6 Quick Tips for Packing Liquids

Packing liquids is often considered one of the trickier parts of moving, but it doesn’t have to be! With a little bit of care and planning, you can avoid spills—and more importantly, you can avoid damage to your moving boxes and the belongings inside of them.

Liquids spill in transport for a lot of reasons. Sometime boxes tip over or moving trucks hit a bump in the road, and sometimes things just get jostled around. If your liquids aren’t properly secured, that’s going to mean a whole lot of mess. If you’d rather not deal with that (and who would?!), then it’s important that you take your time when packing liquids, making sure to properly secure spillable items so that something as simple as a pot hole isn’t a total moving disaster.

So how do you do it? Follow these tips for packing liquids so you can worry less about spills and more about everything else.

Take an inventory

Get rid of what you don’t need

• • Have you used it in the past year? If no, toss it.
  • Is it expired? If yes, toss it.
  • Is the container it’s in damaged? If yes, toss it.
  • Is the container pretty much empty? If yes, toss it.

  If there are liquid items that you don’t want or need but are still useful and plentiful, you may be able to donate them. For example, you can contact your local women’s shelter to see if they will accept unopened personal care liquids like shampoo and face wash, and your local animal shelter may be able to make use of unopened bottles of bleach, since you won’t be able to move with them anyway.

  Pack liquids together

  Use the right packing materials and techniques

  • • Plastic wrap
    • Packing tape or rubber bands
    • Garbage bags

    Once you’ve got what you need, follow the steps below for each container of liquids that you have to pack.

    Step one: Secure the opening. Cut a square of plastic wrap, then remove the top from the liquid’s container. Put the square over the opening and then replace the top, being sure to screw it on as tightly as possible. There should be some overhang so that there is a bit of plastic coming out below the top.

    Step two: Wrap the top from the outside. Now that the top is secured back on, take a larger square of plastic wrap and wrap it around the outside of the top for a double barrier. Secure it with packing tape or a rubber band. Alternately, you could use place containers in sealable plastic bags, but since you really only need to wrap up the top of each container you’ll use less overall plastic by choosing to use plastic wrap instead.

    Pack liquids in plastic bins

    Be sure to label

    As for unpacking, open your boxes or bins carefully and on a flat surface, since even with safe packing methods your liquid containers are likely to have shifted around. Remove their seals, and you’re good to go.

    Rather have someone else deal with packing liquids for your move? Hire full service movers, who in addition to loading and unloading the moving truck will also pack up your house for you—liquids and all.