Vacuum cleaners are a household essential, but become all the more important during a house move.
Moving house without a vacuum is next to impossible to thoroughly clean your old house and new home, so safely packing it at the right time is important.
Vacuum cleaners are not cheap, so learning how to pack a vacuum cleaner and its accessories in the right way is crucial to ensure no parts are damaged, lost, or left behind during the moving process.
To pack a vacuum cleaner for moving house, you will need to:
- Pack your vacuum cleaner last
- Prepare your vacuum cleaner for the move
- Disassemble the vacuum cleaner
- Prepare a box with packing paper
- Pack the vacuum cleaner and vacuum accessories
- Clearly label the box
1. Pack Your Vacuum Cleaner Last
The first step to packing your vacuum is to ensure that you pack it last.
This is important because you’re likely to have a lot of cleaning to do throughout the moving process, which will be made significantly easier by having a vacuum cleaner to hand.
As packing it will temporarily make your vacuum cleaner unavailable, then, it’s recommended to leave this until it’s absolutely necessary to pack.
2. Prepare Your Vacuum Cleaner For The Move
To prepare your vacuum cleaner for moving, you will first need to empty the vacuum cleaner.
To do this either throw away the dust bag or empty the vacuum cleaner canister. This step is carried out to remove any dirt, dust, and hair in your vacuum cleaner that could potentially cause a mess when the vacuum is disassembled, and is especially important if you plan to store your vacuum for the long term.
If your vacuum cleaner contains any carpet cleaning liquid, you will also need to empty this to prevent any spillages from occurring during transit.
Wipe down the exterior of the vacuum cleaner with a damp cloth and dry with an old towel before moving on to the next step.
To prepare your vacuum cleaner for moving house, either throw away the dust bag or empty the vacuum cleaner canister.
3. Disassemble The Vacuum Cleaner
Once your vacuum is clean ahead of the move, it’s time to disassemble the vacuum cleaner.
Vacuums can be incredibly heavy and bulky, so disassembling them is important to ensure your vacuum cleaner will comfortably fit inside a cardboard box.
Disassembling the vacuum cleaner also means there’s less risk of the vacuum cleaner being packed inappropriately to make it fit in a box, which is important to avoid if you’re putting it in a storage facility for a longer period of time.
If you’re not sure how to disassemble your vacuum cleaner into smaller parts, then it’s best to refer to the instruction manual to make sure you’re not at risk of damaging your vacuum cleaner by mistake.
4. Prepare A Box With Packing Paper
Next, you will need to prepare a box with packing paper. This will help to ‘absorb shock’ caused by transit, helping to protect your vacuum cleaner during the move.
Generally speaking, the box the vacuum arrived in is the best option, but if you don’t still have this, then you’ll need to opt for a strong cardboard box.
Depending on the size of your vacuum once it has been disassembled, it might be that you need to prepare more than one box.
5. Pack The Vacuum Cleaner & Vacuum Accessories
Once the box has been prepared with packing paper, you’ll need to pack the vacuum cleaner and its accessories.
From different attachments and nozzles to spare dust bags, your vacuum cleaner will likely have accessories you need to keep track of during the move.
While it would be ideal to pack the vacuum cleaner and its accessories in the same box to keep it as organised as you can, this might not be possible, and you don’t want to be at risk of damaging any parts of your vacuum cleaner by packing them in a box.
Once you’ve packed them, fill up any gaps with more packing paper and tape the boxes firmly shut with packing tape.
6. Clearly Label The Box
Lastly, you will need to clearly label the box or boxes containing your vacuum cleaner and vacuum cleaner accessories when moving house.
You can label your vacuum cleaner box with anything such as ‘Heavy – Vacuum Cleaner’ or ‘Vacuum Cleaner Accessories’ if you can’t fit the accessories in the same cardboard box as the vacuum cleaner.
This is an important step to indicate to the removal company that they could be carrying a potentially very heavy box.
Clearly labelling your box will also ensure you can easily locate your vacuum cleaner in your new home, as you’ll likely want to clean as you go during the unpacking process.
You can label your vacuum cleaner box with anything such as ‘Heavy – Vacuum Cleaner’ or ‘Vacuum Cleaner Accessories’ if you can’t fit the accessories in the same cardboard box as the vacuum cleaner.
We hope that this article has given you a wider understanding of how to pack a vacuum cleaner for moving.
To learn more about our removals services or purpose-built storage facilities, contact Nathan. At Falconers we use meticulous moving techniques, passed down and perfected through generations for over 132 years, to ensure your goods are moved with expert precision and kept in perfect condition. For more expert advice on how to pack, move and store your belongings — or other FAQs on how removals work — check out our blog page.
Written by Jemima Thomas for Falconer Removals & Storage.
