How to Pack Clothes for Moving: 5 Tips for Happy Threads

Moving is hard enough, and there’s nothing that makes it more stressful than arriving at your new house and finding that you now have to launder all the clothes you own because your entire closet arrived at your new location crumpled, wrinkled, and dirty. Luckily, this is easy to avoid. By learning how to pack clothes for moving, you can save yourself plenty of time and stress during the process.

How to Pack Clothes for Moving: 5 Smart Tips

1. Always pack your jewelry separately

If you throw your jewelry in with your clothing, it’s liable to get damaged or broken or to snag, tear, or discolor your clothing. With this in mind, be sure to always move your jewelry in a separate container.

The method you use to pack jewelry is important: keep necklaces from tangling, wrap them around chopsticks and move them in a gallon-size Ziploc bag. To keep your earrings organized, put backs on all of them and push pairs through a sheet of heavy-duty construction paper to prevent them from becoming entangled in one another.

2. Get rid of unneeded clothing beforehand

While it seems innocuous, clothing can actually be very difficult to move, so you’ll want to purge your closet before you start. Get rid of anything that you don’t wear or that will be irrelevant to your new setting (if you’re moving to a different climate, or moving to take a very professional job). This makes the entire moving process easier and keeps clutter to a minimum.

3. Keep your most-needed clothing out

Put aside a small suitcase for your must-have clothing. Items that you wear every day should make it into this suitcase, as should weather-specific clothing, like a fleece jacket and a raincoat. Pack like you’re headed away for a week-long trip. This will prevent you from having to tear into boxes immediately upon your arrival at your new house.

4. Pack items according to material

Material influences packing method. Natural materials like linen, for example, will wrinkle horribly and should be rolled instead of folded. Silks and formal materials will need to be encased in garment bags and moved on hangers while things like cottons and denims can be folded and placed into boxes.

5. Avoid over-stuffing

Over-stuffing is the primary culprit when it comes to bad clothing moves. Instead of jamming all of your clothes into one jam-packed box, utilize clothing racks, suitcases, bags, and wardrobe boxes to give every item a safe place for transport.

How to Pack Clothes for Moving: A Process Made Simple

Make your move simpler by learning how to pack clothes for moving today. In addition to cutting down on laundry time, these simple steps also protect your favorite clothes!