How to Move a China Cabinet: Step-By-Step Guide

What will happen if you accidentally drop a book on the floor? Will it break into hundreds of small pieces? No. Will that book be ruined forever? Of course not!

Probably the worst things that can happen are 1) you will have to bend down to pick it up, and 2) you will need to find, again, the page you’ve been reading.

Now, what will happen if you drop a fine china plate on a tiled or hardwood floor? What are the chances of that chinaware piece surviving the accident unscathed? 1:10? 1:100? Or maybe 1:1000? Either way, it’s bad.

If you own a china cabinet, then you must know how delicate, elegant, and beautiful that piece of furniture is.

What’s more, china cabinets usually contain expensive and sentimental chinaware (fine china plates, china cups, china bowls – the most breakable items in a home!), fragile crystal glassware, priceless heirlooms, pricey collectibles, and other highly treasured possessions of yours.

You’ll soon be facing the challenge of all relocation challenges – how to move a china cabinet to another home so that nothing bad happens to it.

One wrong movement will send a breakable piece on a short flight toward the floor, remember? One careless step could ruin your prized furniture piece made of delicate glass and finished wood.

How to move a china cabinet by yourself?

Your packing and moving actions must be logical and coordinated. Learn the steps to packing china for moving, then read the step-by-step guide and good advice on how to move your china cabinet without damaging it forever in the relocation process.

Throughout this article, we will refer to Bubble Wrap® (which is the trademark of Sealed Air Corporation) and the name by which most people refer to air-filled plastic packaging.

Fine china packing supplies

The very first step to packing your china plates is to think about whether you want or need to take them with you to your new house or apartment.

If your displayed dishes are part of a valuable collection of chinaware and the cabinet itself is an antique china cabinet or it has a sentimental value for you, then yes – you will move them with you no matter what.

However, it’s important to remember that the transportation of your china closet and its contents will cost you a fair amount of money and time.

Before you can actually pack up and move your china cabinet itself, you are strongly advised to remove all the fragile items that it holds on display, wrap them up correctly, and pack them safely in suitable containers.

The safest way to pack china comes down to 1) having good quality packing materials, 2) not skimping on those packing supplies, and 2) following the basic safety rules of packing fragile items.

Getting hold of high-quality fine china packing supplies is a must-do step for packing china dishes quickly and safely.

You don’t really intend to just lift your china closet as it is and carry it toward the moving vehicle, do you?

Such a reckless act would easily be classified as one of the biggest moving mistakes ever made.

The major china packing supplies are:

Dish boxes

You will need dish boxes that provide the best protection for your breakables thanks to their double layer of thick corrugated cardboard.

You can purchase such specialized moving containers either from a local moving company or from an office supply store near you.

If finding double-walled dish packs turns out to be a problem, standard cardboard boxes can also save the day but then you should make sure you provide more padding and cushioning to compensate for the weaker protection of single-walled boxes.

Types of Moving Boxes: The Best Moving Boxes for Your Packing Needs

Bubble wrap®

The well-known air-filled plastic material is ideal for protecting the chinaware and crystal glasses found in your china closet.

Bubble wrap® is often considered the ultimate protection for delicate items when the latter are being moved from one home to another.

Purchase as much bubble wrap® as you can afford, as its beneficial usage can never be stressed enough.

Did you know? Bubble wrap® was invented in 1957 by Marc Chavennes and Alfred W Fielding as a wall covering. However, the idea never caught on, and in 1960 they founded Sealed Air Corp with Bubble Wrap® being their signature brand.

How to Use Bubble Wrap for Packing

Packing paper

Make sure the packing paper you get is soft enough as it will be the very first layer of protection for your delicate china.

The more paper you use when packing your chinaware, the better, of course, so be as generous with it as your budget allows it.

