7 Packing Materials Australian Movers Need: Quantities, Storage Tips

Your essential kit comes down to seven things: small, medium and large boxes, packing paper or bubble wrap, strong tape, furniture blankets or mattress covers, stretch wrap, a permanent marker, and zip bags for loose hardware. Exact quantities depend on your home size and how long items sit in storage. Use the room-by-room breakdown below to work out how much of each to buy before you start.

TL;DR:

• Using proper-sized boxes for specific items reduces the risk of damage and back strain, especially when weight limits are observed.
• Extra padding with professional-grade protection is essential for fragile, valuable, or oddly shaped items such as large glassware or artwork.
• Sealed plastic tubs with silica gel are recommended for long-term storage in humid climates to prevent mold and damage.
• Buying enough materials based on home size and item quantity avoids overspending or running out during packing.
• Hiring professional packing services is cost-effective for high-value, complex, or long-term storage moves, offering tailored handling and live tracking.

Table of Contents

• The complete packing materials list for your move
• How much of each material should you buy?
• What extra materials do fragile and awkward items need?
• Do you need different materials for storage?
• What tools make packing day go faster?
• Why professional packing sometimes beats the DIY list
• What this list gets right, and where most advice oversells it
• Get your packing sorted without the guesswork
• Where this list comes from
• Sources
• FAQ

The complete packing materials list for your move

Standing in the aisle at a hardware store trying to guess how many boxes you need is a rough way to start a move. A proper list removes the guesswork, and once you know what each item does, shopping for supplies takes ten minutes instead of an hour.

Boxes by size and purpose:

• Small or book boxes hold heavy, dense items like books, tools, tinned food and small appliances. Keeping weight low in a small box is what stops the bottom giving way on the footpath.
• Medium boxes suit kitchenware, toys, and mid-weight household items. This is the workhorse size for most homes.
• Large boxes are for light, bulky things: bedding, cushions, lampshades. Never fill a large box with books; you’ll strain your back and the box will fail.
• Wardrobe boxes let you hang clothes on a rail inside the box, so suits and dresses arrive uncreased.
• TV and monitor boxes have adjustable inserts and foam corners built for flat screens.
• Dish cartons are double-walled with built-in dividers for plates, bowls and glassware.

Wraps and cushioning:

Packing paper, sometimes called newsprint, wraps individual items and fills gaps without leaving residue on your belongings. Bubble wrap comes in small, medium and large bubble sizes, and the bigger bubbles give better shock absorption for genuinely fragile pieces. Foam sheets protect surfaces that scratch easily, like polished timber or glass tabletops, while honeycomb paper does a similar job with less plastic. Corrugated cardboard sheets are useful as flat dividers inside boxes or as extra stiffening under heavy loads.

Void fill:

Gaps inside a box are where breakages happen. Crumpled packing paper is the cheapest void fill, kraft fibre paper is a step-up for anything glass, and air pillows work well if you’ve already got a pump on hand. If you’re leaning eco-friendly, towels and clothing double as padding for a budget move, which is a fair trade-off for everyday kitchenware even if it’s not what you’d use for a family heirloom.

Protective covers:

Furniture blankets stop sofas, tables and cabinets picking up scuffs in transit. Mattress bags keep mattresses clean and dry, which matters more than people expect once a mattress has sat in a truck for a few hours. Stretch wrap holds drawers and cupboard doors shut and bundles loose cushions together. Both furniture blankets and stretch wrap turn up on every mover-tested checklist for good reason. Foam corner protectors guard the edges of framed art and glass tabletops.

Fastenings and security:

High-tack packing tape, at least 48mm wide, is the only tape worth buying. A tape gun speeds things up considerably once you’re sealing your twentieth box. Ratchet straps secure heavy furniture inside the truck, and if anything’s heading into a storage unit, a decent padlock is cheap insurance.

