How to Self-Pack

It is common for many expats to looking to move back home to begin to think about all of the things that they have accumulated over the years of living abroad. You could decide to ship your items back because you think that it may be cheaper than using a moving company but is that really true? If you decide to use a moving company, should you pack your own boxes to save cost?

To answer that question, we must first answer the question of when should you self-pack? For every move, it makes sense to pre-pack a few important items before you move. For example if you want to have a few items together in one box at destination or if you would like to donate some times to a local charity, self-packing before your move can help. DO NOT seal your pre-packed boxes for a regular move as you will not be able to cover said box with insurance.

Self-packing is also good for those who meet the following criteria:

• You have no furniture to move.
• You have little to no fragile items.
• You have no use or need for insurance.

Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages to self-packing your own items for shipping or moving abroad and we will teach you how to pack your own items. 

Advantages

Pack the Way You Want To
When it comes to self-packing, the advantages are pretty easy to see. You get to pack your own things the way you want. You know exactly where you put your favorite mug and you do not have to worry about strange people coming into your home and touching your things.

Packing on Your Own Time
You get to decide when to back and how much time you would like to take packing. This gives you freedom to pack whenever you need. 

As far as advantages are concerned, that’s pretty much how far it goes. But what about cost-savings you ask? They are little to no cost savings when you self-pack once you account for the disadvantages listed below.

Disadvantages

Manpower Still Needed
So you’re still wondering what happened to the supposed cost savings of packing your own items? This is how that becomes not true for majority of those moving. When you call your moving company to come pick up your boxes, they still have to allocate resources and manpower to load the boxes on the truck, truck to warehouse, and so on.

The only area that you save on is the packing process but, that gets quickly negated because of the risks associated with packing things yourselves.
This is especially true for those who are moving internationally from or to China, as each shipment must go through a customs check at a bonded warehouse. This means that your items will be handled multiple times, more so than other countries. If your items aren’t packed to professional standards, there is a risk that they will break under their own weight or the weight of other boxes.

Inefficient Packing
Since you are most likely not a professional packer, you are likely to err on either having too little protection over packing a box or you are likely to use too much protection and pack inefficiently. The first obviously results in damage and the latter means that you will have to pay for more

No Insurance
Another reason why self-packing is not as cost effective is because it is near impossible to get insurance coverage for the items you pack. Why is this? Well, insurance companies, as you know, like to reduce their risk. If they know that the items are to be packed by a non-professional person or company, you will not be able to buy insurance. This can end up costing you in the long run, if the items you moved end up getting damaged. Let’s be clear though, your items shouldn’t get damaged as long as if you have proper packing standards and materials.

It is important to remember that what ever costs you save on packing, you may lose in damage. 
 

How to Self-pack
After knowing that and you still would like to self-pack on your own, this is how you do it. Keep in mind, no insurance company will take you reading this article into consideration when deciding whether or not to cover your shipment.

First thing, first. We strongly recommend against packing anything yourself that is considered to be fragile as it simply takes years of experience to wrap efficiently while still protecting fragile items.

Materials
Before you start packing, you need to make sure that you have quality materials that can stand up to the stress of an international move. Please request our packing material including: SAE Asia’s high-quality boxes, tape, wrapping, paper and bubble wrap.

Packing Dishes
When packing dishes, it is important to remember to line the bottom of the box with wrapping paper so that there is enough cushion between the bottom of the box and the dishes or glassware that you intend to pack. You should not be able to feel the bottom of the box. If you can feel the bottom add more scrunched wrapping paper to the bottom of the box.

After preparing the box, place your plates on top of wrapping paper. For each plate, make sure to add a layer of paper in-between. This will ensure that the plates will not break one another. Do not stack more than 5 plates. After stacking and wrapping your plates, make sure to wrap all of the stacked plates with another later of wrapping paper. This is to ensure that stacks of plates to not cause damage because of their weight or movement of the box.

The box should packed as seen above. Do not add another layer of stacked plates or bowls as the box will become too heavy to lift, therefore increasing damage risk. Instead, add another layer of wrapping paper to cover the stacked dishes.

Where is the bubble wrap you ask? Bubble wrap is only used for certain items as it provides a different type of protection that will not necessarily stop your dishes from breaking under pressure.

Books
Compared to dish ware, books are less complicated to pack. You should use a small box for books as they can get very heavy, quickly. Place the books in the box laying flat to ensure that the spine of the book will not be damaged. Fill the box up to the top with books(this is why the box will get heavy.)

Furniture
You should not pack your own furniture as only experienced packers understand how to wrap and pack furniture and it’s sometimes odd shapes.

Clothes
For clothes that you do not fold like jackets, blazers, dress pants, dresses, etc., Make sure to use one of our Hanging Boxes. This allows you to hang your clothes in the box in its original state. If your clothes will not make use of a hanging box, make sure to use a vacuum bag to save space in the box. 

Self-Packing often is more challenging than meets the eye. Knowing the number of things that you’d like to move and but knowing how to pack them properly is another feat. Although difficult, it is certainly not impossible.