How to Pack Your Fine China for Long Distance Moving

Long distance moving is stressful, and one of the biggest parts of the process is packing. When you’re leaving Margate for good, reliable long distance movers can transport your belongings for you safely, but first, you need to get the smaller items into organized, labeled boxes. Some things are pretty simple to pack, and aren’t very prone to damage. Fine china, of course, is not one of those things.

To protect delicate heirloom china, you’ll need to pack it up very carefully, with maximum padding and protection. This step by step guide will help you protect it during the long journey ahead.

Get your materials together.

Fine China requires padding, padding, and more padding. Instead of reusing old packing materials, go ahead and buy them. It’s not worth losing pieces of irreplaceable antique china, just to save a few dollars on bubble wrap and tape.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Tape gun
• Packing tape
• Scotch tape
• Measuring tape
• Tissue paper
• Large bubble wrap
• Smaller bubble wrap
• Packing peanuts
• Boxes (inner and dish pack)

Group similar items together.

To simplify your unpacking process once you’ve moved to your new home, it helps to group similar items together. This step assumes that your china forms at least one cohesive set, and that you have multiple similar or identical dishes. If your pieces are all different in size and weight, you may want to consider packing them individually in tiny boxes, then packing the tiny boxes inside a larger box.

As you pack, keep in mind that during a long distance move, an unbalanced box can suffer damage on the heavier side.

Wrap each piece in tissue paper.

Wrap each individual dish tightly in tissue paper, sealing it securely with scotch tape, not packing tape. Packing tape is very strong, and can easily tear through the tissue paper.

Wrap everything but plates in bubble wrap.

After the tissue paper, wrap each piece with the smaller bubble wrap, making sure the entire surface area is covered. Use the packing tape to attach it. Then, wrap it again, this time using the larger bubble wrap. Using two types of bubble wrap helps ensure that the pieces don’t bump against each other during transit, which can cause them to break.

Pack your fine china plates.

For plates, you can stack them, weaving the small bubble wrap between them to cushion them from one another. Don’t stack more than five or six together. After the small bubble wrap, wrap them again in the larger bubble wrap. If you press your fingers up against it, you shouldn’t be able to feel the plates again. If you can, add another bubble wrap layer.

Pack the china into the inner box.

The bottom of each inner box should have around three or four inches of packing peanuts at the bottom. None of the items inside should come within three inches of the edge. Between each layer of items, there should be about two inches of packing peanuts. Close the box with packing tape.

Put the inner box into the double walled dish pack box.

Put three inches of peanuts into the bottom of the dish pack box, then gently set the inner box inside. Fill the remaining space with packing peanuts, then securely tape the box shut.

Shipping Your Fine China

Now that you’re done packing, your fine china is ready to travel. Your long distance moving company will carefully transport the box, along with the rest of your belongings, to your new house in another city or state.

At Orange Movers, we help soon-to-be-former Margate residents with their long distance move to a new location. To find out more, contact us any time.