Packing Wardrobes and Clothes for a Move: Hanging Rails to Drums

The wardrobe is open, there are clothes on the bed, on the floor and on three chairs, and the truck is due in two hours. Clothes look like the easy part of a move, until you realise how many there are and how quickly good ones get creased, wet or lost.

Here is a simple way to pack wardrobes and clothes for a house move, in the order that saves the most time.

Sort before you pack anything

Take everything out and make three piles: keep, give away, and throw away. If you have not worn something in a year and it does not fit, it is probably not worth the space on the truck.

Do the sorting a few days before, not on moving day. Clothes you are giving away can go to family, church or a charity the same week, which means fewer things to load.

Then split what you are keeping by how you will carry it:

1. Everyday clothes: shirts, jeans, T-shirts, underwear. These can be folded.
2. Good clothes: suits, dresses, native wear, aso-ebi, uniforms. These travel best hung or laid flat.
3. Bulky items: coats, blankets, duvets, towels. These take space more than care.
4. Special items: wedding clothes, family heirlooms, anything that cannot be replaced.

Everyday clothes: fold and fill

Fold clothes neatly and pack them into boxes, bags or suitcases. Keep each box to a weight one person can lift. A box full of jeans is heavier than it looks.

You can leave clothes in their drawers if the chest of drawers is sturdy and the drawers are light enough. Tape the drawers shut, but do not leave them full of heavy things, which strains the furniture. Take out heavy items like books, shoes and metal items first.

Put a layer of tissue or paper between lightly coloured and darker clothes if they might run in the damp. Rainy days do happen, and wet dye is a sad thing to find in a box.

Good clothes: hang them or lay them flat

For suits, dresses and native wear, you have two sensible choices.

Hanging: Use a wardrobe box if you have access to one, or a long rail in the truck with the clothes hung in a stable position. Alternatively, bundle several hangers together, slide a bin bag over the top from the bottom up, and tie it at the hook. This keeps dust and light rain off.

Laying flat: Lay the garment out, fold along natural lines, and place tissue paper between the folds. Put it in a box with the heaviest items at the bottom. Lay lace and beaded fabrics out flat with tissue between each layer, so the beads do not snag.

Keep a short rule in mind: anything with beads, stones or stiff embroidery lies flat. Do not squeeze it into a bag.

Drums, sacks and bags

In Lagos many people use plastic drums, ghana-must-go bags and sacks for bulky soft items. They work well for blankets, towels, bedding.

• Use clean, dry drums with a lid or a tied plastic sheet over the top.
• Do not use a drum that smells of chemicals or fuel. The smell goes into the cloth.
• Line a sack with a clean bin bag if the sack is dirty.
• Do not overfill. A bag you can barely close will split on the first corner.

Put soft items in the gaps around furniture on the truck, so they do double duty as padding. That works only if the bags are clean and waterproof. Our guide on packing a kitchen works the same way for other rooms.

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Choose your vehicle, propose your price, and verified drivers in Lagos, Abuja and Ibadan accept or send a counter-offer.

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Shoes, bags and accessories

Stuff shoes with socks to hold their shape. Put them in a separate box or bag, not on top of clothes, because the soles carry dirt. Keep handbags stuffed with tissue or paper, and place them upright in a box. Keep belts and ties rolled and put them inside a pair of shoes or a small pouch.

Pack jewellery, watches and small valuables yourself, and carry them with you. They should not ride on the truck.

Label everything

Write the room and the owner on every box and bag: "Main bedroom, work clothes" or "Children, school uniforms". Mark which box to open first, such as the one with tomorrow's clothes and towels. Our post on labelling and numbering boxes is a handy system.

Keep a small bag with a few days of clothes, your toiletries, chargers and important papers. It stays with you.

The wardrobe itself

If it comes apart, take it apart. Remove doors, shelves and the rail, keep the screws in a bag taped to the side, and wrap the panels in blankets. If it does not come apart, empty it completely, tape the doors shut and strap it upright. For heavy wooden wardrobes see our guide on moving heavy wooden furniture.

How to do this on Sphere

For a whole household, open the Sphere app and request a pickup van or a truck, depending on how much you are moving. Add both addresses and describe the load in detail: wardrobes, boxes, drums and bags. Then propose a price. Nearby verified drivers accept or send counter-offers, and you choose.

Before you accept, agree with the driver who will do the loading and offloading, and whether the truck has somewhere dry to keep soft items. See house moving in Lagos for more.