What Is the Best Packing Material for Fragile Items?

Best Packing Materials for Fragile Items

When you’re packing up your belongings for a stint in storage or a move across town, you want everything to get there in one piece. But this can be difficult—and stressful—if you’re packing up expensive, sentimental, and fragile items, such as your vintage furniture, vases, glassware, artwork, and more. 

So, what is the best packing material for fragile items? Well, it depends on what you’re packing! Sometimes the best packing material is a combination of materials. In our guide below, we’ll discuss the right packing materials for your sensitive and breakable items. 

From bubble wrap to packing peanuts, get ready to learn which packing supplies will help make your next move a cinch. 

What Is the Best Packing Material for Fragile Items?

Whether you’re packing your great-grandmother’s collection of vintage porcelain dolls or all the dishware in your china cabinet, you’ll want to use the best packing materials for those fragile items. During your next move, stock up on these supplies for extra peace of mind. 

Bubble Wrap

Bubble wrap is great for packing fragile items; you can use it to wrap up anything from candles and plates to picture frames (and everything in between). While it does pad your items, it’s best used in combination with another packing material to keep things from shifting around in your moving boxes. We recommend wrapping your fragile belongings in bubble wrap and then filling the excess space in between with packing paper, packing peanuts, or towels. 

Perhaps the only downfall of bubble wrap is that it can get pricey. To help keep your costs low, use it sparingly or together with some of the other packing materials on this list. 

Packing Paper

Packing paper is another one of the best packing materials for fragile items—and it’s more economical than bubble wrap. While some people like to use sheets of newspaper, we suggest using clean, blank packing paper so that the ink doesn’t rub off on your belongings. Like bubble wrap, packing paper works great for wrapping up your breakable items, such as plates, dishes, mugs, and wine glasses, but you will want to add other packing materials in your moving boxes for extra padding. 

Clothing, Towels, and Blankets

Some of the best packing materials are located right in your closet. Your old clothing, like sweatshirts and sweaters, along with blankets and towels, are perfect for adding a layer of softness around your belongings. 

Fold them around your fragile items or use them to fill in the gaps between the belongings you wrapped in other materials like bubble wrap or packing paper. You can even drape them over sharp corners or delicate parts of those belongings that won’t fit in moving boxes to help prevent dents, dings, and chips along the way. 

If you decide to go this route, make sure you use old clothes you don’t mind parting with, as they could rip or tear during the move. 

Packing Peanuts and Foam

Packing peanuts and foam are another tried-and-true packing material, but don’t use them alone. After you’ve wrapped and padded your fragile items with bubble wrap, packing paper, or clothing, toss some packing peanuts into your boxes to fill in the extra space. You can also find larger pieces of foam in various sizes to add cushioning around your items. These foam pieces act like stuffing, as they help prevent your belongings from getting knocked around during the move. 

Egg Cartons

While packing peanuts and foam come in handy when it comes to packing fragile items, they aren’t exactly environmentally friendly—after all, they’re styrofoam. For a greener alternative, look into biodegradable peanut options or reuse your empty egg cartons. You can cut up your egg cartons into small pieces to emulate packing peanuts or use the entire strip to add padding between your belongings. 

This option is eco-friendly, and it gets bonus points for being free and easy to incorporate into your move! 

Turn to Stor-It Today

Whether you’re looking for specific moving tips, like a guide on how to pack glasses, or searching for storage units near you, you’ve come to the right place. Here at Stor-It, we provide all the best moving and packing advice on top of the more than 15 storage facility locations we offer in the Treasure Valley. 

When you turn to us, you know you’re in good hands because we’re the oldest and largest storage company in the entire state of Idaho. You can find indoor and outdoor storage units in various sizes, so you’re sure to find the ideal unit to suit you and your belongings when you rent with us. Contact us today to learn more and get ready to reserve your storage unit.