Inflatable packaging

[Chris Hogg]

We'll be moving house fairly soon, and I'm accumulating boxes, bubble wrap etc. in anticipation of packing all the china, glass, small stuff etc.

I've recently had some computer equipment come, packed in quite large inflatable packaging that I've not come across before. This sort of thing

The packages are inflated quite hard and it's not that easy to remove the contents. Sure, I could puncture it or go at it with a Stanley knife and rip it all off, but I'd quite like to save it for future use.

Is there a standard way of deflating this stuff, with a view to re-use? There's a little blue plug that is presumably the filling point, but it seems reluctant to come out.

[newshound]

Is it a removable plug? More likely perhaps a self-sealing point, inflated using a sort of thick hypodermic needle.

"Football" inflaters are like this and usually include a valve so that they can be inflated with a piston type pump. Perhaps you need to find a suitable piece of thin-wall metal tubing with an OD of around 2 mm. Or canibalise an inflater.

Or talk nicely to someone in the medical profession, who might have access to various sizes of hollow needle. I'd be inclined to grind off the sharp end to avoid damaging the blue bit, and maybe lubricate.

[damduck-egg]

A quick look at the Faq of one of the manufactures

suggest not

"How can I deflate an AirPack? It?s simple. Carefully cut through the bag with a pair of scissors, screw the AirPack up and place into your recycling bin."

Your link suggests a Chinese supplier and i doubt they would be supplying anything more sophisticated.

will you be running the contents of any deep freezers down befoe the move? sticking them in one may cause them so shrink a bit.

G.Harman

[Dave Liquorice]

Hum...

You pack it, it gets broke, your problem. They pack it, it gets broke, their problem.

Boxes, random sized boxes are a PITA to stack etc in the wagon and may "settle" in transit squiging other boxes and their contents.

If you want to prepack anything get boxes from the removers and do things that are hard to break, like books, clothes etc. Be aware that books are *heavy*, You don't want a box much bigger than 13 x 15 x

18" for books or it'll be too heavy.

[Steve Walker]

My uncle was at one point a teacher, teaching the children of the British Army based in Germany. While he was there, someone else had a

3-week old Mk4 Cortina Estate written off and he bought the wreck (it was even the same colour as his). When he was moving home, he pointed out a few tea-chests to the movers, passed them some cash and told them that they were a bit heavy. One had the engine, another the gearbox, etc. He managed to ship back pretty well all of the car, except the shell and anything from the nearside front corner!

SteveW

[Brian Gaff]

Its welded in I imagine, otherwise a big shock would produce that deflating balloon raspberry sound. Brian

[Chris Hogg]

I have moved house before :-) We're not in a hurry (no deadlines, chain etc) and most of it will be a DIY move, with removers called in a the end only for the big stuff that I can't manage on my own or won't fit in the car, but thanks anyway.

[Chris Hogg]

Thanks for those suggestions. I have an ice-cream carton full of assorted syringes and needles of various sizes (accumulated over the years as I've come across them, not for 'personal use', but occasionally really useful). I'll give one a try.

[newshound]

The first time we moved, my wife found the biggest cardboard box she could, and spent ages stacking all my books very neatly in it. I reckon it weighed about 3 cwt, and of course there was nothing to get a grip on even for a couple of big strong lads.

[Bill Wright]

No no no! Don't puncture it! It's full of deadly Chinese fart gas!

Bill

[Huge]

Spot on. We moved house in February 2016, and the horror is still fresh in my mind. My wife has a large collection of "art" and antique glass which had to be packed by the movers, then unpacked, then repacked because we had nowhere to display it until I'd re-assembled the cabinets, and there were a lot of other things higher up the list. Indeed, I didn't finally finish them until a couple of weeks ago.

Our movers provided "free" boxes. (They were £1 each, but you got it back off your bill if you actually used them to move. They also took them back once we'd finished with them.) IIRC we had some 300 in total.

Ahh, yes. Books. I have a collection of SF books that went into ~45 boxes.

Precisely. Although the movers moved them. Fortunately, I managed to stop them piling them against the wall in the room where they were going, else I would have had to move them again to put up the bookshelves.

I'm never moving house again. Ever.

[MM]

You can buy 50m Air Inflatable Rolls Bag Packaging Material Cushion in Column Bag Bubble Wrap(30cm) on Amazon.co.uk for £30.99.

They have other lengths as well.

MM

[Dave Liquorice]

Fairy Nuff, random sized boxes are still a PITA though, height particulary. Banana boxes are good, very strong, finger holes on the ends, fairly big but not so big that one full of books is glued to the floor, blagable from anywhere selling bananas. The lids have full depth sides but that can be cut back to 3" or so the biger snag is the hole in the bottom but the bits you cut of the lid can be fitted and parcel taped over that.

[Chris Hogg]

We have three sizes of box: a lot of sturdy business 'archive boxes' thrown out by a previous employer after an office move, and two sizes of larger strong cardboard boxes, bought off the Internet flat-packed. These latter require brown parcel tape to hold them together; unfortunately one lot has got some sort of surface treatment and the tape doesn't stick very well; they seem dusty. We have a lot of books, which will probably be taken over in small numbers in carrier bags. Everything will be transported in the back of the hatchback with the back seat folded down. A journey of about ten miles.

As I said, we're able to take our time, with no pressure or deadline to meet. I anticipate it'll take two or three weeks to move everything.

[tabbypurr]

Cardboard vegetable trays are great for moving & freely available. But they're not seen as domestic waste when disposing.

NT

[Vir Campestris]

Our books went in the smallest of the remover's boxes: 60x60x30 (cm) IIRC.

That's heavy, but not impossible.

Andy