Secret of Packing Materials Revealed

Experienced adjusters can often tell at-a-glance whether a team used too many boxes or not enough to justify their invoice.

And experienced Contents Supervisors most often have the same instincts on any given job.

But what does a contents team do when faced with odd sized items that simply won’t fit in an average-sized box (or even an extra-large one)?

First of all, contents professionals prefer to “box” an item rather than to simply load it into one of their transport vehicles in order to move it to their restoration facility. If a massive musical instrument or a one-piece glass sculpture simply won’t fit in any box that is currently available, it is not uncommon to find the pros cutting and shaping other boxes, or building a wooden crate, in order to create a new, more appropriate container or package that will get the job done properly.

Of course we also use packing blankets, bubble wrap, stretch wrap, and packing peanuts or loose fill to make all items secure. If there is an antique set of dishes valued at thousands of dollars, we will use appropriate amounts of packing materials in order to make sure the set travels from a home or office to our cleaning facility and back again – padding is cheap, antiques are not!

So our secret is to err on the side of caution, and treat each item as if it was our own.