You can pack carefully and still have things arrive broken if the materials are wrong, and you can pack quickly and have everything survive if they're right. Kit matters more than people think. Here's what's worth having, what each thing is actually for, and where not to waste your money.
Boxes: the thing everything else rides in
Get more boxes than you think you need, and get two grades. Single-wall cartons are fine for light, bulky things, clothes, linen, cushions, soft toys. Double-wall boxes, the sturdier ones that don't flex when you lift them, are for anything with weight or anything breakable, books, crockery, glassware, small appliances.
A couple of specialist boxes earn their keep if you've got the items for them. Wardrobe boxes with a hanging rail let clothes travel on their hangers and step straight into the new cupboard, which saves a whole afternoon of re-ironing. And a proper mattress cover or bag keeps a mattress clean and dry, it's the sort of thing that seems fussy until yours picks up a tyre mark off a truck floor.
Cushioning: bubble wrap, foam and paper
Bubble wrap is the obvious one and it's worth having, but use it for what it's good at, wrapping individual fragile items and padding hard corners. Foam sheets, the thin flexible kind, are gentler on surfaces and better between plates or over a screen where bubble wrap's texture could mark a finish.
Plain packing paper, sometimes called butter paper or newsprint that hasn't been printed, is the quiet workhorse. You use it to wrap, to fill gaps, to crush into the base and top of a box so nothing shifts. Buy a big stack, you'll get through more of it than anything else, and it does most of the actual protecting.
The bits that hold it all together
Good tape is not the place to save fifty rupees. Proper packing tape, the wide, strong kind, seals a box so the bottom doesn't give out on the stairs, which cheap stationery tape absolutely will. Tape the base of every box in a cross, not a single strip.
Stretch film, the cling-wrap-on-a-roll stuff, is brilliant for the jobs tape can't do, keeping drawers shut, binding the legs of a dismantled table to its top, holding a bundle of cables together, wrapping upholstery against dust without leaving residue. A roll of it and a marker for labelling round out the kit. Keep the marker on you, a labelled box is worth as much as a well-packed one.
How much of each you'll actually need
People wildly under-buy boxes and over-buy bubble wrap, every time. As a rough feel, a 1 BHK tends to swallow fifteen to twenty-five boxes across the two grades, a 2 BHK more like thirty to forty-five, and a 3 BHK upward of fifty once you count the odds and ends. It's always more than it looks, and running out mid-pack the night before is its own special misery.
For everything else: two or three rolls of good tape, one big roll of bubble wrap for the genuinely fragile, a couple of rolls of stretch film, and far more plain paper than feels reasonable. Buy a little over rather than a little under, unused boxes are easy to give away or return, but a half-packed kitchen at 11pm is not the moment to go hunting for more.
Where to find materials in Bangalore
You've got a few options, and they suit different budgets. The cheapest is free, ask at a nearby supermarket, liquor shop or electronics store for their spare cartons, though you'll get a mix of sizes and grades and you'll want to reinforce the tired ones. Packaging and stationery wholesalers sell proper boxes and rolls by the bundle if you'd rather buy fresh, and plenty of online sellers deliver moving kits to your door.
The simplest option, of course, is not to source any of it. When a crew packs for you it all arrives in the right quantities and grades, factored into the quote, so you're not measuring out bubble wrap the night before or wondering whether twenty boxes is enough. For a big move that convenience is often worth more than the saving on second-hand cartons.
The one thing to skip
Old newspaper. It feels thrifty, and everyone's grandmother swore by it, but the ink comes off on everything, your white crockery, your glassware, your hands, and you'll spend the first day at the new place washing it all again. Plain paper costs very little and doesn't do that.
Beyond that, don't over-buy the fancy stuff for a small move, a couple of rolls of bubble wrap, a good stack of paper, strong tape and the right boxes will handle most homes. Get those few things right and you're most of the way to everything arriving in one piece.
Rather leave the packing to someone else?
Our crews do this every day, materials included, with a firm quote after a free survey. Tell us about your move and we'll sort the rest.
