The guide
How to Pack Fragile Items: Glass, China, Mirrors and Art in full
Paper first, bubble wrap second
Bubble wrap directly against glazed china or a painted surface can mark it, and in a warm van it can leave a print. Packing paper goes on first as a skin, bubble wrap goes on second as the cushion. That two-layer order is the single most common difference between an owner-packed box and a professionally packed one.
Never use newspaper on anything you care about. The ink transfers, and on unglazed ceramic and marble it does not come off.
Plates on edge, glasses in cells
Plates are strongest across their edge and weakest through their face. Wrapped individually and stood vertically like records in a small box, a stack of dinner plates will survive a journey that would shatter the same plates laid flat.
Stemware goes into cell-divided cartons, stem up, with paper stuffed inside the bowl first. Cell dividers are cheap, they come as standard on our fragile packs, and they solve the glass-to-glass contact that causes almost every breakage.
Mirrors, framed art and TVs
Tape a large X across the face of any mirror or glazed frame. It will not stop a break, but it holds the glass together if one happens, which is a safety point as much as a preservation one.
Corner protectors, then a paper layer, then bubble wrap, then a picture carton sized to the piece. Framed work always travels upright and never flat under other boxes. Oil paintings should not have anything pressed against the surface at all — those go in a purpose-built crate.
- Mirrors and glazed frames — tape an X, protect the corners, use a picture carton
- Canvases and oils — face protected with a spacer, crated for anything valuable
- TVs — original box if you kept it, otherwise a TV carton with corner blocks, screen never laid down
- Marble and stone tops — always vertical, always crated, never carried flat
Fill the box completely
Most damage in a move is not caused by a drop. It is caused by items shifting against each other for an hour on the North Circular. A box that rattles when you shake it gently is not finished.
Crumpled paper goes below, between and above, and the lid should close flat without pressing down. A bulging lid stops the box stacking, and an unstackable fragile box ends up somewhere it should not be.
Labelling that a stranger can follow
Write the source room, the destination room, the contents and a fragile flag on four sides plus the top, because you cannot know which face will be visible in the stack. "FRAGILE — GLASSWARE — KITCHEN" tells a mover to place it high and last. "Kitchen 3" tells them nothing.
Number the boxes and keep an inventory. Ours is handed over on completion, and it is what makes an insurance claim straightforward if anything does go wrong.
The insurance point nobody mentions
Goods-in-transit cover generally applies to professionally packed boxes and excludes owner-packed ones. No insurer can verify what went into a box they did not see filled, or how it was wrapped, so a claim on a self-packed carton of china is usually declined.
That is the real argument for a fragile-only pack. At £140 it is often the cheapest insurance you can buy on a move, and it covers the exact items you would most regret losing.