How to Pack Gym Equipment for a Move

All My Sons Moving & Storage provides professional packing services to prepare everything you own, including your home gym equipment, for your long-distance or local move. Packing your home gym yourself? Follow these 5 steps to ensure a smooth home-gym move.

Your home collection of dumbbells, kettlebells, yoga mats, and resistance bands can give your home workouts just the right level of challenge. As a fitness enthusiast, you adore the burn. That Pilates foam roller will have to be pried from your exhausted sweaty fingers. Unfortunately, even fitness enthusiasts must move and gym equipment items like weights are some of the most difficult items to pack and relocate.

As always before a move, downsize and declutter your gym equipment collection before your move to ensure that everything coming with you fits into your new life. Then follow the following steps for packing your home gym equipment.

The items in constant contact with sweat and dirt undoubtedly pick up bacteria and weird smells over time. Before you pack anything into boxes, give your gym equipment a good scrub down with a disinfectant. Shine up those weights, spray off your yoga matts, and run your gym towels through the laundry. Make sure everything is dry before you pack.

This step is especially important if your gym equipment is going into storage for any length of time, as sour smells and bacteria will thrive in hot, dark boxes over weeks or months. Damp items also invite the growth of mold and mildew. Clean everything off beforehand and you’ll be able to open your boxes at your new home without any musty odors hitting you in the face.

A simple 10-pound dumbbell might not achieve your best strength-training burn, but put that weight in a weak cardboard box and it could still tear straight through the bottom. Your weights should be packed in boxes or containers sturdy enough to handle them, and you should still be very careful not to overload those containers.

If you are using cardboard boxes to carry your weights, check to make sure there is no pre-existing damage or wear on them. Reinforce the seal on the bottom of the box with extra tape. As a general rule, you should also aim to pack heavier items like books, dishes, and your home weights in smaller boxes so they can be more easily lifted and transported. 

You can also pack weights into small to medium-sized sturdy plastic bins.

Line the bottoms of your boxes with packing material like bubble wrap or packing paper for extra protection.

Use bubble wrap, packing paper, or your gym towels to wrap and protect your dumbbells, kettlebells, and weight plates. This will help keep them from scratching each other or any other items in your boxes in the event your box gets jostled.

Once you have put your wrapped weights in the bottoms of your boxes, pack the rest of the box with lighter materials like resistance bands and yoga mats. Once the box has all the gym equipment pieces that can comfortably fit, fill the empty space in your box or plastic bin with extra packing material like bubble wrap, packing peanuts, and packing paper. This will help steady the items inside and keep them from knocking around.

Check the weight of your box before you seal it and make sure you can lift the box either by yourself or with the help of a dolly. Overloaded boxes are a recipe for moving injuries and damaged items, so always make sure a box can be comfortably handled before you seal it.

When you are satisfied with how your box is packed, seal and label the box. Mark your gym equipment boxes as “HEAVY” so that you and your movers know to be careful with the boxes.

Once you have all your gym equipment boxes relocated to your new home, you can take great joy in setting up your next home gym for your first post-move workout. Happy strength-building!

If packing your gym equipment sounds like too much weight to bear, never fear! The professional movers at All My Sons Moving & Storage can spot you. Let us handle everything from the professional packing to the heavy labor like loading and lifting. You’ll be able to move your home gym in record time. Use the online quote form to get started on your move.