Packing Fragile Items for an Interstate Move

Packing that's perfectly adequate for a twenty-minute drive across Melbourne can fail on an interstate run. It isn't that the handling is rougher — it's that the load spends hours vibrating, and vibration finds every gap you left.

Two principles cover most of it: nothing should be able to move inside its box, and nothing fragile should bear weight. Everything below follows from those.

Use the right boxes

Supermarket boxes have been opened, stacked damp and crushed once already. They're fine for linen. They're a poor choice for anything breakable on a long trip.

• Small boxes for heavy things. Books, crockery, tools. A large box of books is too heavy to handle safely and will burst its own base.
• Large boxes for light bulky things. Doonas, pillows, soft toys.
• Dish barrels or double-walled cartons for glassware and crockery.
• Purpose-made picture boxes for framed art and mirrors.

Tape the base of every box along the seam and across it. A box that opens mid-carry is the most avoidable damage there is.

Crockery and glassware

The single most useful habit: plates travel on their edge, not stacked flat. Stacked plates concentrate the whole column's weight on the bottom one and shatter under vibration. On edge, like records in a crate, they support each other.

1. Line the bottom of the box with 5cm of crushed paper.
2. Wrap each plate individually. Butcher's paper or packing paper, not newspaper — newsprint transfers onto glaze and is miserable to wash off a whole dinner set.
3. Stand them vertically, heaviest at the bottom.
4. Wrap glasses and stemware individually and stand them upright. Stuff the inside of each glass with paper first.
5. Fill every gap. Then fill it again — paper compresses.
6. Close the lid and shake gently. If you hear movement, open it and add more.

Artwork and mirrors

Glazed frames are the classic interstate casualty, because a cracked pane inside a frame then cuts the artwork behind it.

• Tape a large X across the glass with masking tape. It won't stop a break, but it holds the shards together if one happens.
• Wrap in bubble wrap, then card, then into a picture box.
• Always transport upright, on edge — never flat, and never with anything stacked on top.
• Mark the box clearly on more than one face.

Televisions and electronics

Modern flat panels are structurally fragile and travel badly flat. If you kept the original box and foam, use it — it was engineered for exactly this trip.

Without the original packaging: wrap the screen in a soft blanket, then bubble wrap, then card, and transport upright. Photograph the cable layout at the back before you unplug anything; it saves twenty minutes of guesswork at the other end. Cables go in a labelled bag taped to the item.

Furniture

• Dismantle what's designed to come apart. Bed frames, table legs, modular shelving. Screws and fittings go in a labelled bag taped to the underside of the piece they belong to.
• Empty every drawer. A loaded chest of drawers is heavier than it looks, and the drawers slide open in transit.
• Wrap timber and upholstery. Furniture blankets on timber and leather, plastic on fabric that could mark.
• Glass tabletops come off and travel separately, wrapped and upright.

Label like the crew has never seen your house

Because they haven't. Two labels do most of the work:

• The room it goes to at the new place — not where it came from
• FRAGILE, on at least two sides and the top — a label on one face is invisible once it's stacked

Add "THIS WAY UP" with an arrow on anything that has an orientation. Numbering boxes and keeping a short list on your phone is optional, but it's how you notice something missing on the day rather than a month later.

The mistakes that cause most damage

1. Half-empty boxes. Contents shift, the box collapses when stacked, everything inside takes the load.
2. Over-packed boxes. They burst, or they're too heavy to handle safely.
3. Stacking plates flat. The most common single cause of broken crockery.
4. Leaving liquids in. Cleaning products, oils, half-full bottles. Decant, seal in plastic, or don't take them.
5. Not marking fragile boxes. A crew that can't see it can't act on it.

If you'd rather not

Packing a full house properly is a genuine weekend or two of work. If that's not time you have, say so when you get a quote — it changes the scope of the job, and it's much better priced in advance than discovered on the morning.

Our interstate removals page covers what travels between Melbourne and Sydney, and delivery timing explains how long your things are actually on the road.