Once you have begun to pack up your home for a move, sooner or later you’ll get to your footwear pieces as well. The good news is that packing shoes for moving is not overly complicated, and you should tackle the task around the same time you pack up your clothes.
Nevertheless, you shouldn’t underestimate the task of protecting your shoes for transport simply because if you do, then you’ll run the risk of damaging some of your favorite footwear pieces. You can’t just throw all your shoes in a big cardboard box and congratulate yourself on a job well cone. Or rather, you can do it but you shouldn’t.
Shoes can get damaged fairly easily when mistreated prior to boxing up or when packed improperly – most often, the pairs may get scuffed or misshaped during transport. And you don’t want that to happen to your valuable pieces of footwear, do you?
The 5 steps below will show you the best way to pack shoes when moving to another house.
Step 1. Prepare the shoe packing materials
The very first step when packing shoes for a move is to secure the packing supplies you’ll need to get the job done. The logic behind completing this step before the rest is that you wouldn’t want to interrupt the flow of the packing process in order to go and look for more boxes, for example.
These are the required shoes packing materials you need to prepare in advance for quick and smooth shoes packing experience:
- Boxes. If you happen to keep the original shoe boxes for most of your pairs, then that’ll make your work so much easier. If you don’t, then that’s fine – just get clean and sturdy cardboard boxes, small or medium in size.
- Paper. Have soft, white wrapping paper as a means to protect your shoes for the move ahead of you. The packing paper will be the first layer of protection for your footwear.
- Bubble wrap. You can use bubble wrap for your more expensive pairs, the ones you’d really hate to see damaged after the move.
- Tape and markers. You’re going to need packing tape to seal the shoe boxes and a marker pen to label those cartons.
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Step 2. Sort out your shoes
The next step when packing shoes for moving is to sort out your pairs with the purpose of identifying and getting rid of the ones you don’t plan to wear in the future.
Think about this: why would you waste your valuable time packing any items that you won’t use after the move? Also, any extra household items you pack and transport will only add to the overall weight of the shipment, which in turn will increase the final moving bill.
So, don’t pack and move any shoes that you will not wear again – if you did, not only would you lose both time and money in the process, but you’d need to find enough space to store those useless shoes in the new place.
Inspect carefully each pair of shoes you own and decide what you’ll do with it right there on the spot. Will you take it with you? Or will you get rid of it prior to packing by selling it, gifting it, donating it, or simply throwing it away?
Encourage each family member to do the same with their own shoes. Needless to say, when moving with young children, you should do it for them.
Step 3. Clean and dry your shoes
Once you decide which pairs of shoes you will take with you, set aside the shoes you will be using on Moving day. Keep in mind that you will need a pair that’s very comfortable, with rubber anti-slip soles, and ideally – with good ankle protection too. Generally speaking, a pair of sports shoes should do a great job keeping your feet stable and safe.
The next thing you need to do is to clean your shoes before you pack them up. The main reason why it’s better to do it before the move and not after it is that this way you won’t introduce any dirt and dust into the new place. So, use a soft and damp cloth to clean up the pairs that actually need to be cleaned but be extra careful with the expensive and delicate shoes you own.
Next, let the cleaned shoes dry out completely before you begin to pack them for the move. This is an important step because any amount of moisture that gets trapped might cause mold to grow inside the shoes.
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Step 4. Stuff paper into your shoes
One good way to protect your shoes is to keep them from getting misshapen during the actual transportation. How do you do it? All you need to do is stuff one or two sheets of clean wrapping paper inside each shoe to keep it from getting crushed if something accidentally presses down on it.
It’s easy – simply crush the paper sheet into an oval shape and insert it inside each shoe all the way to the front. When you’re protecting high boots, then you’d better stuff packing paper all the way to the top.
A word of caution: you should only use white, print-free paper and never newspaper to stuff your shoes as another level of protection. The reason is that newspapers can leave bad ink marks inside your shoes, so avoid them at any cost.
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Step 5. Pack your shoes for moving
It’s time to wrap your shoes in paper as part of the shoe packing process. Follow these steps to make sure your pairs of footwear remain perfectly safe during transit.
- Place the stack of clean wrapping paper on your packing station – most often, a table where you’ll be doing most of the packing.
- Wrap in small pieces of bubble wrap any shoes with metal heels or metal heel-taps before you wrap them in paper. This way, the metal elements of your high-heel shoes won’t be able to damage other shoes or break through the cardboard of the box.
- Place one shoe of a pair in one corner of the top paper sheet and begin to wrap it by rolling the shoe along the entire diagonal length of the sheet.
- Tuck in the overlapping paper edges inside the bundle as you’re covering the entire shoe in soft, white wrapping paper.
- Use a piece of tape to secure the paper bundle that holds the shoe.
- Pack the other shoe of the pair in the same way.
- Transfer the protected pair of shoes into a suitable container.
In the best-case scenario, you will have the original shoe box and your wrapped-up bundle will fit perfectly inside it. But if you have an alternative cardboard container that’s larger, then that’s OK too – you can pack more shoes in it or use extra padding to fill up the extra space.
- Alternate the direction of each shoe when arranging only one pair inside a box. This way, the shoes will fit inside the container comfortably without any need for extra pressure.
- Arrange shoes one next to another when packing them into a larger box that will accommodate more than one pair of shoes. Do not apply any extra pressure just to fit one extra pair of footwear – instead, use another box altogether.
- Insert pieces of wrapping paper into any sizeable gaps, if needed, to prevent the packed pairs to shift around during transportation.
- Close the lid of the box when done and seal it up using packing tape.
- Label the box appropriately with a permanent marker.
Bonus: Safety tips when packing shoes for moving
Packing shoes for moving is not difficult and as long as you follow these extra safety tips, you should be able to finish the packing task quickly and safely.
- Do not wrap bubble wrap directly over your shoes. First of all, the plastic material may trap moisture that could damage your footwear. And secondly, bubble wrap could leave marks on some of your shoes depending on the material they are made of.
- Do not use plastic bags to pack your shoes for moving. Why? Plastic can be torn up easily and can also trap moisture which can lead to potential damage to your footwear pieces.
- Always pack the heavier shoes first in the box, followed by your lighter pairs. This way, you will keep the more delicate pieces you own from getting crushed by the extra weight.
