialty box genuinely worth buying.

Artwork, mirrors and lamps

Tape a low-tack X across glass faces to hold fragments if the worst happens, wrap in paper then bubble wrap, and slide into a picture box or between blankets — always on edge, never flat. Lamp shades are crush casualties: box them separately with nothing on top. Harps and bulbs come off and travel wrapped.

Electronics

Original boxes are best if you kept them. Otherwise: photograph the cable setup before unplugging, bag and label cables per device, wrap screens in a blanket or bubble wrap with a cardboard face, and keep TVs upright the whole trip — never laid flat.

When to hand it to professionals

China cabinets, heirlooms, large mirrors and anything you’d struggle to replace: a professional pack costs less than most people expect and shifts the responsibility onto the crew doing it. Many customers pack their books and clothes, and leave the kitchen and fragiles to us.

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