How to Use Packing Paper When Moving

How to pack china for moving: 11 steps you must know

Armed with suitable packing supplies, here are the steps that will teach you how to pack fine china when moving house:

• Step 1. Reinforce the bottoms and sides of the cardboard boxes you’ve chosen to use to transport your chinaware. This safety step is to make sure the containers won’t break even though they may be brand new.
• Step 2. Place wads of crumpled paper on the bottom of the boxes before starting to fill them up. Newsprint is a good option here – you can’t pack china in newspapers due to possible ink stains but you can use newsprint as insulation and additional protection.
• Step 3. Position one fine china plate in the middle of a few sheets of packing paper – 2-3 sheets should be enough.
• Step 4. Pull the corners of the sheet stack over the plate so that it ends up being completely covered. Use packing tape to secure the paper edges.
• Step 5. Wrap a single sheet of Bubble wrap® over the bundle, and again, use a bit of tape to keep the whole package in place.
• Step 6. Repeat these steps with each piece of chinaware you have in your china cabinet. Once ready, you can start arranging the wrapped pieces in their respective boxes.
• Step 7. Place the protected china plates in the boxes on their edges – if you arrange them flat, the weight of the above pieces might damage the ones below. Start the arrangement process with the lighter fine porcelain plates and finish with the heavier ones.
• Step 8. Keep in mind that in most cases, a dish box will allow for a second row of bundled chinaware so you should definitely take advantage of that, but not before you separate the two formed rows by placing a couple of sheets of Bubble wrap®.
• Step 9. Remember to fill any remaining spaces inside the cardboard box with the help of newspapers, no longer needed pieces of bubble wrap®, or old but clean pieces of clothing once a dish pack won’t fit any more china pieces. Your goal is to make sure nothing will move inside the container during the haul.
• Step 10. Lift each packed box and give it a gentle shake – if you feel that something is moving inside, be it slightly, consider adding more padding materials before closing the lids.
• Step 11. DON’T UNDERESTIMATE the importance of labeling your dish packs. Use a black or red marker to write down CHINAWARE and FRAGILE on the top of the cardboard box and on at least two of its sides.

Important note 1: The above 11 steps seem to be universal for packing fragile items and will help you pack china bowls and china cups as well. China bowls are usually a bit bulkier and heavier than porcelain dishes, so you will have to be a little more cautious when arranging those breakables into the dish packs.

Important note 2: If your china cabinet contains glassware as well, then some of those glasses may have super delicate stems (champagne glasses, wine glasses, and so on). If so, use more sheets of bubble wrap® along the entire length of the stems up to the glass bowls. Tape the bubbly material in place and then utilize even more soft packing paper to stay on the safe side.

How to move a china cabinet: 10 steps to success

Now that you’re familiar with the best way to pack china for moving, the idea is to finish that task in a timely manner so that you can turn your entire attention to the china cabinet itself.

The best way to move a china cabinet is to hire experienced professionals who will do a great job of packing safely the china ware inside it, protecting the furniture piece the way only experts can do, and transporting both the dish packs and the wooden furniture piece to your new home. This is especially true if you want to move a curved glass china cabinet.

However, the cost to hire those professional packers and movers (What’s The Average Moving Cost?) may not be too agreeable with your budget, so circumstances may force you to move your china cabinet by yourself, with the help of a couple of good friends, of course. And that won’t be too easy to do.

The following step-by-step guide to moving a china cabinet will show you how to pack and transport your precious furniture piece with the required amount of precision, care, and safety.

Step 1. Empty the cabinet’s contents

Take a good look at your china closet (also known as a hutch) and make sure it is completely empty.

By now you should have taken out all of its content (china, glassware, heirlooms, random valuable objects) and packed those prized items separately in the safest way possible (as instructed above).

Anything accidentally left inside the cabinet will most likely be broken beyond repair.

Step 2. Handle the glass elements with care

Most china cabinets have fragile glass doors and frail glass shelves.

How to move a glass cabinet?

Handling the glass elements of your expensive furniture piece can be tricky and plain dangerous. One wrong step here will not only leave shattered glass behind, but the glass pieces may also seriously injure you or the people who are helping you.

Step 3. Secure the glass doors

As you can already guess, securing the glass parts of your hutch is your top priority.

The first task ahead of you is to remove the glass doors and pack them separately.

• Take a screwdriver and remove the screws that hold the hinges.
• Have a helper at all times to keep the doors from falling off.
• Remove the doors of your china cabinet, one by one, slowly and carefully.
• Use work gloves to protect your hands.
• Wrap each door individually in thick packing paper, followed by a second layer of bubble wrap®.
• Wrap the doors in furniture blankets as final protection and secure them with packing tape.
• Keep the screws, hinges, and other smaller parts in Ziploc bags so that they don’t get lost in the process.

