Moving Casualties in Tulsa and Oklahoma City: How to Protect Your Most Difficult-to-Move Items

By Julie DeLong, A-1 Freeman Moving Group 

Being a professional moving company in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, we pack lots of sensitive pieces for our customers in order to make certain they make it to the destination unharmed. And so, today, we are here to discuss how to prevent the most common moving casualties when you're packing yourself and how to protect your most challenging-to-move belongings.

Fragile Glassware, Fine China, & Collectibles

There's a justification that professional movers have so many special packing materials for moving your dishware. Glassware and ceramic plates are difficult enough to safely move without damaging them, much less fine china and sensitive collectibles. A number of people discover at least one crack or broken glass piece in a move with dozens of fragile items in boxes.

You need to be extra careful packing, filling, separating, and cushioning your most fragile pieces. 

• Utilize cardboard dishware partitions
• Pack plates upright, this method cuts down the chance of breaking
• Fill every hollow space using paper, bubble wrap, or packing peanuts
• Never allow glass to contact other glass
• Never pack too tightly, or pressure/bumps could cause shattering
• Pad extra space as well as the outside of each box with fluffy packing material

Mirrors & Pictures

Significant panes of glass are especially tricky to pack given that they have a high chance of getting damaged or smashed in the move. This implies mirrors and glass-covered pictures need to be packed with additional care. What is important is to secure the glass surface and decrease the possibility of an impact against the glass. 

• Stack mirrors together in a box using cardboard dividers between
• Attach a blanket or cloth covering the whole surface of the glass
• Apply a large sheet of cardboard over each glass area to minimize strikes
• Stow vertical, like the plates
• Don't let packed glass to lay flat

 Wood Home furniture

Wood furniture is a typical moving casualty, however not the entire piece of furniture itself. Rather, wood has a tendency to endure chafes, scuffs, and problems with the finish when being disassembled or hauled by way of narrow corners and doorways of the house. It's very usual for once-pristine wood pieces of furniture to reach the new house needing refinishing or fixes. Here's how to avoid harm to your furniture (as well as walls) as you go along: 

• Take off hardware like handles and feet to help make the pieces of furniture more rectangle-shaped and even.
• Keep all removed hardware together within a clearly tagged bag or box.
• Small groups of taken off pieces might be stored in a drawer of the furniture pieces it came from
• Keep numerous groups of removed parts in the same box for easy reconstruction
• Tape All drawers along with cabinets shut
• Make use of paper tape or masking tape which does not damage paint, stain, or finish
• Take large home furniture apart if you can.
• Cover each piece individually and pack into one box or bundle.
• Visibly label everything you disassemble, including the place that the parts need to be reconnected down the road. Colored tape helps.
• Wrap everything in furniture pads or blankets to reduce the chance of scuffs
• Ask for guidance or hire professional movers to relocate large or awkward household furniture 

Musical Instruments

If you possess any musical instruments, you recognize that moving can mean actual risk for these types of finely tuned and sensitive belongings. From grand pianos to oboes and all things in between, musical instruments are typically sensitive and need to be treated using the most care.

For big instruments including pianos, harps, and acoustic bass, you might need to make use of a specialized instrument moving team. Confer with your moving company in Tulsa and Oklahoma City about what they can do or services they're able to connect you with who are experts in moving sizeable musical instruments safely over long or short distances.

For smaller personal musical instruments, these steps will assist you to keep your musical equipment protected and in fine shape through the move: 

• Loosen the strings of the stringed instruments including guitars, violins, cellos, and small harps. The humidity and temperature changes throughout a move or while in storage can lead to strings to break or possibly warp the wood of the instrument when the strings are extremely tight.
• Pack mouthpieces separately and consider hauling your mouthpieces together with you rather than packaging them in a carton.
• Pack musical instruments within their own designed and padded cases if at all possible.
• If realistic, wrap instruments in bubble wrap, even in their cases, to provide added insulation and also protection.
• If perhaps you don't have a case wrap the instrument in several layers of bubble wrap and then put in its own box with nothing else inside.
• Cushion the box with newsprint, bubble wrap, or peanuts to circumvent moving and bumping.
• Do not ever package two instruments inside the same container in case they damage the other on the move.
• If perhaps it is a possibility, contemplate moving instruments in your car or truck rather than on the moving truck. 