Labelling and small accessories:

Permanent markers and coloured stickers turn a wall of identical boxes into a system you can navigate at 9pm when you’re exhausted. Zip-lock bags keep screws and bolts with the furniture they belong to. A box cutter and a pair of gloves round out the kit, and you’ll use both more than you expect.

How much of each material should you buy?

Guessing quantities is where most people either overspend or run out halfway through packing the kitchen. The table below gives a starting point based on home size, drawn from Roomia’s recommended packing quantities.

These are starting figures, not fixed rules. A household with a big book collection or a serious glassware cabinet needs more small boxes and bubble wrap than the table suggests, regardless of bedroom count. Long-term storage or an interstate move both push demand for stretch wrap and furniture blankets higher, since items sit unprotected for longer and travel further.

Two rules of thumb hold no matter the home size: keep every box under 15kg, and give odd-shaped items (lampshades, vases, framed art) extra padding rather than relying on the box alone to protect them.

What extra materials do fragile and awkward items need?

Standard boxes and paper won’t cut it for anything genuinely valuable or oddly shaped. This is where a slightly bigger spend upfront saves you a breakage down the track.

• Dish packs with built-in dividers and double-wall construction are worth the extra cost for anything you’d hate to replace.
• TV and monitor boxes with foam corner inserts protect screens far better than a generic large box ever will.
• Picture and mirror sleeves, or a purpose-built frame crate for anything oversized, stop glass and canvas from flexing in transit.
• Internal bracing, extra cardboard layers, and a second wrap of bubble wrap all matter for oddly shaped or unusually large fragile pieces, where a single layer of protection often isn’t enough.
• Pool noodles, split lengthways, slide neatly over glass tabletop edges and stair railings alike.

Pro Tip: For a fragile stack like dinner plates, two layers of bubble wrap around each plate beats one thick layer around the whole stack, because it stops plates grinding against each other on turns.

If an item is high in value, structurally complex, or covered by a specific insurance policy, professional crating or a moving company’s packing service is the safer call over DIY, even for someone confident with a tape gun.

Do you need different materials for storage?

Storage conditions change what “good packing” actually means. A box that survives a two-hour truck ride can still fail after six months in a humid shed.

• Use sealed plastic tubs, not cardboard, for anything going into storage for more than a few months, particularly in humid or coastal areas.
• Drop a silica gel sachet into tubs holding leather goods, documents or photographs. It’s one of the most overlooked steps in packing for storage, and one of the cheapest.
• Choose breathable covers over fully sealed plastic for fabrics and natural fibres, since trapped moisture causes mildew faster than exposure to air ever would.
• Mattress bags still matter in storage, not just in transit, keeping dust and damp off a mattress that might sit untouched for months.

Plastic tubs paired with a desiccant meaningfully cut mould risk compared with cardboard over a long stint in a humid climate. If you’re planning a storage stint of any real length, read through EasyMove Services’ packing-for-storage guide before you buy containers.

What tools make packing day go faster?

The right tools save hours, and a couple of them stop you from getting hurt. Keep this shortlist within reach before you tape the first box:

1. Tape gun loaded with heavy-duty tape (48mm or wider) for every box you seal.
2. Box cutter for opening deliveries and trimming excess cardboard.
3. Gloves to protect your hands from tape edges and rough timber.
4. Permanent markers for labelling contents and destination room on every side of a box, not just the top.
5. Stretch wrap for drawers, cupboard doors and bundling loose items.
6. Furniture blankets for anything with a polished or painted surface.

Fill every void inside a box; loose items shift and crack against each other over a long drive. Colour-code by room only if you can keep it simple, since an overly detailed system falls apart by the third day of packing. Keep boxes under 15kg, lift with your knees rather than your back, and back up any electronic device before it goes into a box. For more mover-tested packing tips, a short guide beats trial and error.

Pro Tip: Before disassembling furniture, drop the screws and small fittings into a zip bag and tape it directly to the piece they belong to. It sounds obvious, but it’s the single biggest time-saver on reassembly day.

