How to Pack Toys for a Move

The professional packers at All My Sons Moving & Storage offer advice for how to pack everything you own, including your toys. Moving with kids? You can make this time a fun family adventure and follow this 5-step guide for packing all the toys.

Kitchen playsets and plastic superheroes abound in your child’s bedroom or playroom. From the toddler table that sings the alphabet to the building blocks your preteen uses to create their own incredible landscapes, toys are an essential ingredient to entertainment and development. 

Make sure all your child’s beloved toys make it to your next home by packing the toys with extra care.

Your move is a great time for you and your child to evaluate your toy collection and declutter. If your child is older, you can include them in this process and allow them a vote in what gets offloaded. When your child has a say in what stays, they might feel better about letting go. 

Consider each toy individually and sort them into these four categories. 

• Sell: Toys in great, like-new condition can be sold on sites like OfferUp, Mercari, or Facebook Marketplace. If you have vintage toys or high-value toys you might be able to sell them to an antique or vintage toy shop in your area. 

• Donate: Toys in fair condition that can be played with and enjoyed for another few years should be donated. Goodwill, The Salvation Army, and Second Chance Toys all have drop-off locations nationwide where you can take toys ready and waiting to be loved again. You can also ask at local daycares, domestic violence or homeless shelters, churches, and children’s hospitals if they take used toy donations. 

• Discard: Broken, dysfunctional, and soiled toys should be discarded. Second Chance Toys partners with Terracycle to help recycle as many toy materials as possible, diverting broken toys from the landfill whenever possible.

• Keep: Treasure the toys that your child loves and plays with often by taking them with you on your move. If your child no longer plays with a toy but you desire to keep it because of sentimental value, pack it up with the photo albums and children’s memorabilia. 

Once you have the toys that are coming with you on your move, proceed to the next steps.

Toys take a beating and are often breeding grounds for germs. Make sure to clean your child’s toys before they go into the moving boxes. This step is especially important if you are preparing your items for storage. Get some antibacterial wipes and scrub your child’s plastic toys or use a solution of soppy water and a toothbrush on more delicate toys. Make certain the toys are completely dry before you start packing them.

Put doll and action figure accessories in sealable plastic bags and tape the bag to the back of the toy so the items stay together.

Remove batteries from any action figures, dolls, toy vehicles, or other electronic toys.

Toys that your child plays with daily or rarely parts with should be separated from the rest of the toys. 

These beloved toys should go into essentials boxes to be packed last and unloaded at the new home first. You can differentiate your children’s essentials from the rest of the moving boxes with special colored tape. This way, you’ll be able to tell which boxes need to come out first at a glance.

The absolute most beloved toys of the bunch should go into a bag that the child carries during the move. If parting with the toy would cause heartbreak and tears, let the child hang onto it on their person. Try to limit this stash to one or two very beloved toys.

Lay some bubble wrap or soft household items like bathroom towels or kitchen towels and hot pads in the bottoms of your boxes. 

If you have original packaging for electronic toys, action figures, or dolls, you can pack the items back into those boxes for extra protection. If you do not have original packaging, then wrap toys individually in bubble wrap or packing paper.

Heavy toys should go toward the bottoms of your boxes and lighter items can be packed in toward the top. Toys should go into small to medium moving boxes. Your heaviest toys should always go in the smaller boxes.

Once your box has been filled with as many toys as can comfortably fit, check the weight of the box to ensure you can lift it. If the box is too heavy to lift, repack it with less heavy items inside.

Seal your toy boxes with packing tape, and use a black permanent marker to label the box. If you are creating a moving inventory, notate which boxes your child’s favorite toys went into and their condition upon going into the moving boxes. 

Fragile toy boxes should be marked “FRAGILE” so you and your movers are reminded to be careful with those boxes.

Toys are packed, and the play date at your next home is locked in. You and your children can enjoy playing delightful unpacking games when you reach your destination. Release the dinosaurs, raid the castle, and let imaginations soar!

If you and your family are moving local or long-distance, All My Sons Moving & Storage can help with everything from the wrapping and packing to the storage solutions. Let All My Sons do all the grunt work while you focus on keeping track of your precious angel during the moving chaos. Use the button below to get started on your move.