How To Pack Your Winter Clothes: Winter Is Coming!

How to pack your winter clothes is something that many people want to know. Why is this such a big deal? Well, from all the garments you have your winter clothes is the toughest one to pack. It is bulky, it takes up a large volume of your packing space, and it simply doesn’t want to fold like you want it to!

This is similar to packing for a winter vacation in the mountains, just at least ten times more stressful. But it shouldn’t be like that, since there are some neat tricks to save space when packing winter clothes for moving. 

So, are you ready to learn how to pack winter clothes for moving?

Before You Start

You should know a few important things when you are about to hit that clothes-packing job. No matter what task you are about to handle understanding the specifics will help you secret the best strategy and be time efficient.

Keep in mind that winter clothes are not fragile at all! So when you pack it will not get damaged in any way. Clothes are soft so they cannot possibly break which reduces the pressure of worrying will I do this good? However, winter clothes can be surprisingly heavy so you will need to box them for safe transport. Keep in mind that winter coats, wool sweaters, and jackets made of thick leather tend to weigh more than jackets made of fabric.

It will take plenty of space inside the cardboard boxes and it will force you to use larger packing boxes than you intended in the first place.

Things to do before packing your winter clothes

There are several pre-pack tasks that you should complete first before you start packing your winter clothes. Start with sorting them out so you can check them out. Do this carefully because some things aren’t worth moving and they will take up a lot of free space.

For example, if you’re moving to a warmer climate, you won’t need serious winter garments. Since the climate in your destination area will be mild year-round, you’d be better off without heavy coats, jackets, and wool sweaters.

However, if you’re moving to a cold state, then you will need all your winter garments. Make sure you get rid of the pieces that are too worn out or maybe too thin for those climate conditions. 

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Once you checked all your clothes you will have three piles:

• Pile with clothes that you will carry;
• Pile with clothes you won’t be taking with you but are in great condition (donate,ell, or give to a friend);
• Pile with clothes that is in poor condition that you can discard or use for cushioning when packing.

How To Pack Winter Clothes

Keep in mind that you should use large cardboard boxes for relatively lightweight items such as clothes and bedding, and small to medium boxes for fairly heavy things such as books. So, make sure you have enough large moving boxes before you start packing your winter clothes. 

Keep in mind that some of your winter coats and jackets may be too expensive to risk damage by folding them so you should use specialized wardrobe boxes for them.

How to pack winter coats for moving

Now you should be ready to pack up your winter clothes. Let’s start with your coats and jackets. Here’s the best way to pack winter coats for moving:

• Button up or zip up
• Fold the sleeves of the coat in such a way as to form a rectangle. To do that, position the winter piece of clothing on a flat surface and fold each sleeve backward, parallel to the sides of the coat.
• Fold the entire winter coat in half so that its front is facing you.
• Roll up the folded coat as tightly as possible in an effort to remove any trapped air inside the winter coat roll.
• Keep the hood of the coat extended until the roll is ready. Keep the hood open and tuck the clothes and roll into it.
• Take a couple of elastic rubber bands to secure the tight roll at each side and keep it from unfolding when being transported inside the packing box.
• Place the rolled-up winter coat into a large cardboard box lined up with clean packing paper.

There are two other safe methods of packing winter coats if you don’t want to use regular boxes. These are:

• Wardrobe box – If you own some expensive winter coats and jackets that you’d hate to see all wrinkled up due to the move, then you should pack those inside a specialized wardrobe box.  All you have to do is take your coats out of the dresser and hang them inside the wardrobe box, with the hangers and everything.
• Vacuum bag – If you’re really worried that you won’t have enough space for your bulky winter coats, then you can shrink their overall volume by using a vacuum bag. A quality vacuum storage bag can help you save up to 80% of storage space once the air is sucked out of the bag.

How to pack sweaters for moving

You will be glad to hear that sweaters are easy to pack. Make sure you’re only packing the sweaters you intend to wear in the near future. Here is the best way to do it:

• Place a sweater on a flat surface – for example, on a table or on the bedroom bed.
• Cross the sweater sleeves across its back, forming an X.
• Fold the winter garment into two vertical lines while keeping the X-crossed sleeves inside.
• Roll up the sweater tightly by starting from the bottom and going all the way to the neck.
• Take a couple of elastic rubber bands on each end to fix the sweater roll and keep it from unfolding while in transit.
• Place the rolled-up winter sweater into a large cardboard box pre-lined with clean packing paper.

When you’re packing expensive and delicate sweaters made from cashmere, for instance, wrap them in clean and soft packing paper for extra protection. Tape over the paper roll to keep it in place. You can also decide to pack the most voluminous sweaters in vacuum storage bags to reduce their volume.

How to pack winter accessories like hats, scarves, and gloves 

Packing winter hats, scarves, and gloves for a move are pretty straightforward. You should be able to do this easily and in no time. There are just a few things to bear in mind when doing so:

• Pack all small winter accessories such as hats, scarves, and gloves into a medium size box pre-lined with clean packing paper.
• Remember to label the box appropriately so that you can identify it quickly after the move.
• Be sure to set aside a winter hat, a pair of warm gloves, and a woolen scarf for moving day.

How to pack bulky winter clothes

When you need to handle bulky winter clothes like ski suits the best solution is to use vacuum storage bags. Due to their volume, this task can easily turn into a serious issue during a house move due to the restricted storage space. 

Vacuum bags have a valve on one side where you can fit either a vacuum hose or a hand pump to suck the air out. Without air inside, the volume of your clothes will shrink greatly. Most vacuum storage bags claim to reduce the volume of soft and voluminous items by up to 80%. 

When Packing Is Too Much Ask For A Help

In most cases packing winter clothes for moving is a pretty straightforward task, the only problem is that it is very time-consuming. Therefore if you have very little time to prepare for your moving day, your best bet is to hire IMOVE NYC and trust professional packers.

Our packing efficiency still remains unrivaled, we will pack you neatly and as quickly as possible. All you need to do is give us a call and arrange the date.