Sunday, May 6, 2012

How to Pack Up a Display Cabinet

ADVANCE PLANNING:
1: Arrange to acquire a display cabinet. Some steps like this one can actually be done much in advance, months or even years. While you are waiting to pack up the cabinet, it may even used for such things as displaying decorative objects. However, should you do so, it is important to complete step 4.

2: Have a close family member find employment at a company which throws out sturdy double-wall boxes and bubble wrap. One which receives a large quantity of fragile materials from a foreign country would be ideal, such as one doing circuit board assembly. Encourage family member to bring home quantities of such discarded packing materials on a regular basis.

3: Arrange to have a reason to pack up said cabinet, such as moving the household to another state.

4: Be prepared to take advantage of an opportunity to empty out your display cabinet, such as reflooring in laminate the room of the house in which it currently sits. During this you can make decisions on sorting the contents. Which can be packed now? Given away? Sent back to the auction house to be resold, as the planned move will be expensive?

5: Locate spot in house to save the empty boxes from which flooring (see #4) has been removed. These can take up large quantities of space, and without weight inside are likely to be tippy when stacked. Choose carefully. The cardboard will be useful for many packing chores.

5: Having gotten this far, one can now spend large quantities of time simply staring at said empty cabinet in the room where it sits. You can take advantage of this period to evaluate levels of dirt on the surface of said cabinet, and their desirability.

6: Grabbing window cleaning spray and a clean towel, use a few idle minutes to wipe fingerprints and dust from the floor resurfacing off the glass and other surfaces of the cabinet.

7: Again you may spend weeks of time staring at the cabinet, now appreciating the shininess of its surfaces and the enormity of getting its many pieces of glass relocated to another state intact.

ACTUAL PACK-UP:
1: On a trip to WalMart, roll your cart past the end display on pillows. Choose between the $2.50 and the $3.97 offerings for suitable quality. Pick up four. Note that this may over-fill your cart, especially if you are sitting in an electric cart with its smaller basket and higher placement of basket relative to your line of sight. Try to avoid running over small children who seem to find new ways every minute to hide in your blind spot. Practice cheerfully calling out "Beep beep" rather than "Hey! Move, brat!" You may consider asking staff to unload your cart into a regular cart and have it waiting for you at the customer service counter while you finish the rest of the shopping you came for. If that action is chosen, do not forget to ask for cart and contents while in the process of checking out.

2: Have handy person in household check inside of cabinet for security of fastenings holding vertical glass panels in place and lower horizontal glass shelves to floor inside cabinet.

3: Leaving plastic bags on pillows, slide inside cabinet, standing on side and on each other to fill up space from within, giving gentle pressure to glass from inside. This helps hold glass in place during transport. Leaving plastic on pillows aids in their remaining usable once one reaching destination despite possible glass breakage during move.

4: Flatten pieces from cardboard boxes (see #5 above section) and tape together to form a large single cardboard piece to bend suitably around the front and sides of cabinet. Packing tape is ideal. Please note that tape is not attached to anywhere on the front or sides of the cabinet. Eventually it decomposes and leaves residue, making for unnecessary clean-up chores. Tape on the back side can be tolerated, however, if there is no other choice. It should only be used there to hold cardboard in place during the final step. It is possible to use another person's hands to hold the cardboard up, especially for fitting, but take care to remove the hands during the final wrap. Nobody is going to want to volunteer to stand next to the cabinet for however long it takes to move, unload, and unpack cabinet. Plus, they do tend to leave messes on the new flooring after certain lengths of time, and require hand feeding. This is not the best use of your time: you have a whole house to pack up.

5: Return to Walmart. Realize that you are out of cling-wrap, having used the last box of it up on such mundane items as leftovers. Realize also that four pillows simply will not be enough if everyone who has promised to come down and help you unload the truck and clean and paint the house actually shows up. Realize that you have another display cabinet.  Repeat parts of above sections which are relevant. Check also for remaining levels of packing tape, black markers, and other supplies.

6: Opening a new box of plastic cling-wrap, wind it around and around cabinet and cardboard until all are covered. Cling wrap holds cardboard in place, keeps doors closed and dust out, helps contain broken glass if necessary. Do not forget to include electric cords inside wrap if cabinet is lighted. You can insert a note as to destination room at other end of the move, or other important instructions under wrap. A final piece of packing tape can be used to hold end of wrap in place, again making sure it attaches only to other wrap and not to cabinet. In fact, if any pieces of cabinet are still exposed to attach tape to, you have not wrapped it sufficiently. Do not fear wasting wrap by layering over other wrap. This is not a waste. It helps hold everything together. Just remember: wrap is cheap. Display cabinets aren't. Even if you work for an auction house.

7: Now you can relax and stare at your wrapped cabinet for however many weeks remain until the move. Little further attention is required during this time, other than cleaning the floor under the cabinet regularly of accumulating dust and dog/cat fur balls.

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