Moving is not an easy or fun process. In fact, it is considered to be one of the most stressful activities a person can undertake. It might be exciting to be starting over in a new place, but when you get to where you are going, you certainly don’t need the added stress of finding out that your belongings have been damaged or broken during the move. You can always hire a mover to pack your things for you, but if you want to lower the chances of your possessions being damaged, you should probably pack them yourself.

Certain items are more susceptible to breakage and damage than others during a move. For instance, the most frequently broken items include:

• Furniture, specifically older furniture and antiques

• Dishes and other kitchen items

• Décor items

• Lamps and other light fixtures

When you get to your new home and find out any of these items have been broken or damaged by the movers, it can be extremely frustrating. However, if you take the time to adequately pack these items yourself, you can be reasonably sure that they will arrive unharmed. Here are the steps you can take to ensure that your items are not damaged during a move.

1. Assemble items you are going to need to pack your belongings. Get plastic storage containers from discount stores, which are more durable than the standard cardboard box.

2. Shred newspaper to act as packing material to buffer your belongings. NOTE: do not use newspaper to wrap fine China because it can transfer to the China and be difficult to remove. Use brown paper instead.

3. Put a couple of inches of the shredded newspaper into the bottom of the storage container. This is going to cushion your belongings in the event that the container is dropped.

4. If you are packing dishes, place the flat pieces into the container first. Wrap each piece individually in newspaper and stack them on top of each other in the container. This is meant to keep the dishes from clinking together when the container is moved.

5. Once all of the items are in the box, surround them with more shredded paper. This will help keep your items from hitting the sides of the container. You want to pack this shredding as tightly as possible so that there is little empty space for the items to move into.

6. If you are packing glasses, wrap each glass separately in newspaper and lay them on their sides on top of other items in the container. Repeat step five to ensure they don’t move around during transport.

These are basic steps you can take to remove some stress from your move by giving you peace of mind that your belongings will be in one piece when it comes time to set up your new household.