How to pack a mattress, pillows and duvets for a move

The bed is the last thing you take apart and the first thing you need. You sleep in it until the night before the move, you strip it in a hurry in the morning, and that same evening you want it made up again in a new home, without knowing which box the sheets ended up in.

In between there are three things that behave differently from everything else. The mattress doesn't fit in any box. Pillows and duvets do, but they weigh little and take up a lot of room, and they fill one box after another before you notice. It pays to decide in advance what to do with each of them.

The mattress: a sealed bag, and always on its edge

The mattress travels on its own, and its enemy is dirt. It goes down the stairs, leans against the wall in the entrance hall and ends up on the floor of the van, next to trolley wheels and wet shoes. Whatever sticks to the fabric won't come off with a quick brush, and you sleep on it that same night.

So it needs to be covered. Shops that sell packing materials have bags made for the job, in single and double sizes: slide the mattress in from the short end, fold the open end over and seal it with tape, which goes on the bag and never on the fabric. If you have no bag, an old sheet tied at the corners keeps the dust off, but it won't keep the rain off.

Then it is carried by two people, on its edge. If it has handles on the sides, use them to guide it, with your other hand under the edge. Don't fold it to get it through a door or into the lift unless the manufacturer's instructions allow it: the label sewn on the edge or the product sheet for the model will tell you.

In the van it stands on its edge against a side wall, along with shelves, bed bases and the other long, flat pieces: that is the order explained in the guide to loading the van. Nothing with sharp corners leans against the mattress, and nothing goes on top of it.

When you arrive, take the bag off as soon as the mattress is in the bedroom. Sealed in plastic, it holds on to the moisture it picked up on the way, and a mattress needs to air before you make the bed.

Pillows and duvets: lots of volume, few kilos

A folded double duvet fills a good part of a box on its own, and two pillows fill the rest. The risk is the opposite of the one with books: the boxes don't get heavy, you just end up with a lot of them.

There are two good ways to use them. The first is as padding: on top of a layer of books or dishes, a pillow fills the empty space and keeps what is underneath from moving: that is exactly how boxes of books are done. The second is to give them a box of their own, and then you might as well fill it properly: the duvet at the bottom, folded in three lengthwise, and the pillows standing up at the sides.

Vacuum bags reduce the volume, but before you use them, read the label on every duvet and every pillow, whether it is down, synthetic or memory foam: the manufacturer is the one who says whether it can be compressed. If in doubt, seal the vacuum bag without drawing out all the air.

One thing applies to all of them: they must be clean and dry before they are packed. A duvet washed the day before and still damp in the middle, shut in a bag or a box for two days, may arrive smelling musty.

Where they go in the van

The natural thing is to stuff duvets and pillows into a bin bag, because it is soft and takes any shape. But a bag doesn't stack: it goes on top of everything else, and nothing can go on top of it. If it ends up under a box, all the weight rests on the duvet.

A Cangubox holds 68 litres, has rigid polypropylene walls and stacks even when closed and loaded: the weight of the box above rests on the walls, not on the duvet. The lid, in two hinged halves, closes without tape, and you can open it whenever you need a blanket in the evenings before you leave. You buy the bag, fill it, tie it and throw it away when you arrive; you fill the crate, close it and hand it back at the end.

Soft things still have a place, and it is the gaps between one piece of furniture and the next: there, a loose pillow holds the load in place.

The first night box

A single box, packed the evening before, with the whole bed in it: a change of sheets, the pillowcases, one pillow per person, the duvet or a blanket, and two towels. If there are children, their own pillow and whatever they need to fall asleep.

This box doesn't get mixed up with the others. Give it a number or a tag that sets it apart, and either take it with you in the car or load it last in the van, so it comes off first. As soon as you arrive, take it straight to the bedroom and don't open it until the bed is assembled, which is a job to do while there is still daylight.

In three steps: the mattress in its bag and on its edge against the side of the van, pillows and duvets dry and either filling a gap or in a box of their own, and the bed for the first night packed in one box that travels apart from the rest.