How to Pack for a House Move: A Room-by-Room Guide

Packing is the part of moving house that quietly eats your time, and most people start too late and in the wrong room. This guide gives you an order to work in, the kit that actually earns its place, and a room-by-room method so nothing important goes missing between the old house and the new one.

We move households across Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire, so the advice here is built around real UK moves: terraced houses with awkward stairs, lofts full of forgotten boxes, and that one kitchen cupboard nobody has opened in years. Work through it in order and packing stops being a panic and starts being a list you tick off.

What to pack first (and what to leave until last)

Pack the things you do not use day to day first, and leave the things you touch every morning until the night before. That single rule removes most of the stress, because it means you are never digging through sealed boxes to find a clean towel or the kettle.

Start with books, decorative items, spare bedding, out-of-season clothes, the garage, the loft and any spare room. These can be boxed weeks ahead and stacked out of the way. Leave the kettle, a few mugs, toiletries, chargers, medication and a change of clothes for each person until the very end. Those go in your essentials box, which we cover below.

If you want a full timeline for the weeks before the van arrives, our 8-week moving checklist sets out what to do and when, so the packing slots into a wider plan instead of happening all at once.

The packing kit you actually need

Good boxes and good tape do more for a move than any clever trick. Get double-walled cardboard boxes in two sizes: small for heavy items like books and tins, large for light and bulky items like bedding and cushions. Mixing this up is how boxes split or end up too heavy to lift safely.

Alongside boxes, you want strong packing tape and a dispenser, plain packing paper for wrapping, bubble wrap for the genuinely fragile, a few thick marker pens, and a roll of bin bags for soft items and rubbish as you go. Wardrobe boxes with a hanging rail are worth it if you have a lot of hanging clothes, because the clothes travel on their hangers and need no folding or ironing at the other end.

A quick word on newspaper: it works for wrapping, but the ink transfers onto crockery and white china, so keep plain paper for anything you will eat or drink from.

Pack room by room

Pack one room completely before you start the next, and never let half-filled boxes from three rooms drift around the house. Finishing a room gives you a clear sense of progress and makes labelling honest, because every box genuinely belongs to one place.

Kitchen: this is the slowest room, so start it early. Wrap glasses and mugs individually in packing paper and stand them upright in a small box. Stack plates on their edge rather than flat, which makes them far less likely to crack. Box tins and jars in small boxes so the weight stays manageable, and empty, defrost and dry the freezer a couple of days before the move.

Bedrooms: fold clothes straight into boxes or suitcases, or use wardrobe boxes for hanging items. Strip beds last and bag the bedding, since it doubles as soft padding in the van. Keep a labelled bag of bed linen per bedroom so you can make up beds quickly on the first night.

Living room: wrap lamps, frames and ornaments in paper and pad them in boxes with bedding or towels. Photograph the back of your TV and any console before you unplug anything, so the cables go back exactly where they came from.

Bathroom: bin anything expired, seal liquids in bags in case they leak, and keep a small bag of essentials such as toilet roll, hand soap and a towel separate so the bathroom is usable straight away.

Garage and loft: these hold the heaviest and most awkward items, so tackle them early while you still have energy. Box tools and screws in small boxes, drain fuel from garden equipment, and be honest about what you no longer need rather than paying to move it twice.

Fragile items: glass, china and electronics

Wrap fragile items individually and fill every gap in the box, because breakages happen when contents shift, not when boxes are full. A box that rattles is a box that will arrive damaged.

For glass and china, wrap each piece in packing paper, stack plates on their edge, and stand glasses upright rather than laying them down. Pad the top, bottom and sides with paper or bubble wrap so nothing can move, then mark the box Fragile on every side and note which way is up.

For electronics, the original boxes are ideal if you kept them. If not, wrap each item in bubble wrap, keep cables with their device in a labelled bag, and avoid loose packing peanuts around screens, which let heavy items slide. For anything genuinely irreplaceable, such as a piano or antiques, our crews handle specialist items like pianos and antiques with the right equipment, so you are not trusting a one-off piece to a standard box.

Label and inventory so unpacking isn't chaos

Label every box on the side, not the top, with the room it belongs to and a line on what is inside. Side labels stay readable when boxes are stacked, which is exactly when you need to find things. A box marked only on the lid disappears the moment it goes under another one.

Keep a simple inventory as you pack: number each box and jot the number and contents in a notebook or a note on your phone. It takes seconds per box and means you can tell at a glance whether everything arrived and where to find the one box that matters tonight. Mark the handful of essentials and first-night boxes clearly so they come off the van first.

An essentials box for the first night

Pack one clearly marked essentials box, or one per person, and load it last so it comes off the van first. This is the box that means you can stop for the night without unpacking a single other thing, and it is the difference between a calm first evening and an hour of frantic box-opening.

Include the kettle, a few mugs, tea, coffee and milk, toilet roll, hand soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste, a towel each, phone chargers, any medication, a change of clothes, and basic tools such as scissors and a screwdriver. Add bin bags, a torch and a first-aid kit. If you have children or pets, pack their essentials, comfort items and food in the same easy-to-reach place.

When it's worth letting the professionals pack

It is worth letting a crew pack for you when time is short, when the house is large, or when you have a lot of fragile and valuable items you would rather not risk. A trained, fully insured crew packs faster, packs to a standard that survives the journey, and frees you up for everything else the move demands.

Our full-service packing covers the lot: we bring the materials, wrap and box every room, and label and inventory as we go, so the unpacking end is just as organised. If you only want help with the kitchen and the fragile items, we can do that too. It pays to understand why professional packing is worth it before you decide, because the time and breakage saved often outweigh the cost.

Packing costs depend on the size of your home, how much you are moving and how much you want us to handle, so there is no honest one-size figure we can quote here. For a price built around your actual move, get a fixed written quote within the hour and you will know exactly where you stand before you commit to anything.