Why Your Items Were Separated by the Packers

You hired professional packers to help you pack for your move. 

You were ecstatic to see your belongings packed up quickly by the moving team.

You felt relieved that packing was one less thing you had to worry about.

Until… 

While you were unpacking, you noticed that some matching items were not in the same box.

WHAT?!

Why in the world would the professional packers separate your matching items?

Isn’t it “common sense” to keep matching items together?

Was the problem with the packing team you hired or is this common in the moving industry?

As a professional packer, I can help answer your questions and provide some insight on what may have happened when the packing team packed your belongings.

Before you complain about the packing team, consider these possibilities. 

1. There wasn’t enough room to keep all the matching items together.

When I pack items in a kitchen, I mostly use small boxes. Why? The kitchen typically has the most fragile items, so I pack them in appropriate sized boxes to help minimize the risk of damage during transit.

For fragile items, I prefer to use small boxes when possible so there isn’t as much room for items to shift around. If an item is too big to fit in a small box, then I will use a medium-sized box instead.

Naturally, some matching items will be separated because they can’t fit in the same box together.

For example, if I’m packing a kitchen cabinet that is full of plates and bowls, I might be able to fill up five small boxes with a majority of those items and have five items left. 

I’m not going to try to force those five items into those five boxes. Doing that could cause the items to break. Instead, I’m going to assemble another small box, pack those remaining five items in it, and fill the rest of the box with other kitchen items. 

2. The box would have been too heavy if all the matching items were packed together.

Do you know how much a small box of canned goods weighs? What about a large box of books? 

I don’t know the exact weight, but I do know those things are heavy! 

While your movers are strong, you don’t want them to exert a lot of energy lifting boxes of canned goods, books, or other household items. They need to save their energy for the bulky items such as furniture, appliances, and wardrobe boxes. 

Additionally, the pressure from the weight of those items could cause the boxes to break and the last thing you want is for a sealed box to open up spontaneously while someone is carrying it. 

Therefore, when professionals pack items, we have to consider the weight of those boxes.

Sometimes that means matching items have to be separated to keep the boxes intact and to help prevent physical strain. 

3. Some of those items were heavy so they needed to be packed separately. 

Have you ever picked up a molcajete (that giant stone guacamole bowl)? 

What about a cast-iron Dutch oven or cast iron pan? 

Those things are heavy by themselves! 

Not only do professional packers have to consider box size and box weight, we also have to consider weight distribution in general. 

Because of that, items that are heavy on their own might be packed separately from matching items or similar items to prevent them from damaging each other. 

If there’s still room in that box, the rest of the space might be filled with lightweight items or packing paper to keep that item secure. 

4. The matching items may have been separated to protect those items.

One time, a coworker mentioned that they packed the lids of pots separately to help prevent damage to the items. 

They were worried about the metal and glass rubbing against each other during transit.

While steel pots are usually durable, glass lids are more breakable, so they wanted to help prevent the glass from breaking or chipping. 

Additionally, packing all of the glass lids together (after each one has been wrapped) can help keep those items more secure during transit since they can be packed more compactly. 

Is it necessary to separate those items every time? No, but I can understand their reasoning behind it. 

5. Your matching items were already separated before they started packing.

Sometimes the matching items aren’t together in the same storage area or room of your home which is why they weren’t packed together.

For example, let’s say that I pack up the shoes in a closet. Then, I move to the office to start packing that area. While in the office, I notice there are two different shoes on the floor because your kid or dog decided to play hide-and-seek with them. 

As a packer, I’m not going to open up the shoe boxes I already packed to put those two shoes in them. Doing that would be an inefficient use of my time. How so? I would have to stop packing, open up those boxes, try to fit those shoes in there, and re-tape those boxes.

Even if that took a couple of minutes, you’re paying for a packer’s time, so every minute counts.

The more interruptions that a packer has, the longer the job can take to complete. 

As another example, if some of your mugs, plates, bowls, cups, and utensils are in the dishwasher when the packers arrive, then those items may end up being packed separately from their matching sets since they weren’t ready to be packed at that time. 

Therefore, if you want certain matching items to be packed together, make sure they’re in the same space and ready to be packed before the packers start working. 

6. The spaces in your home may be disorganized. 

This one might ruffle some feathers, but sometimes the matching items aren’t packed together because it’s hard to find them. If the spaces in your home look similar to “junk drawers,” then it can be hard for a packer to know which items are supposed to be together. 

A professional packer’s job is not to organize your belongings. Our job is to pack your belongings into containers. While we do try to be intentional with the way we pack items, we’re not responsible for sorting your belongings and making sure every matching item is together before we start packing. 

Additionally, if you pack some of your items before the packers get there, then that can cause your areas to become “disorganized” because matching items will naturally be separated and the remaining items might be different from each other even though they belong in the same area. 

For example, you might have already packed some food storage containers, pots and pans, and linens that you don’t use often. Because of that, the packers end up packing the similar items that were left behind in separate boxes. If you forgot that you packed those items beforehand, you may not realize that those areas aren’t as organized as they were before you started packing. 

7. The packer didn’t care about keeping the matching items together. 

While many professional packers are intentional about keeping matching items and similar items together when appropriate, not every packer is as intentional when packing. This could be due to a lack of training, having an “off day” due to personal reasons, or simply not caring. 

I recommend considering the previous six reasons I gave before deciding that this reason is the real reason your matching items were separated during the packing process. 

Get Ready for Your Packing Appointment

If you’ve hired professional packers or movers (or plan to), then I recommend getting Moving Day Essentials to help you prepare for your packing appointment. This digital printable guide contains checklists you can use to get your home ready for the professionals and worksheets you can use to keep track of the essentials you will need on the days surrounding your move.

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Over to You – Matching Items Separated by Packers

If you’ve ever hired professional packers or movers and noticed that some of your matching items were separated, what was your first reaction? How did you feel and what did you think? Let me know your answers in the comments below.