How to Pack a London Flat Properly

Most people underestimate how much they own. This is particularly true of London flats, where years of IKEA delivery and a complete absence of storage have produced homes full of things tucked into creative places: under the bed, above the wardrobe, behind the sofa, inside the sofa.

Here's how to pack well — and save the crew time on moving day, which saves you money.

Start with a ruthless edit

Before you pack a single box, make three piles: keep, donate, skip. Every removal company will tell you this, and most people ignore it. Don't.

In London specifically: if your wardrobe is a fitted IKEA Pax, it's almost certainly not worth moving. The crew time to disassemble, transport, and reassemble a unit that sells for £200 on Facebook Marketplace may exceed what it's worth. The same logic applies to bulky flat-pack furniture that's already wobbling.

Get the right boxes

Supermarket boxes are free and almost universally wrong. They're not built for stacking, the sizes are inconsistent, and the bases tend to give way under weight. Double-wall cardboard boxes in standard sizes (book boxes, medium, large, wardrobe) are worth the money.

You'll use more than you expect. A rough guide:

• Studio flat: 20–30 boxes
• One-bed: 30–50 boxes
• Two-bed: 50–80 boxes
• Three-bed: 80–120 boxes

If this seems like a lot, it is. London flats accumulate.

Pack by room, label clearly

Every box should have two labels: the destination room and a brief content summary. Not "kitchen stuff" — "kitchen: mugs, plates, colander, Le Creuset lid." The crew place boxes where you direct them on arrival, so a clear label system means you're not hand-sorting 80 boxes on moving day.

Label the top and at least one side. Boxes get stacked.

Fragile items need individual wrapping

Bubble wrap for anything ceramic. Tissue paper between plates, packed standing vertically — not flat-stacked. Glasses individually wrapped and packed snugly so there's no movement inside the box.

A box that rattles will arrive with broken contents. Fill empty space with crumpled paper, not air.

Your day-one bag

Pack a bag or box that travels with you, not in the van: phone charger, toilet roll, kettle, tea, a towel, a change of clothes, any medication. Your removal boxes will arrive in the right rooms — finding the kettle on the first night is harder than it sounds.

Anything irreplaceable — jewellery, documents, a laptop — should be with you.

If you're using our packing service

We bring all materials and pack room by room. The crew label everything clearly by destination room. If there are items you want to pack personally, tell us at booking — we'll leave those and work around them. Boxes you pack yourself are moved with the same care as everything else — label them "owner packed" with the destination room so the crew know what's inside and handle them accordingly.