This month I’m going to share my real-life packing experiences with you all as I pack the dolls for the journey to the new house.

Naomi helped me with the first job, removing all the costume dolls from the very top shelf. She climbed up my stepladder with a bucket which she filled with dolls and passed to me to put on a flat surface before moving on to the next section. I think she did about four trips up the ladder to get them all. After that, I asked her to lift the wooden shelf off and pass it to me. I will be taking the shelves and brackets with me in case we need to use them at the new house.

First Gather Your Supplies

My friend Gillian sent me two huge packages of bubble wrap that she had spotted on a Facebook giveaway site and this will be used for wrapping the dolls for transport. I had packing boxes already donated by friends and with a roll of packaging tape, scissors and a marker pen. Naomi brought me some extra tape, more bubble wrap, packing beans and shredded paper as well as two packages of “Fragile” stickers. I was ready to go.

Nesting

I decided to pack up the costume dolls first to get them out of the way. One or two fragile ones I put aside to go in a special box. I wrapped each doll in bubble wrap, sometimes two together but I didn’t tape the wrap. I had read of a packing technique known as nesting and this is what I did with a lot of the smallest items. The smallest dolls I packed into small boxes which then went into the larger box. Larger dolls were then added on top and the top of the box had a layer of air fill cushioning as well. I was able to fit a few larger vinyl dolls into the box as well.

I packed the little accessories that usually sit in the Tammy House into drawers in the wooden cabinet before wrapping the cabinet in bubble wrap and placing it in a box with the rest of the furniture which then went into the packing crate.

Packing

Box 2 I packed with the vintage Barbies. I decided not to wrap every individual doll because I don’t have enough bubble wrap. Instead, I layered air-fill cushioning between each row of dolls. I did use a heck of a lot of bubble wrap but I felt better safe than sorry. We will, of course, save it and reuse it when Naomi moves her things and then it will probably be offered to someone else who needs it.

Here are the first few filled boxes ready to go.

Wrapping

Here are some photos I took while I was wrapping the more fragile dolls. First I wrapped their heads in bubble wrap. I also wrapped the hands and legs on some of them. In some cases, I used tissue paper instead of bubble wrap. After that, I wrapped the whole doll.

Another thing you can do is to use things like pillows, cushions and towels to pad the dolls. I did this in my last move as I didn’t have so much bubble wrap (or so many dolls) Some of the big girls have been packed in old suitcases and I wrapped them in towels, a good way to pack two things at once. After placing the dolls I filled the gaps with packing beans to protect them if they move around.

Finally after packing everything I could I removed the shelves to take with me. A friend came over to help me with a couple of stubborn screws. It has been a massive exercise and took much longer than I expected so my final advice is to do what Naomi suggested to me and pack the dolls first along with other fragile and precious items. Give yourself plenty of time to get it done and take breaks when you need to.

I will do a post on setting up the new doll room but before we do that I think we are going to paint it and organise our storage units first so it may not happen until after Christmas. Naomi will be bringing her other dolls and teddies and we hope to have them all together in a big downstairs bedroom.