Packing and moving services in Adelaide, room by room

House Removalists Adelaide is a service of Moveall Australia Pty Ltd, a South Australian owned and operated removalist. Wrap & Pack is Moveall’s own packing service.

R1Packing services in Adelaide: what Wrap & Pack is

In Moveall’s words, Wrap & Pack means “we wrap & pack all approved household items, supplying all the different boxes and packing materials you’ll need for your moving day”. It uses purpose-made boxes and wrapping for clothes, books, heavy items, fragile items, TVs and artwork. Moveall says you can head out for the day and come back to a house that is ready for the truck.

That last part is the point. Packing is the slowest part of moving house, and the part most people underestimate. Handing it over turns weeks of evenings into one day you do not have to be home for.

R2What gets packed, and how it should travel

Every kind of household item has a right way to travel. The table below is the standard a good pack should meet, whether we pack it or you do.

Item	How it should travel
Clothes	Hanging clothes kept on their hangers where possible; folded clothes in boxes or cases, not loose bags
Books	Small boxes only, packed flat or spine down, so each box can be lifted safely
Heavy items	Small, strong boxes with the weight low, taped on every seam
Plates and glasses	Wrapped one by one, plates standing on their edges, gaps filled so nothing moves
TVs	In a purpose-made box or thick wrapping, carried and loaded upright
Artwork and mirrors	Wrapped and protected at the corners, travelling on their edges, never flat under other boxes
Linen and manchester	Larger boxes or bags, used to fill space around firmer boxes

“Approved household items” matters. Some things should not be packed for a removal truck at all: fuel, gas bottles, paint, chemicals and anything flammable. Others are better carried by you: documents, passports, keys, jewellery, cash, medicines and anything irreplaceable. Our article on what to keep off the truck goes through both lists.

R3Fragile and awkward things to mention when you call

Most of a house packs into ordinary boxes. A few things do not, and they are the ones to name when you ask for a quote, so the right boxes and wrapping are on hand and the time is allowed for them.

• Large TVs. Say the screen size, and whether the original box still exists.
• Artwork and mirrors. Large frames, canvases and mirrors need wrapping and corner protection, and travel on their edges.
• Glass and marble. Glass tabletops, shelves and stone tops are heavy and brittle; mention them separately from the furniture they belong to.
• Collections. Glassware, ceramics, records or anything you would hate to lose, packed with more care and more paper.
• Lamps and light fittings. Shades and bases travel better apart, with the globes taken out.
• A piano or pool table. Not a packing job, but part of the move: Moveall’s Supercharge option brings extra team members and specialty equipment for heavy and bulky items.

R4Packing a kitchen in the right order

The kitchen is the room most people leave too late. Packed in this order, it stays usable until the last day:

1. Weeks ahead: the good glasses, platters, the cupboard of things used once a year.
2. The week before: most of the crockery and cookware, leaving a plate, bowl, mug and set of cutlery each.
3. The last day: the kettle, mugs, a pan, tea towels and cleaning things, packed in one box that travels with you or comes off the truck first.
4. Before the truck arrives: the fridge emptied and wiped, and the freezer defrosted if it is moving.

R5How much of the house to hand over

Our form gives three choices, because those are the three ways most packing jobs fall.

• Pack the whole house. Everything approved is packed and labelled by room. You keep back what travels with you.
• Pack the kitchen and fragile things. The slowest rooms and the items most likely to break, handed over; you pack clothes, books and the garage.
• We will pack ourselves. You pack, Moveall moves. Use the tips below, and keep the boxes to a weight one person can lift.

R6Packing it yourself, the way a removalist would

If you are packing some or all of the house yourself, these habits make the biggest difference on moving day.

1. Start with the rooms you use least. The spare room, the shed and the good glasses can be packed weeks ahead.
2. Keep boxes liftable. Heavy things in small boxes, light things in large ones. If you cannot lift it comfortably, it is too heavy.
3. Fill every gap. A box that rattles will break something. Use linen, towels or paper to stop things moving.
4. Tape the bottom properly. Run tape along the middle seam and across the edges, not a single strip.
5. Label two sides with the room and the contents. Give each room a colour, and keep a numbered list on your phone.
6. Mark fragile boxes clearly, and which way is up.
7. Empty the furniture. Moveall’s terms ask that furniture is emptied of loose items and loose items are packed in cartons.
8. Pack a first-night box last. Bedding, towels, toiletries, the kettle, mugs, chargers and medicines, carried in your car.

Our homepage packing guide sets out the same idea room by room, and the moving house checklist tells you when each room should be packed in the weeks before the move.

R7Packing and unpacking services: the new house

Good packing pays off at the other end. When every box carries its room, the crew can take each one straight to that room, and the house can be lived in long before every box is open. Ask about unpacking when you book: tell us which rooms you would want unpacked, often the kitchen, and our customer care team will tell you what can be arranged and include it in your quote.

R8Packing for different kinds of homes

• Apartments. Packing the day before means the lift booking is spent moving. See apartment removalists in Adelaide.
• Family homes. The kitchen, the children’s rooms and the garage take the longest. See residential removalists in Adelaide.
• Downsizing. Deciding what goes comes before packing. See downsizing moves.

R9Packing and moving booked together

Packing with Moveall is booked with the move, so the boxes are packed by the same company that loads them. How the packing and the moving run as one job, and what you do and what we do on each day, is on packers and movers in Adelaide. For the complete move itself, from the quote to the first night, read house removalists in Adelaide.

The quote for packing is built the same way as the move: on the inventory, the rooms you want packed and the access at both homes. A fixed-price quote relies on the inventory list from the quote, so items added on the day are charged by the hour. Moveall holds $20 million public liability cover; ask us about transit insurance for your belongings when you book.

R10Questions people ask