How to pack glass shelves for moving

When you get to the point of packing up some of your large furniture pieces with glass shelves in them – china cabinets, bookcases, display cases, desks, kitchen cupboards, bathroom cabinets, etc., then one important question is how to protect the super-fragile glass objects so that they don’t break during the chaotic house move.

Such glass shelved must be removed from the corresponding furniture units and packed separately during the disassembly process. As you’ll read below, breaking a glass shelf is not only a bad idea, but it can be rather dangerous for the person involved in the packing process – most often, that person will be you.

Read on to learn the best way to pack glass shelves for moving.

Why you need to be extra careful when moving glass shelves

The sheer fact that the shelves you intend to move are made of glass should warn you to proceed with extreme caution when handling those large and sometimes heavy glass objects.

• Glass shelves are very fragile and will shatter to pieces if you accidentally drop any of them onto the ground. Also, even a slight bump of a glass shelf against another hard item may potentially break the delicate shelf, or at least crack it, which in most cases will render it unusable from that point on.
• Glass shelves are dangerous in a way that they can injure you if you’re not careful enough. Dropping a glass shelf onto your feet is likely to hurt you, but you may also cut your fingers or hands onto the sharp edges of a shelf made of glass. And this is exactly why you should always wear thick work gloves when handling glass shelves – removing them, packing them, and moving them to and from the truck.
• Glass shelves are often difficult and sometimes rather expensive to replace if broken during a move. If they are part of a furniture piece that’s antique, then those shelves may need to be custom made and that’s likely to come with a hefty price tag.

So, when moving glass shelves as part of fragile furniture, you should always slow it down and be extra cautious when removing and packing the glass objects. It’s definitely worth a few extra minutes spent in figuring out the best approach of handling the task safely than damaging the shelves or sustaining an injury as a result of your hasty actions.

See also: Will movers disassemble furniture?

Packing supplies when protecting glass shelves

You can’t just take out the glass shelves as they are and load them into the moving truck. If you did it, the extra-fragile objects would not likely survive the move and you would create unnecessary and easily avoidable post-move problems for yourself. Therefore, you’re going to have to gather the necessary packing materials and protect the delicate items for the road ahead.

Here are the packing supplies you’ll need to pack glass shelves for moving:

• Packing paper. You’re going to need wrapping paper to create an initial protective layer. Go with soft, white, ink-free, and acid-free packing paper that will be gentle enough NOT to scratch the delicate surface of the glass shelves.
• Bubble wrap. Bubble wrap will serve as the second protective layer, right over the wrapping paper. It’s important to note that bubble wrap is considered to be the number 1 packing material when it comes to packing and moving fragile items thanks to the unrivaled protection that the air-filled bubbles create.
• Cardboard. You’re going to need pieces of thick clean cardboard only if you don’t have bubble wrap at that moment of time. It’s normal to run out of bubble wrap during the packing process and it’s alright – you can replace it with cardboard when packing glass shelves for a move.
• Furniture blankets. This will be the final protective layer for those glass objects – the last padding cover that will guarantee the safety of the entire packing operations.

Read also: How to pack a china cabinet for moving

How to pack glass shelves for moving

Once you have secured all the packing materials needed for the protection of your glass items, it’s time to learn the detailed steps to packing glass shelves when moving house:

Step 1. Put on gloves to protect your hands

As mentioned above, it’s dangerous to handle glass shelves without having sufficient protection for your hands and fingers. And that’s exactly why the first thing you have to do is put on work gloves that are thick enough to keep you safe against injuries.

Also, quality work gloves will give you a much better grip which will minimize the chance of a shelf slipping through your fingers and ending up on the floor.

When working together with a friend, supply a pair of good gloves to your helper as well.

Step 2. Remove the glass shelves from the furniture unit

Without a doubt, this step is the trickiest one of all, so use extreme caution.

Take out the shelves, one by one, without making any abrupt movements. If necessary, remove any doors to create more space. If you get stuck, remember to try different exit angles to prevent potentially harmful contact of a shelf with the main body of the furniture unit.

If the shelves prove to be too heavy to handle by one person, be sure to have your helper by your side. Once you remove the shelves, place carefully each one right in the middle of a stack of packing paper that’s been conveniently positioned onto a table (the floor should work fine as well).

Step 3. Protect the glass shelves with packing paper

Once you position a removed shelf onto the stack of wrapping paper, just do what you’re supposed to do – wrap that paper around the glass object as if you were wrapping a gift.

Use 2-3 sheets of packing paper at the same time and cover the shelf completely. If the glass item is too big, then divide it visually into two parts, cover each part separately, and then use bits of packing tape to join the paper covers.

Work methodically and don’t leave any glass areas uncovered. Read on to learn why creating that initial paper layer is important during the packing process.

Step 4. Protect the glass shelves with bubble wrap

The next step to packing glass shelves for moving is to cover each one with bubble wrap. Bear in mind that it is the bubble wrap that will guarantee that those glass items will remain unscathed during the house move.

Ideally, you will use bubble wrap with large air bubbles (it’s perfect for protecting larger and heavier items) but small-bubble wrap should also be fine. Just cover the entire areas of the shelves with bubble wrap, then use pieces of tape to secure the plastic material.

The reason why you should not use bubble wrap directly onto the glass shelves is that sometimes the air-filled plastic material is known to leave hard-to-remove stains when pressed onto delicate glass surfaces. But that won’t be a problem in your case though because you’ve already got soft wrapping paper underneath.

Step 5. Protect the glass shelves with cardboard (instead of bubble wrap)

If you’ve run out of bubble wrap right before you’re scheduled to pack the glass shelves and you don’t really have time to go and get another roll, then what you can do is cut a couple of matching cardboard cutouts for each shelf and sandwich the breakable item between those two cardboard pieces.

The idea here is to create hard outer protection for your breakable glass shelves. Use pieces of tape to secure the cardboard cutouts but don’t tape directly onto the glass surfaces to avoid staining them.

Step 6. Protect the glass shelves with furniture blankets

The final protection for the glass items should be furniture blankets. The soft pads are the guarantee that you’ll unpack the fragile shelves in the new home exactly the way they left the old one.

It’s pretty straightforward this time – you only need to wrap completely the breakable glass objects in furniture blankets, then use bits of tape to secure the bundles, and you’re done.

Keep in mind that packing glass shelves for moving is only a glimpse of the difficult tasks ahead of you. Next, you’re going to have to pack the furniture items that those glass shelves belong to, and that’s never an easy thing either.

So, when in doubt whether you’ll be able to tackle the whole packing marathon on your own, get free quotes from professional packers and movers to learn how much it’ll cost you to have your household items packed in the quickest and safest way possible.

Good to know: Do you need furniture movers?