How to Pack Paintings for Moving?

When it comes to relocate with entire household items then, packing is the most important and difficult phase of the entire shifting process. Packing is a tough and chaotic task which requires skills and experience especially while packing fragile items. When you will start packing your household goods you will come to know that how many fragile items you have in your house that need to be packed with utmost care. And paintings and art works are one of the fragile items you have in our house that you must pack with extra care. With just little planning you can easily pack your paintings and art works for moving.

What you will need

• Packing tapes
• Large and medium-size moving boxes
• Packing sheets
• Bubble wrap

Have a packing station

As you know fragile items should be packed with utmost care so, you must gather all the packing supplies and your paintings and art works at one place, where you can pack them without any disturbance.

Get the paintings/frames on the floor with packing supplies

Take your paintings or frames off from the walls and put it on the floor or flat surface along with packing supplies like packing tapes, cardboard cutting of the same sizes as your painting frames and canvases and few packing sheets. Take note that whether the paintings are framed, have glass, painted on canvas or are uncovered oil or charcoal. It is because you will have to pack each type of paintings a little differently.

Cover the framed glass with an ‘X’ in sticky tape

If your paintings are glass framed then, you should make an ‘X’ across the front of the painting. This will protect the paintings by keeping the glass in place in case the glass will break during transit.

Use cardboard piece to cover the glass or top of the painting

Take a piece of a cardboard box that you are not using. This part should be equally the size of your painting so that it can cover the glass properly. But, make sure the piece is not bigger than the size of the painting. 

Wrap the painting in bubble wrap/packing sheets

Take 2-3 packing sheets or bubble wrap. Place the painting on the packing sheet or bubble wrap and now wrap it around the painting to prevent it from damages. And then, secure the edge of the bubble wrap with packing tape at the back side of the painting.

Select the right size boxes

You must have moving boxes that are appropriately sized for your paintings. Get the boxes that are a bit larger than the paintings you are packing as the bubble wrap and packing sheets that you will use to wrap the paintings will also take space in the moving box. While packing the paintings make sure the glasses are facing the same direction and don’t let the corner of a frame poke into canvas. If you have odd shapes and sizes frames then, find the moving box accordingly.

Fill empty space

If any space leftover in the moving box after packing the paintings then, use shredded paper or bubble wraps to fill up the space so that there will be no movement of paintings inside the box during transit. For cheaper option, you can use your old clothes or moving blankets to provide enough padding to all your paintings and artworks.

Secure with tape and label the box
As now you have placed the paintings inside the box and have also filled the empty spaces then, it’s the time for sealing the boxes. Secure the boxes using an adequate amount of packing tapes. Now, label the box as fragile and also mark, which way the glass is facing. Also remember not to stack anything atop the boxes with your artworks or paintings in it.

Whether you hire professional movers and packers to load your goods and transport it or you just use your personal car to load and move these items, if you will follow these steps then you will never make mistakes while packing and moving your paintings or art works. In fact you can move them safely without any damages.