How to Pack Stuffed Animals for a Move

The professional packers at All My Sons Moving & Storage offer advice for how to pack everything you own, including your delightful stuffed animal friends. If you are moving with kids or you’re attached to your own childhood cuddle buddies, you can follow this 5-step guide for packing up the stuffed animals.

Got classic teddy bears, unicorns with bright pink yarn for mane, and lovable sloths filled with flaxseed and dried lavender so you can heat them up and hug them close? Stuffed animals bring joy to children (and adults!) with tender hearts. 

Get those prancing ponies, fleece-covered elephants, and felt rabbits all packed up and ready for the big move.

You should always look to fully declutter before a move. Moving is the best time to decide what in your household inventory should come with you and what it might be time to let go of. As you and your children prepare to pack the stuffed animals, consider them each individually and sort them into four categories.

• Sell: Stuffed animals in superb condition that could fetch a fair price from the right family can be sold on sites like OfferUp, Mercari, or Facebook Marketplace. High-value or special collector’s stuffed animals could get a good price from an antique store or on ebay. 

• Donate: Your plush friend might be ready to go on a new adventure and be adopted by someone in need. The nationwide charities Goodwill, The Salvation Army, and Second Chance Toys all have drop-off locations where you can send stuffed animals looking for a new home. The non-profit SAFE (Stuffed Animals for Emergencies) takes donations of gently used stuffed animals to provide to children in traumatic or emotional situations. The London-based charity and social media superstar Loved Before now accepts donations from the US through the mail. 

• Discard: Some stuffed friends have unfortunately reached the end of their lifespans in their current form. Stuffed animals in poor condition that cannot be repaired or restored can potentially be recycled. Second Chance Toys partners with Terracycle to help recycle toy materials, including stuffed animals.

• Keep: These best-friend cuddle-buddies are coming with you. If your child no longer plays with a stuffed animal but desires to keep it for sentimental reasons, you can pack the stuffed toy with the photo albums and children’s memorabilia. Otherwise, set these stuffed animals aside to pack with the toys.

Now that you have your most cherished stuffed animals lined up and ready for the move, proceed to next steps.

Ensuring items are clean and dry is a crucial step in preparing items for storage, so if your stuffed animal friends are getting packed away for any length of time be sure they go into your boxes in great condition.

Check the care tag for your stuffed animal to see if they have instructions for cleaning. If you cannot locate a care tag you can try looking up the stuffed animal’s manufacturer to see if they have specific instructions for your particular animal. Some stuffed animals will be safe to machine wash and some are only okay for a surface-clean with a damp cloth and a little detergent.

If your stuffed friends are in poor condition but you’re not ready to let them go, you can look into stuffed animal restoration services like Fluff Restoration and Winey Bears to give your fluffy companion brand-new life.

Don’t pack your child’s absolute favorite rainbow giraffe just yet, there may be tears if you try to separate them! If your child has a favorite cuddle-buddy that they never part with, you will want that stuffed animal on hand during the move. Put just one or two VIP stuffed friends in a bag that your child will carry on their person during the move.

Other stuffed buddies that are safe to adventure in a box at least for the duration of the move can be packed into essentials boxes. These are the boxes of toys that will be packed last and unloaded first at the new home.

The rest of your stuffed animals can be packed into bedroom or playroom boxes to be unpacked at your leisure.

Stuffed animals are typically light, which means they can safely go into medium to large boxes without making boxes too heavy. You can pack stuffed animals in their own boxes and bins, or you can use stuffed animals to fill the last bits of extra space in toy boxes. Boxes that are packed snug and tight make excellent travel vehicles for your stuffed friends, and the contents inside are less likely to shift and get damaged during transit.

If you have a particularly delicate or sentimental stuffed animal, you can use packing material like bubble wrap or packing paper to wrap the stuffed animal individually before you put it in a box.

Careful not to squish anyone too much as you close up your boxes. You should only pack the stuffed animals that can comfortably fit. Then, tape that box shut and declare it packed.

Don’t forget which box your daughter’s bizarre and much beloved mermaid-unicorn-teddy hybrid went into. In lieu of a full moving inventory of the stuffed toys, label all your boxes with as much detail as possible.

The plush, wooly, velvet, and felt friends are packed! You and your children can plan a stuffed animal parade once you reach your destination. After unpacking, do a roll-call and make sure all fluffy friends from the giant blue tiger to the army of beanie babies are accounted for.

Moving your family local or long-distance? You can count on All My Sons Moving & Storage to keep the adventure as stress-free as possible. Let us handle the packing or the heavy lifting while you focus on exploring your new neighborhood together with your children (and teddy too, of course). Use the quote button below to get started on your move.