Bedrooms & Wardrobes

Packing the Most Personal Room in the House

Bedrooms tend to hold more than people realise — not just clothing, but shoes, bedding, accessories, jewellery, rugs, and all the bits that accumulate in drawers, on shelves, and under the bed. The good news is that most bedroom items are soft and lightweight, which makes packing quicker and less stressful than rooms like the kitchen.

That said, there are a few techniques that save time and protect items that matter to you — especially when it comes to handling wardrobes, choosing the right boxes for different types of clothing, and making sure muddy trainers don’t ruin your favourite dress.

Chest of Drawers — You Probably Don’t Need to Empty Them

This surprises most people, but if your chest of drawers is full of clothes, you don’t need to unpack it into boxes. Clothes are soft and lightweight — they’re perfectly safe staying in the drawers during transit.

Here’s how it works: if the unit is too heavy to carry fully loaded, the removal team will slide out a couple of drawers to reduce the weight, carry the frame to the van, slot the drawers back in, and wrap the whole piece in protective blankets for transport. Your clothes stay exactly where they are — no folding, no boxing, no unpacking at the other end.

This saves a significant amount of packing time and boxes. Just make sure the drawers don’t contain anything fragile — a ceramic jewellery dish or a glass photo frame tucked in a drawer could easily get damaged. Remove any breakable items and pack them separately.

Bedside tables follow the same principle, but always check what’s inside. If the drawer contains a phone charger and a paperback, leave it. If there’s medication, reading glasses, or anything breakable, take those items out and pack them in your essentials bag (Lesson 5) or a fragile box.

Packing Hanging Clothes — Standard Boxes vs Wardrobe Boxes

For hanging items in your wardrobe, you have two options. Which one you choose depends on the type of clothing and how much you’re willing to spend on specialist boxes.

Option 1: Standard Large Boxes

For everyday clothing — t-shirts, trousers, jumpers, casual dresses — a standard large box (40×60cm) works perfectly. Clothes are light, so you can fill a large box without worrying about weight.

Here’s a time-saving trick: there’s no need to take items off their hangers. Simply fold the garment with the hanger still attached and lay it flat in the box. When you unpack at the new house, the item goes straight back into the wardrobe on its hanger — no re-hanging, no hunting for spare hangers, no creasing from being stuffed into a bag.

For items that aren’t on hangers — folded t-shirts, underwear, socks, pyjamas — fold them neatly and pack them in on top. As always, make sure the box is full. Use spare clothing, scarves, or soft items to fill any remaining space so the box doesn’t sag when stacked.

Option 2: Wardrobe Boxes

Wardrobe boxes are tall, upright boxes with a built-in hanging rail across the top. They’re designed for items that need to stay hung and crease-free — suits, formal dresses, tailored shirts, winter coats, and anything you’d rather not fold.

Using them couldn’t be simpler: lift the items from your wardrobe rail and hang them directly onto the rail inside the box. The clothes travel upright, exactly as they would in a wardrobe, and arrive at the new house ready to hang straight back up.

Wardrobe boxes are more expensive than standard boxes, so most customers use a practical split — two or three wardrobe boxes for their best clothes, and standard boxes for everything else. This keeps costs reasonable while protecting the items that matter most. If you’re unsure how many you’ll need, we can advise during your home assessment.

How to Pack Shoes

Shoes are easy to pack badly. The main concern isn’t breakage — it’s keeping dirty soles away from clean uppers and preventing scuffs between pairs.

The sole-to-sole method: Place each pair together sole to sole, so the dirty parts face each other and the clean uppers face outward. Alternatively, pack them top to top, which keeps the soles pointing outward and away from other shoes entirely. Either approach works — choose whichever gives you the neatest fit in the box.

Use a large box for shoes. They’re light, so weight isn’t a concern even when the box is full. Once you’ve packed a complete layer, lay a single sheet of packing paper across the top before starting the next layer. This separates the layers and prevents mud, dirt, or scuff marks transferring between shoes.

Muddy trainers and boots deserve extra attention, particularly during the wetter months. If they’re caked in mud, let them dry out and give them a quick brush before packing. A dirty pair of wellies left unchecked can ruin an entire box of clean shoes.

Fill the remaining space at the top of the box with soft items from the bedroom — a coat, a scarf, a hat, or a spare jumper. This keeps the box full and stackable while using items that need packing anyway. No wasted space, no sagging box.

Packing Bedding, Duvets, and Pillows

Duvets, pillows, and bedding are bulky but virtually indestructible. They don’t need special wrapping — just compression and sensible timing.

Vacuum storage bags are excellent for duvets and pillows. They reduce the volume dramatically, freeing up valuable space on the van and in your box storage area. If you don’t have vacuum bags, fold bedding tightly and pack it into large boxes or strong bin bags tied securely at the top.

Bedding also makes a fantastic void filler. If you have half-packed boxes elsewhere in the house that need topping up, a folded duvet cover or a spare pillow fills the space perfectly and gives the box structural strength for stacking.

Strip the beds last. Bedding should be one of the very last things you pack — ideally the morning of the move. You’ll want a comfortable final night’s sleep in your current home. On moving day morning, strip the beds, fold the bedding into a bag or box, and load it last so it’s first off the van at the new house. You’ll thank yourself when you can make the beds up straight away that evening.

Rugs — Easy to Forget, Easy to Pack

Rugs are one of the most commonly overlooked items on moving day. They sit under furniture, blend into the room, and are easy to forget until the last minute.

Packing them is straightforward. Roll the rug up tightly, starting from one end and keeping the roll as firm as possible. Once rolled, secure it with tape at both ends and once around the middle. Wrap the tape around a couple of times at each point to make sure it doesn’t come undone during transit. That’s it — one rug, ready to go.

For larger or heavier rugs, you may need a second person to help keep the roll tight. If the rug is particularly valuable or delicate, wrap it in a dust sheet or plastic sheeting before taping to protect it from dirt and moisture.

Check Everywhere Before You Finish

When packing bedrooms, it’s easy to focus on the obvious — the wardrobe, the drawers, the shelves — and miss things that are hidden or easy to overlook.

Move the furniture. Pull the bed away from the wall. Look behind the chest of drawers. Check under the bed — this is where months of forgotten items tend to accumulate. Look behind the door, on top of the wardrobe, and inside any storage boxes you might have tucked away.

Check the walls. Remove pictures, hooks, mirrors, and clocks. It’s easy to walk past a small picture frame you’ve seen every day for years and forget to take it down.

Check inside the wardrobe thoroughly. Top shelves, shoe racks at the bottom, items hung on the inside of the door — these are all spots where things get left behind. Go through every section systematically before the removal team arrives.

Pro Tip from Jay

“The bedrooms are where you save time. Don't empty your drawers if you don't have to — we'll handle them as they are. And keep clothes on their hangers. I've seen people spend an entire afternoon carefully folding and unfolding clothes that could have just gone straight into a box on the hanger. Work smart, not hard.”

— Jay Newton, Director