4 Options For Cheap, Creative Packing Materials
Professional packing services can take the entire packing burden off your shoulders when you're moving, but perhaps you'd rather pack those boxes yourself and simply hand them to the movers when they arrive. Before you spend time and money shopping for styrofoam "peanuts," air-filled cushions and other fancy packing materials, look around your house for creative alternatives. Here are four unlikely but effective materials that can get your packing off to a fun, affordable start.
1. Shredded and Discarded Paper
Shredders are a common sight in American homes as concerns about identity theft have prompted homeowners to destroy sensitive information. But when you empty your shredder, where does all that shredded paper go? Savvy self-movers will store it away in garbage bags until they're ready to employ it as packing material. Leave the shredded bits bagged up, transferring them to smaller bags as needed, and you've got robust packing "pads" capable of providing a surprising degree of protection -- and once you're done with your move, it's a simple matter to take out the trash!
If you don't have a shredder, don't fret. Bagged-up masses of any kind of crumpled paper can perform the same task. Here's your chance, at long last, to find a constructive use for all that annoying junk mail you receive every day. Unsolicited flyers, mailers, door hangers, circulars -- all of them can finally make a positive contribution to your life by helping you move, ideally to an address that none of their senders have.
2. Clothes and Bedding
You've got to move your clothes along with everything else, so why not make them earn their keep in transit as packing material? Granted, you won't want to try this with a designer gown or tailored suit, unless of course you already managed to ruin it in some other way. But most casual articles of clothing such as shirts, jeans, socks, and underwear can be wadded up to fill gaps inside shipping containers without coming to any permanent harm.
Bedding can also serve admirably as packing material. After all, blankets have long been used by professional moving and packing services as a versatile material, not just for padding containers, but also for sliding heavy objects across wooden floors. So you might as well move your bedding in creative, productive fashion by using wads of blankets, sheets, pillows and pillow cases to keep boxed objects from bumping against each other.
3. Corrugated Cardboard
When you first started planning your big move, you most likely went hunting for boxes, either from your own garage or at the local supply store. But if you find that you've overachieved in the cardboard box department, you can still put all that material to good use. The corrugated cardboard commonly used in boxes comes with its own padding, in a sense, because the fluted board sandwiched between two flat layers provides extra strength and protection. cut your leftover cardboard boxes up and then bend the pieces to fill any odd gaps between items in your packing boxes or crates.
4. Egg Cartons and Other Kitchen Items
If egg cartons are designed to protect those most fragile of food products, then it follows that they should protect small valuables just as well. If you have to transport miniature figurines, jewelry, or other odds and ends that lack their own custom-fitted containers, an egg carton can help them arrive at their destination unscathed. After you've filled each egg carton with however many items it will carry, wrap it snugly in cling wrap to prevent the lid from popping open at the first bump.
Egg cartons not only make decent containers in their own right, but they can also provide shock resistance when used as padding inside larger containers. If you plan on moving, don't throw out your used empty egg cartons -- collect them! While you're at it, gather those empty cereal boxes, plastic milk containers, plastic food-storage containers, and other items around the kitchen that can provide some much-needed cushion for boxed goods.
As you can see, packing can be a surprisingly creative process that need not drive your moving budget into the red zone. So pack cleverly, and enjoy a trouble-free move!