Out of all the boxes you find yourself building and packing, how many of them have “FRAGILE!” or “HANDLE WITH CARE” written all over the top and sides? The balancing of packing your entire home or office and organizing everything to make moving day run smoothly takes a lot of effort and planning, especially in combination with your already hectic schedule. When the times comes to pack and move your antiques, you may feel the additional pressure to ensure its safe transit as you handle older, more expensive, and incredibly fragile items.
Utilizing bubble wrap, box dividers, packing tape, and moving mats will be a few of the many precautions to take with any move, but antiques require even more protection and thoughtful preparation. Below, we will discuss the three main categories of antiques based on moving procedures needed in order to prevent any mishaps and damages.
Why Do Antiques Require Extra Care?
Unless you unknowingly own an antique and mistook it for a realistic remake, you typically want to pay special consideration in protecting your antique items. Antiques are made with aged and delicate elements such as porcelain, glass, precious metals, or intricately carved wood. After withstanding decades and quite possibly centuries’ worth of timely wear and tear, antiques require extra time and attention over common items such as mass-produced desk chairs and bathroom essentials. Moving antiques from one destination to another without proper protection could result in chipped, cracked, or shattered elements causing you to lose a treasured family heirloom. During the moving process, anything as slight as the moving truck hitting a bump in the road could cause damage to your antiques if not properly packed. Ideally, you want to have the antiques so well packed that you are prepared for nearly anything.
Moving Day: The Three Categories of Antiques
Furniture, Artwork, and Mirrors
Often bulky and heavy, this category of antiques requires the most visible form of protection and care. When moving these larger historic and valuable items that are difficult to pack and move, you must be exquisitely careful in their handling while protecting it from damage.
Furniture
No measure is too drastic when preparing your chaise lounges, heirloom dressers, chests, or historical grandfather clocks for your upcoming move. Be sure that any upholstery on the furniture is entirely covered with moving blankets and mats, secured in place by a layer of cardboard, and wrapped in plastic wrap to avoid any puncturing while in transit. On the corners, arms, and legs of your furniture, enclose them with a layer of cardboard over the wood and secure with plastic wrapping to keep it in place.
Artwork
Whether a small tabletop display or a large, framed masterpiece that can cover an entire wall, artwork is a delicate moving element. To prevent any damage to your artwork, do not combine multiple pieces in a single box. Instead, pack each item separately, especially if the paintings are oil based so that the paint does not transfer or leave residue. For framed artwork, you can easily box one at a time after carefully wrapping the picture in a layer of bubble wrap and securing with packing tape. When moving, you will find that packing tape and bubble wrap may be your saving grace.
Mirrors
Similar to the packing process for artwork, mirrors need to be packed separately as well. To prevent damage, begin by securing the glass with blue painter’s tape and create a grid of vertical and horizontal strips. Then, cushion the front and back of the mirror by using bubble wrap or moving blankets, securing those layers with packing tape.
Dishes and Adornments
Antique dishes and household decorations are some of the most delicate household embellishments. Carrying history in the hand-painted or sculpted detail, we don’t want to see some of its story scratched or shattered in a poorly packaged box.
Dishes
No one likes an incomplete set of dishes or champagne glasses. They may have been received as a wedding present, passed down from your grandmother, or personally sought out and collected over the years. Regardless, you want to make sure each element to your antique set remains intact throughout the move. One of the best resources for packing fragile dishes and tableware are dish pack boxes. These cardboard boxes are specifically designed to fit different plates, bowls, or glasses in a single box using cardboard partitions. Be careful not to over-stuff your boxes with dishes as you want to leave room for bubble wrap, packing paper, and packing peanuts. Finally, keep the weight of the box in mind as you don’t want to strain yourself while carrying a heavy box of fragile antiques!
Household Adornments
Vases, porcelain dolls, chandeliers, and candelabras can give an ordinary room in your home or office a conversational piece. As these items can vary in shape and size, wrapping the contents in bubble wrap and placing in boxes with packing peanuts will add secure, protective layering that prevents breakage as the boxes are moved.
Personal and Commercial Jewelry
Though it may not be the crown jewels from the British royal family, jewelry is a valued antique that must be kept safe during a move. Depending on the quantity of jewelry you need moved, you have a couple options to consider.
Personal Jewelry
If all your jewelry could securely fit in one box, you might feel safer placing it in your car and transporting it separately to ensure it will not get lost in the mix of the remaining items in your home. To be sure that every piece of jewelry moves to your new location intact and as a full set, you must be precise in your packing and organization. One of the most helpful things to do is to mark on the outside of each box with jewelry the total number of sets and what the specific contents are packed inside. When packing jewelry, try your best to keep it all in the same boxes or jewelry rolls. There are multiple ways to prevent necklaces from tangling by using plastic bags, cloth napkins, paper straws, or a combination of all three.
Commercial Jewelry
If you are relocating a jewelry business or any business that also sells a collection of antique jewelry, your inventory needs to be securely moved in a fast and efficient manner. In this case, we would strongly recommend you seek professional moving services to ensure the safest packing and relocation of your product.
Alliance Moving: The Experts in Antique Moving, Packing, and Storing
If you feel that the deadline to move your home or business is approaching faster than you can pack, it will be much easier and more time efficient to hire a professional’s services to handle the moving process for you altogether. Whether you need help packing, moving, or storing your items, let the professionals take some of that pressure off you! Specially trained to safely and efficiently move your belongings, Alliance Moving and Storage is ready to help you with any step in the moving process. Equipped with trustworthy moving essentials, we are prepared to help pack and move your most fragile of antiques to its new home. Contact us today to receive a free quote tailored to your moving needs.
.jpg)