Why professional packing sometimes beats the DIY list

A full packing materials list gets you most of the way, but it doesn’t replace judgement on the items that genuinely matter. EasyMove Services combines live tracking of goods in transit with personalised packing support, including for NDIS participants who need particular care taken with mobility equipment or sensory items. That combination is useful to weigh up once you’re staring at a piano, a glass cabinet, or a box of family photographs you can’t replace.

High-value items, anything covered by a specific insurance policy, and interstate or long-term storage moves are the three situations where hiring a professional packer earns its cost back. For readers who want to go deeper on materials before deciding, EasyMove Services has a detailed guide to the best packing materials for moving and a separate look at sustainable packing options for anyone trying to cut down on landfill-bound cardboard and plastic.

What this list gets right, and where most advice oversells it

Most packing guides treat every box the same, as if a stack of paperbacks and a set of wine glasses need identical protection. They don’t, and the mover-tested lists that separate small boxes for weight from cushioning for fragility get closer to how damage actually happens. The conventional advice oversells one thing in particular: buying more bubble wrap than paper. Paper is cheaper, does the job for most kitchenware, and bubble wrap should be reserved for what genuinely needs shock absorption, not wrapped around everything out of habit.

Where most lists fall short is climate. Plenty of guides mention silica gel in passing and move on, when it’s arguably the cheapest, most overlooked line item on this whole list for anyone storing goods through a humid summer. If you take one thing from this article, prioritise matching material to risk: cheap paper for low-risk items, proper bracing and professional judgement for anything you can’t afford to lose. Everything else is detail.

— EasyMovers

Get your packing sorted without the guesswork

EasyMove Services is the alternative to piecing together your own packing kit from three different hardware stores. We supply the materials and, if you’d rather hand it over entirely, professional packers who handle everything from wrapping the good china to disassembling furniture, backed by live tracking so you always know where your goods are in transit.

If you’d prefer a full packing service instead of DIY, our packing kit and service page sets out what’s included. Rates for local and regional moves start from $179 per hour, viewable on our moving rates page, with add-ons like extra movers or a bigger truck available if your move needs it. EasyMove Services also supports NDIS-funded moving and packing services for participants who need tailored handling of mobility equipment or sensory items. Get in touch for a quote and we’ll work out exactly what your move needs.

Where this list comes from

This packing materials list draws on recommended quantities and mover-tested advice from Roomia, SelfStore, Safe n’ SOUND Self Storage, and 1-800-PACK-RAT, alongside practical DIY packing ideas from Kadopapier.

Sources

• Complete packing supplies list and recommended quantities | Roomia
• Packing materials for moving: what you actually need | SelfStore
• The ultimate packing supplies checklist | Safe n’ SOUND Self Storage
• How to pack fragile large items | 1-800-PACK-RAT

FAQ

What are the most common packing materials?

The most common are cardboard boxes in three or four sizes, packing paper, bubble wrap, packing tape, furniture blankets, mattress covers and stretch wrap. These cover the vast majority of items in an average home.

What’s the cheapest packing material?

Packing paper is the cheapest option for cushioning and void fill, and free sources like newspaper, towels or clothing work as substitutes for low-value, non-fragile items.

What are the 7 types of packaging?

Common categories are small/book boxes, medium boxes, large boxes, wardrobe boxes, dish cartons, TV/monitor boxes and specialty crates for oversized or irregular items. Not every mover uses identical category names, but this grouping covers what most households need.

Is bubble wrap or packing paper better for dishes?

Packing paper handles everyday kitchenware well and costs less, while bubble wrap’s extra cushioning suits genuinely fragile or high-value glassware. Many movers use both: paper as a base wrap, bubble wrap around the most breakable pieces.

Does EasyMove Services supply packing materials?

Yes, EasyMove Services supplies packing materials and offers professional packing as part of its moving services, including tailored support for NDIS-funded moves.

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