Art

No matter if you have posters, painted canvas, or sculptures, packing artwork may be difficult. There is a pretty good chance your fine art may make it through the move without special moving services, as long as you pack it the correct way and are careful regarding exactly where it will be positioned in the moving truck. For extremely expensive items, speak with your moving company in Tulsa and Oklahoma City about when you should consider moving them within your car or sending with an artwork transfer service.

Even so, if you have merely got a few fragile pieces of artwork to pack and take with you, here's how to keep them from becoming moving casualties:

Canvas & Posters 

• Determine if it is suitable to roll up the artwork and store in poster tubes. Upright, sturdy poster tubes are frequently the soundest way to go.
• When storing flat, consider keeping in picture frames that are already loaded carefully to lessen bumps.
• If keeping flat, utilize a thin flat box about the size of your artwork
• Put your canvas or poster between sheets of cardboard to ensure they are both flat and protected
• Take into consideration plastic wrap, wax paper or even a rapid spray of paint-sealant for unsealed paintings or even sketches 

Breakable or Surprisingly Sized Statues 

• Like dishes, fill every crevice, cavity, and handle with fluffy packing material
• Similar to musical instruments, place in a bed of packing material and enclose with more packaging materials to protect through bumps or compression
• Metal in addition to wood may be placed in the same carton
• Normally, never load up two glass or fragile sculptures within the same container

 Workout Machines

Last but not least, we arrive at the toughest but perhaps most difficult packing task of all: your exercise machines. Dumbbells, weight benches, exercise bikes, and specialty exercise equipment tend to be a tremendous concern to move. The weighted and structural parts can be extremely heavy while the equipment on its own could be intricate and/or cumbersome to move. In fact, substantial workout machines are frequently the reason for moving casualties.

Sporting gear, however, is often rather fragile. Rackets and skis, snowboards and also surfboards, and other carefully wrought sporting gear may take serious harm from the wrong type of jostling throughout a move. These are things you ought not quickly toss in a container and go.

Here is how to move your home workout room and sporting gear correctly without any breaks, losses, or too-heavy containers:

Weights 

• Load up one or two per carton
• Cushion securely and pack into small now-heavy containers
• Hunt for or construct boxes smaller than a book container
• Load up disc weights in achievable stacks
• Cover in moving pads and secure utilizing shrink wrap
• Don't pack several weights heavier than you are able to carry
• Lift up with your legs 

Training Equipment 

• Keep and load up the set up details
• Disassemble anything you can and stow in bundles of bars and bench portions
• Tag each and every element in addition to screw as you take apart and stow within labeled bags along with the workout gear parts
• Shoot photos prior to when you take apart to aid with reassembly 

Sporting Gear (Rackets, Surfboard, etc.) 

• Store rackets in their cases with an added layer of cushioning. Don't allow to bend.
• Bubble-wrap skis and surfboards then pack into cases or upright cartons.
• Contemplate added cardboard or struts to keep boxes impact-resistant and rigid
• A professional mover can supply boxes, should you need them
• Pack sets of equipment together inside the identical carton.

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Relocating to a new home in Tulsa and Oklahoma City doesn't have to include the usual moving casualties like furniture scuff marks or cracked china. If you're packing sizeable everyday items or distinctive delicate items, these tips will help you have a tragedy-free move with each and every one of your treasured possessions making it safely to your new residence. If you need more practical moving advice from a professional moving company who has seen it all or you are worried about moving specific belongings in your home, contact us today!