Step 4. Secure the glass shelves

The next step is to remove the glass shelves from your china cabinet.

Safety here is of paramount importance!

• Take out the shelves, one by one, without any abrupt movements while exercising extreme caution at the same time.
• Have at least one friend to help you remove those delicate glass shelves – you may need to use different exit angles to avoid contact with the body of the cabinet.
• Use thick work gloves to safeguard your fingers and hands.
• Wrap the disengaged glass shelves in packing paper and then cover them with sheets of bubble wrap®.
• Don’t forget the final protection of thick furniture blankets – old regular blankets should also do the trick.

Step 5. One-piece or two-piece china cabinet?

Your china cabinet may be made up of one inseparable piece, or it may have two sections – an upper section where the chinaware is displayed on glass shelves protected by glass doors, and a lower section with drawers that offer additional storage space.

If yours is a 2-piece china cabinet, then you’ll be glad to know that it’ll be much easier to pack, protect, and transport.

How to take apart a china cabinet?

Separate the two sections with the help of your helpers by observing the weight and bulkiness of the upper piece. Use work gloves for a better grip.

Step 6. Wrap up the entire furniture with blankets

No, the problem in this case is not that your delicate china cabinet might catch a cold – rather, it’s the fragility of the prized furniture that you should be worried about.

Wrap furniture blankets along the entire length and width of your 1-piece or protect the two sections individually with those thick covers to make the china cabinet moving process quicker and safer.

Use tape over the blankets to keep the whole bundle as tight as possible.

Step 7. China cabinet packing considerations

There are a couple of important things to keep in mind when packing a china cabinet to be moved to another house.

• Don’t place bubble wrap® or packing tape directly over the delicate finish or over the glass elements of your china cabinet. The delicate wood finish may end up ruined forever, or unpleasant marks may be left on the glass parts of the furniture.
• If, for some valid reason, you haven’t removed and packed the glass doors separately, then you must keep them safe with cut-out pieces of thick cardboard. Place the cardboard sheets over the glass elements and fix them in place with stretch tape (plastic wrap) or strings of twine.

Step 8. Secure the legs of your cabinet

Not surprisingly, the parts of the china cabinet most susceptible to damage are its legs. Wrap them up with thick blankets or multiple sheets of bubble wrap®, and use plenty of tape to secure them.

If you own an antique china cabinet, its legs are probably heavily ornamented, which makes them even more vulnerable and delicate than most of the furniture pieces found in your home.

How to Protect Furniture When Moving

Step 9. Wheel your furniture out of your home

The final two steps of moving a china cabinet have a great potential to damage the most exquisite furniture piece you probably own.

To avoid accidents and injuries of any type, you and your helpers should first know how to lift a china cabinet (use the proper lifting techniques), and then how to use proper moving equipment to wheel the piece safely out of your home.

An appliance dolly is your best bet to move your heavy china cabinet quickly and safely – just make sure the furniture is perfectly secured and immobilized onto the dolly with the help of rope or straps before you and your friends move it to the waiting moving vehicle.

What to Do if Your Furniture Won’t Fit Through the Door?

Step 10. Load a china cabinet in the moving vehicle

If you’ve chosen not to use professional packers and movers to take care of your china cabinet for you, then you must have rented a moving truck from a truck rental company.

If that’s the case, then you will need to wheel up the secured furniture piece into the back of the vehicle by pulling up the loaded utility dolly along the standard loading ramp of the rented moving van.

Should you decide to borrow a friend’s pickup truck to get the job done, make sure it’s equipped with such a loading mechanism. Anyway, once inside, tie up the bundled china cabinet to the side of the vehicle to prevent any kind of movement along the road.

How to Load a Moving Truck the Right Way

Remember that a china cabinet is a very vulnerable piece of furniture that may be one of the most cherished possessions in your home.

If you feel like the task of packing up your chinaware, plus packing and moving your china cabinet is more than you can handle (after all, you’re not a professional mover), then do the sensible thing and get in touch with top-rated furniture movers you can trust and request price estimates to know where you stand.

Must-read: How to Find the Best Furniture Movers