Packing Materials: What Each One Is For, and What to Skip

Packing material is not expensive, but buying the wrong things is a common way to spend money and still end up with damage. Here is what each item is actually for.

Corrugated cartons

Single-wall is fine for clothes and linen. Double-wall is necessary for books, crockery and anything heavy — a single-wall box of books fails at the base, reliably. Buy fewer large cartons than you think and more small ones; the commonest mistake is a large box packed heavy.

Rough quantity for a 2BHK: 25–35 small, 15–20 medium, 8–12 large.

Bubble wrap

For rigid fragile items — glass, ceramics, electronics. Small-bubble for surface protection, large-bubble for impact cushioning. Bubbles face inward against the item.

Do not use it directly against painted, gilded or lacquered surfaces. In heat, plastic can mark or bond to a finish. Tissue or glassine goes on first.

Stretch film

The most underrated material on this list. It binds drawers shut, holds blankets onto furniture, waterproofs cartons in the monsoon, and keeps cables bundled. If you buy one thing beyond boxes and tape, buy this.

Foam sheets (EPE)

For flat surfaces — screens, table tops, mirror faces, appliance panels. Better than bubble wrap for anything where an even surface pressure matters rather than impact absorption.

Corrugated rolls

Wrapped around furniture edges and legs. Cheap, and it prevents the single most common furniture damage: corner and edge knocks in doorways.

Packing paper

Clean newsprint, not printed newspaper. Printed ink transfers onto crockery, glass and light-coloured surfaces. Used for individual wrapping and for filling voids.

Tape

2-inch BOPP tape. Tape the base of every carton in an H pattern — along the centre seam and across both ends. A single strip down the middle is why boxes open at the bottom.

Mattress and sofa covers

Worth it, particularly in the monsoon. A cloth cover is better than nothing; a sealed plastic bag is what actually keeps water out.

What to skip

• Peanuts / loose fill. Messy, they migrate to the bottom of the box in transit, and crumpled paper does the same job.
• Specialised wardrobe boxes, unless you have a lot of formal clothing. For most households, folding clothes into cartons or using suitcases is fine and free.
• Cheap thin tape. False economy — it splits and you use three times as much.

If you are hiring a mover

Materials should be included in the quote and the quote should say so. If it says "packing materials as per actual", ask for a cap. Open-ended material charges are one of the commonest ways a quote grows on the day.