How to Pack a China Cabinet

A china cabinet is often one of the most elegant - and most expensive - pieces of furniture in your home. Made of finished wood and delicate glass, it houses fragile china, glassware, and other treasured possessions. This beautiful piece of furniture is both cumbersome and frail, making it particularly difficult to move. Here are some tips to learn how to pack a china cabinet for moving to ensure that it arrives to your new home undamaged and intact.

Clear out the contents and shelving

The first and most important thing you should do when packing furniture with glass doors is to clear out the contents stored on the shelves. Take out all china and glassware from inside the furniture and pack each item separately.

The best way to pack china is to secure in dish carton. Remember when packing china is that these items are quite delicate and hence you shouldn't skimp on the packing material, even if it costs you a bit more.

To get more information on packing china, read our guide How to pack china for moving.

After packing china and other glassware in separate containers, remove all shelves by sliding them out of the thin slots that hold them in place. Not removing shelves or leaving anything inside the cabinet can cause damage to the items during transport. So, make sure all items are out of the cabinet before attempting to move it.

Remove and wrap the glass doors

Like a china cabinet, any piece of furniture with glass doors should be taken apart before packing it. To remove your cabinet's glass doors, remove the screws that attach the hinges to the door. While you are removing the screws, make sure that you are gently leaning up against the door since when the screws are removed, the weight of the door can cause it to become unhinged and fall.

After slowly lifting the door off of the hinges and placing safely on the ground in a protected place, take all the screws and place them in a plastic bag. Then attach the bag to the back or bottom of the cabinet so it doesn't get lost or misplaced during the move.

Now you can properly protect the glass doors by wrapping them in packing paper. Once you have securely covered with wrap, slide doors into a mirror box or any other package that will securely contain them so they don't move during transport.

If you opt not to remove the glass flaps on the fixture, then you must shrink wrap or lock or tie the doors shut. By no means use tape since the sticky substance can ruin wood for life, so often striping the finish when it is being removed after use.

Tip: Protect the glass doors by wrapping them in packing paper and then with bubble wrap. You can then either pack the doors in a specialty box or wrap them again in a furniture blanket.

Remove the drawers and shelves if necessary

Many china cabinets are made up of an upper section (with glass doors and shelves to display china) and a lower section (with drawers for other storage). If possible, remove the drawers and shelves and wrap each piece individually with a protective moving blanket for an easier transport.

Protect and wrap the china cabinet

Now that you have emptied the china cabinet and packed its content, it's time to pack and protect the furniture. Protecting and packing furniture with glass doors may seem like a tedious task, but it is necessary to protect these expensive units from sustaining damage during transit. The following steps will show how to wrap a china cabinet for moving:

• Wrap each piece (or the entire cabinet if it is one piece) with furniture blankets.
• Tape over the cloth in a complete circle from top-to-bottom and side-to-side.

  Tip: Avoid sticking any tape to the wood since it can cause permanent damage.

• If your cabinet cannot be disassembled and you have left the doors on the cabinet, you can use large sheets of cardboard to protect them.
• After wrapping the entire cabinet with furniture blankets and securing with tape, position the sheets of cardboard over the glass parts of the cabinet. Secure it again with more tape.

  Tip: Avoid placing bubble wrap directly on glass as it can leave behind unsightly marks.

Don't forget the legs!

Have a helper or two tilt the cabinet for you carefully so that you can secure the furniture blanket around your cabinets' wooden legs with tape. The legs are often the most vulnerable part of your furniture and the most susceptible to damage, so it is imperative that they are protected from nick and scratches as well.

Moving china cabinet

Though you have carefully packed and protected every piece of the china cabinet, loading and unloading this delicate unit can literally make or break all the hard work you've already put in. If the unit is not loaded and unloaded into the moving truck with extreme care, it can become permanently marred. Here are some things to note on how to move a china cabinet with extreme care.

• It's always good to hire movers to protect your furniture cabinet.
• When moving the boxes that contain the glass doors, use extreme caution; make sure to place them in a part of the truck where no other boxes or furniture can fall on them and puncture or crack the glass.
• Once you have reached your destination, it is just as important to unload the cabinet and all of its pieces with extreme care.
• After you have placed the cabinet in its new home, then you can put the shelves back, reattach the glass doors, and fill it up with all the contents that you removed at the start of this process.