Category:Packing
Almost every breakage we see happened in the box rather than on the road. A carton that rattles when you shake it will arrive with something broken in it, however carefully it is driven.
The three habits that break things
- Packing flat. A plate lying flat takes the whole weight of the stack through its center. Stood on its edge, like a record, it takes it through the rim, which is where the strength is.
- Leaving voids. Empty space lets contents move, and movement is what breaks ceramics. Fill to the top with paper, even if the top is only air.
- Over-packing the box. A carton you cannot lift comfortably will be dropped by somebody eventually, including by you.
Glass and crockery
Wrap each piece individually in packing paper — not newspaper, which transfers ink onto glaze. Stemware goes into cell dividers, bowl down. Build the box in layers with paper between them, heaviest at the bottom, and finish with a paper cap so the lid meets resistance when it closes.
Artwork and mirrors
Tape a cross of masking tape across the glass. It does not prevent a break, but it holds the shards together if one happens, which turns a ruined painting into a replaceable pane. Corner protectors, then a mirror carton, then a marked “this way up”.
Anything over about a metre on its longest side is worth a custom crate. It costs less than you think and roughly nothing compared with the picture.
Electronics
- Photograph the back of anything before you unplug it.
- Bag the cables with the device, not in a general cable box.
- Original cartons if you kept them; a double-walled box with two inches of foam on every face if you did not.
- Screens travel upright, never flat, and never with anything on top.
Labeling
Write the room, the contents and the word FRAGILE on two adjacent sides, never on the top — the top is the one face a crew cannot see when the box is on a stack. And mark which way is up, because “obvious” stops being obvious at the eleventh hour of a long day.
