California Storage Centers Packing Guide: Helpful Hints for Packing Success

Whether you’re moving to a new home or packing up to store your belongings, there are a number of ways to ensure that your items don’t get broken, soiled, or damaged during the process. That’s why California Storage Centers collaborated with a certified moving specialist to help create this quick packing guide – because your moving experience should be as painless as possible.

Packing Basics

In many large moving organizations, movers must obtain a certification before they can begin working as professional packers or movers. During this process, future movers are often surprised to learn that there are numerous procedures involved in packing each box that will ensure safe transport, even if the goods are mishandled during the move.

To begin, select a room in your house to pack and set up a variety of boxes so that you won’t have to pick and choose what can go inside. Refer to the types of boxes listed in this guide to find out which items should go where, and pack accordingly.

Step 1 – The Cushion: Before you place any items in your boxes, determine which breakables will go where, and begin by balling up packing paper to line the bottom of the box. This cushion will act as a shock absorber in the event that your breakables are dropped or impacted during your move.

Step 2 – Heavy First, Light Last: To ensure the best protection for your goods, place the heaviest items at the bottom of your box, working up to the top with progressively lighter items. When you do this, be sure the arrows on your box are pointing up to indicate that the box is right-side-up.

Step 3 – More Cushion!: As items go into each box, continue to ball up packing paper and place it around any fragile or easily damaged goods. In the case of easily damageable surfaces, wrap a few layers of packing paper around the item before placing it in the box to help ensure maximum protection. The more fragile your items are, the more packing paper will be required until a kind of cocoon surrounds each item in the box. Lastly, repeat the layer of wadded paper over the top of the box to create another impact-resistant barrier.

Step 4 – Keep it Organized: If you enjoy putting puzzles together, then you will probably get some satisfaction from packing your items into boxes. If not, don’t worry – the process isn’t difficult once you develop some patterns that are easy to follow. If items are all rectangular and roughly the same size – as is the case for DVD’s or books – pack them together, placing books on their edges with the spines down.

Step 5 – Pack it Tight: Pack each box tightly before sealing it up to ensure that the items don’t shift while in transit, allowing damage to occur; if you don’t have enough items to fill your last few boxes completely, wad up some more packing paper or fill up the empty space with bedsheets and linens.

Step 6 – Labelling: Be sure to label the outside of each box, notating the items inside, the room it came from, and/or the room the box should be placed in upon arrival. This step is essential to avoid confusion as your items are placed throughout your new home.

California Storage Centers Box Guide: What You Need and Why You Need It

Small Box (1.5): The small box is typically the most used box because it is designed for the heaviest items in your household. Books, magazines, papers, DVD’s, and CD’s can be placed in these boxes without becoming too heavy in most cases.

A fully packed small box typically weighs 40-60 lbs. due to the heavy items it holds.

Medium Box(3.0): The medium box is probably the most versatile of the wide selection available because it can still hold moderately heavy items, but also has room for longer or wider items as well. Try to mix heavy and light items together in these boxes because they can easily become too heavy to move due to their increased volume.

A fully packed medium box typically weighs 30-40 pounds.

Large Box(4.5): The large box is primarily designed for lighter items such as linens, light blankets, drapes, and large breakables that need to be packed by themselves around a dense cushion of wadded paper or bubble wrap. Many professionals prefer to pack some of their breakables into the middle of a stack of linens inside their large boxes in order to save on packing materials and reduce the time needed for item prep.

A fully packed large box typically weighs 10-25 pounds because of the items they accommodate.

Extra Large Box (6.0): The extra large box is designed much like the large box, but is designed for the lightest, fluffiest items in your household. Heavy comforters and bulky linens are usually the only items packed into these, in addition to any inconvenient breakables that can be carefully packed into the middle. Use particular caution when packing extra large boxes because of their tendency to become overly heavy due to their greater volume.

A fully packed extra large box typically weighs 10-30 pounds.

Dish Pack (5.0): Dish pack boxes are specially designed to hold your breakables without denting or collapsing under large amounts of weight. This is made possible because of their triple-thick, corrugated construction, which allows heavy, fragile items to be placed inside without high risk of damage. Remember when packing your dish pack to use the wadded paper cushion between each layer of items in the box, and use cell packs (cardboard inserts), foam, and bubble wrap around your most fragile stemware, plates, and glasses, placing them only at the top of the carton under the final paper cushion.

A fully packed dish pack typically weighs 60-150 lbs.

Mini Dish Pack: The mini dish pack, much like the standard dish pack, is designed with triple-thick, corrugated cardboard for maximum protection, but is also about half the normal size to reduce the weight of the fully packed box. Mini dish packs are essential if you don’t look forward to lugging around an extremely heavy box filled with all of your valuable breakables.

A fully packed mini dish pack typically weighs 30-75 lbs.

Lamp Box (Telescoping): If you have ever tried to move a free-standing lamp without a lamp carton, you have probably learned exactly how difficult it can be to protect them from breakage during transit. Lamp boxes are designed with the ability to telescope, or combine two boxes to create a single, taller box, that fits around a lamp of any height desired. Be sure to remove any light bulbs before packing lamps into these boxes, and use moving blankets or linens to stabilize the lamp inside the box for transport. Lamp boxes are also handy for packing fishing poles, curtain rods, and any long, skinny items that might otherwise be difficult to place safely in a tightly packed moving truck.

Standard weight for a fully packed lamp box is 15-50 pounds.

Wardrobe Box (Bar Included): Wardrobe boxes are extremely handy for packing hanging clothes without having to fold or wrinkle the items inside. Before you place your hanging bar into its slots, however, try placing a few pairs of shoes and some of your oddly shaped items into the bottom of the box; usually, there is enough empty space to accommodate the extra items, and this will save on packing materials later on.

A fully packed wardrobe box typically weighs 25-60 pounds, though their sturdy construction allows for heavier weights if needed.

Mirror Box (Telescoping): Mirror boxes are creatively designed to accommodate any size picture, painting, or mirror for transportation. Simply fold along the dotted lines of two sides of each section, and fit as many sections as might be needed together to form a cardboard shell. Be sure that each item placed into the box is individually wrapped with moving blankets or heavy linens and that the box is packed tightly enough that the items don’t shift during transit. Be generous with your packing materials here, using wadded paper and extra blankets as needed to ensure the strongest possible result.

A fully packed mirror box can range between 10-60 lbs. because of its telescoping ability. Any items weighing more than 60 lbs. Should be professionally crated to ensure their protection.

TV/Monitor Box (Various): The TV/monitor box is designed specifically for your television or computer monitor. Each box comes in a specific size so that your electronics fit snugly inside after wrapping inside a pad or heavy blanket. To maximize the effect of these boxes, cut Styrofoam into various sizes that will wedge around each side of your device to ensure that it doesn’t shift during transit.

Because of the specific nature of TV/Monitor boxes, each box should weigh only slightly more than your TV or monitor.

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