How to Protect Glassware When You Move

If you are moving, most likely it’s an exciting but stressful time. You have to pack up your belongings and then either transport them yourself to your new home, or hire a moving company to do so. For some items, packing is not that difficult. But for items such as stemware, glasses, and beer mugs you want to take extra care to ensure that they make it to your destination in one piece. 

 

Steps to protect glassware when you move

 

1: Decide Which Glasses You’ll Be Taking 

One of the benefits of moving and packing is forcing yourself to go through your things and deciding which items will make the trip and which ones will be either donated or thrown away. This is definitely true of your glassware. If you’re like most of us, you’ve collected a hodgepodge of various glasses. These can include water glasses, juice glasses, wine glasses, cocktail glasses, plastic cups, and more. Now is the time to be truthful with yourself and decide which of these you want to bring to your next home. Take into consideration how much cupboard space your new place has. Also think about how much you use the glasses you have. Those hurricane glasses or margarita glasses were a fun idea when you bought them, but how often have they been used?   

Separate out those that you’ll donate from those that you want to take. If you encounter any that are chipped or cracked, put those in your glass recycle bin. 

 

2: Buy Moving Boxes and Packing Supplies 

This is where the rubber meets the road, or more aptly, where the glass meets the cardboard. That’s a long way of saying you now need to get really good boxes and packing supplies so that the glasses get there unblemished. You may be thinking, “Aren’t all boxes the same?” Unfortunately, no. The boxes you want are the kind with corrugated cardboard. This is much stronger than regular cardboard because it’s actually made up of three pieces of carton board. An s-shaped piece is sandwiched between two other pieces. Regular cardboard is just thick card stock called paperboard.  

Ideally, you should look for purpose-made glass boxes. These are double-walled and come with cardboard dividers for each glass as well as Styrofoam sleeves for each glass to give it individual protection. These can be expensive, but cheaper, single-walled versions are available as well. You may decide to use the better double-walled version for any of your finer or heirloom glassware to ensure its safety. These boxes are also a great idea for transporting delicate collectibles

If specialty glass boxes aren’t available, you can buy standard corrugated boxes to pack your glasses. In this instance, you will want to buy packing paper or bubble wrap so that you can individually wrap your glasses. If you go this route, make sure you place packing paper in each glass. Then wrap the glass from the bottom up. Place additional bubble wrap in between individually-wrapped glasses so that glasses aren’t moving around when in transit. Keep in mind that these will most likely be single walled corrugated boxes and can hold between 20 – 120 lbs. Check the bottom of the box for its “Box Certificate’ which indicates how much it can hold.  

 

 

 

 

3: Seal and Label Your Boxes 

After you’ve carefully wrapped and loaded your box, seal it well with packing tape. If you can safely do it, you may also want to reinforce the bottom with another pass with the packing tape to be sure the bottom of the box will hold. As for labeling them, you’ll want to clearly mark the box with something akin to “Fragile – Glasses.” You may want to go further by labeling the type of glass you have in each box. For instance, you can write “Wine Glasses” or “Coffee Cups” Also label it “Kitchen” or whatever room you are taking the glasses to at your new home.  

If you take these simple steps to pack your glassware when you move, you should have just as many glasses at your new home as you had in your last home! If you’re renting a truck, consider these helpful moving truck tips. And if you need self-storage to keep your belongings temporarily, find a storage facility near you. Here are some more tips on how to properly pack your home for moving and storage

About the Author: Derek Hines

About the Author: Derek Hines

Digital Marketing Specialist

Derek is originally from the great state of Wisconsin (go Badgers), but is slowly becoming a Pacific Northwesterner. As part of the Digital Marketing team, he writes extensively on storage, moving and life for West Coast Self-Storage, based in Everett, Washington.