How do you move expensive items? It definitely requires careful planning. Before you start to pack your more valuable belongings, check that you’re doing it the right way to get everything to your new home intact.
What Are Considered High Value Items When Moving?
Generally speaking, “high value items” are items that cost more than $100 per pound. This might include jewelry, collections, or designer clothes.
High Retail Value
The most obvious example of a high value item is simply something that has a retail value of more than $100 per pound.
Investment Purchases
Transporting valuable items like antiques or coin collections has to be done precisely. After all, your investment may go up in value, and damage to the items could seriously impact their resale value.
High Sentimental Value Items
You probably have things that don’t have much retail value but that you really love, like kids’ artwork or belongings that have special memories. Just because they wouldn’t necessarily fetch a fortune at auction doesn’t mean they shouldn’t also be handled with great care!
How Do You Pack Valuable Items And Keep Them In One Piece?
We need to consider all the valuable items individually, what they’re made of, and how fragile they are.
What Is The Best Packing Material For Fragile Items?
The best thing you can do when you pack valuable items is to make use of the following materials.
Good Quality Boxes
Purpose-made packing boxes are strong enough for transporting valuable items and won’t let you down.
Professional Packing Paper
Real packing paper is so much better than newspaper or magazines.
For one thing, you won’t have print transferring onto your valuable items. When it’s something you can’t clean easily like suede, that’s a chore you won’t want to deal with in your new home.
Newspapers are also quite unhygienic if you’re wrapping anything you’ll eat off, like valuable plates.
Bubble Wrap
People often ask us whether bubble wrap or packing peanuts are the better option. The answer is, they each have a slightly different purpose. Bubble wrap keeps the surface of valuable items from getting damaged and helps secure everything in place.
Packing Peanuts
Bubble wrap’s responsible elder sibling, these guys are the best big shock absorbers around. Using packing peanuts between the bubble wrapped item and the box helps provide optimal protection during transport.
Mark Boxes Appropriately
The key to transporting valuable items safely is to keep everyone informed. The moving team needs to know the difference between a box full of bedclothes and a box full of bronze statuettes.
This is so that we can choose the best spot for them on the moving truck and secure the valuable and fragile items appropriately.
How To Pack A Piano
Moving with a piano is something that takes practice to do well. The easy part we start with is wrapping it all up and securing the moving parts.
Then, we need specialist equipment to pack it up and get it onto the moving truck without tipping it over. All this is done using heavy load bearing equipment with padded straps so that we don’t scratch your piano.
Learn more about moving with a piano on our website.
How To Pack A Painting
Wrap the whole thing in paper and then bubble wrap, with the bubbles facing out. This isn’t just so you can pop it when you get bored! The padding works better that way and when we pack valuable items, we need all the cushioning possible.
Put extra bubble wrap padding on the corners and place it in a box lined with packing peanuts. Fill the whole thing up with packing peanuts for additional shock absorption and mark it as fragile.
Find out more about our art and artwork installation moves on our website.
How To Pack Valuable Electronics
#1. Back up anything that you’ll need in the future, like photos or sensitive files, in case of emergency.
#2. Charge your electronic items so you can hit the ground running in your new home.
#3. Remove the batteries if necessary.
#4. If the device has a lot of complicated cables, take a photo of it before you take it apart
#5. Make sure you pack the cables and manuals together with each device.
#6. Wrap the electronic item itself in packing paper, then wrap it in bubble wrap. Don’t let bubble wrap touch the electronics directly. Why? The little shocks from static electricity can harm electronic devices.
#7. Place the electronic items in a good quality box padded with fabric. Old curtains or bedding are ideal.
#8. Seal and label your box with its contents.
How Do You Pack Large Fragile Items That Are Also Valuable?
Just leave it to us. Moving is the worst time to throw your back out, and professional movers like Air1 Moving & Storage have all the equipment necessary for dealing with large, fragile items in a way that protects the item as well as those who pick it up.
Bear in mind too that because glass shatters, it’s easier than you’d hope to get a serious injury.
Keep An Inventory
You won’t want to lose track of where your valuable items are during the move. Whether it’s on paper or electronic, an inventory is vital when transporting valuable items.
When the labels on the boxes match your inventory, it’s easy to organize with the movers where everything should go in your new home.
Take Out Moving Insurance
Everything you move is automatically insured for free, but for a standard amount for everything. It works out as a pretty low amount if something valuable gets damaged (60 cents per pound of the item’s weight, to be precise).
So, when you move valuable items, you should choose a high value insurance plan to get the full amount in case of an accident. You’d be pretty disappointed to get 60 cents for a piece of antique jewelry.
Ask us about our moving insurance policies and we’d be glad to walk you through your options to help you find the ideal choice based on what you plan to move.
Air1 Moving & Storage Is The Best Choice To Pack Valuable Items For You!
Are you going to move locally, long distance, or internationally? Wherever you’re going, get in touch with our experienced Los Angeles movers to make sure all your belongings arrive at their new home safe and sound.
Transporting valuable items needs to be done right, so don’t leave anything to chance. We offer a comprehensive packing and unpacking service so you don’t have to worry the whole way there.
Call us today at (866) 750-3386, write us a note through our contact form or send us an email at [email protected] to let us know how we can help you with your upcoming move!
