How to: Moving a lantern collection

[51stovebolt]

Fellow collectors, it appears that a move may be in my future. Fortunately (or unfortunately) I have a sizable collection of lanterns to move. Can any of you recommend an efficient way to pack them for moving? Would be great to find a box with dividers inside where I can install 4 or 6 lanterns, then fill with foam peanuts or something. I dread the thought of having to wrap each one individually. Very open to hearing ideas/thoughts/ or better yet experiences.

[CaptainFantastic]

Greg (Rubing) is your man...

[51stovebolt]

CaptainFantastic wrote: Greg (Rubing) is your man...

Can you share what you mean?

[Alb23t]

"Rubing" is a member of the forum. You may wish to PM him to get his attention.

[brokenmantle]

i have thought of this recently and came up with wrapping them in towels and then using a big welding or moving blanket to use as a separator. this would be used in the trunk of a car or the bed of a truck. you would need to tape and cushion the globes with newspaper and tape.

[curlyjoe_99]

a lot of what I am about to say depends on your lanterns and their sizes and also how they are moving. a moving company will insist on packing them for the insurance. if you are DIY the move then this may be for you.

I have mostly 220 series and they use an 7x7x16 box I believe a 200 uses a 6x6x14 box
anyway you can look online and get boxes at 8x8 or 6x6 for under a dollar each. most places that sell the boxes will have a minimum order of 20 or 25 to get under a dollar each.

for my 220's I pad the bottom of the box with wadded news paper or bubble wrap scraps. then I place a small layer of paper(or thin card stock) above and below the globe. the vent gets the next wrap with the bail down and a bit to limit rashes from that. finally top off the box with wadded newspaper or bubble wrap. the bail points to the corners when placed in the box.

assemble four lanterns into a square and use packing tape to tie together. be sure to tape all around the sides and then all four boxes across the tops and bottoms. this way you are looking at a bit more packing tape but you now have a nice sound pack.

lamps and such will need larger boxes fabricated measure a CQ fount and the height and get a box about 1" wider and go up to 2" taller. or stick two boxes together to make the height.

to do this with dividers you would need a 15x15 ID box and then 14x16-ish flat cardboard to make the dividers from ( I recommend corrugated )

hope this helps

[Rubing]

I've gone through it twice in less than a year. Any really nice lanterns are bubble wrapped, boxed separately and transported accordingly. Nice lanterns are bubble wrapped and boxed as follows 242 & 200 I use Home Depot small moving boxes and they hold 6 lanterns each. I do the same with 22X size lanterns and the Home Depot medium size boxes will hold 4-6 lanterns each depending on weather or not they are big hats. For lesser grade lanterns I use the same boxes but rather than bubble wrap them I use use two of the plastic shopping bags. Drop the lantern in one bag then pull another over the top. The most important thing is to catalog what is in each box and number each box. I tape a piece of paper with contents to the top of each box and everything is recorded electronically, then I have that loaded to a flash drive to help make changes in your inventory quicker in the future. I also print out a hard copy to help out without going on the computer. Good luck!

I should add that nicer globes I remove and place in 5x5 or 6x6 boxes then pack them into moving boxes. Please excuse the mess, somewhere in this basement I have 33 boxes of lanterns plus globes and all of the other goodies.

[mikewells]

Holy smokes, If I ever move I'm calling you Greg!!

[Rubing]

Aspbear wrote: Thanks Greg now my back is hurting.

GB the back is fine but it took a toll on the legs, the move was from one basement to another basement, those stairs are killer.

[Rubing]

mikewells wrote: Holy smokes, If I ever move I'm calling you Greg!!

Mike if you ever move we are going to need a lot more boxes and probably a larger capacity flash drive

[BSAGuy]

Good luck with the move. Plenty of good advice here.

[51stovebolt]

Thanks for the practical advice guys.

For the lanterns that you have moved without removing the globes, have you had any casualties? I get that removing and boxing them separately is idea, but that becomes an issue when you have over a hundred lanterns.

[outlawmws]

Stovebolt, Get one of those rolls of green plastic stretch wrap packing. The small one (five inches wide) and wrap the globes so they are not rattling around in the frame. Then pad the lantern in the box. Short of UPS/FedEx treatment, you should be fine.

[Murff]

For what it's worth, I bought a collection 250 miles from home. I bought 25 12 x 12 x 12 boxes from Uline. The collection was mostly 200As (about 100). Four lanterns fit nicely in the boxes with a little padding between them. I then tightly packed the 25 boxes into my utility trailer for the 250 mile ride home and never lost one globe.

Murff

[51stovebolt]

Great idea on the stretch wrap. I like it! Thanks

[bluesky0812]

I too will be moving soon. Thank you for the insights. Good stuff.

[51stovebolt]

As a follow up, I submit the following pictures of how I conquered the packing process:

1.) 16" x 16" x 16" boxes with 1" closed cell foam pad at bottom, with 15" x 15" cardboard sheets used as dividers. All supplies came from U-Line.



2.) as suggested earlier in this thread, I used stretch wrap (similar to Saran Wrap) to immobilize glass globes installed in the lantern. When done wrapping, no rattling.



3.) Lanterns were installed in their compartments and foam peanuts dumped in. Wish I had paid more attention and chosen the biodegradable foam peanuts. It is going to be a hassle getting rid of this many peanuts.



4.) Lantern phase packing complete. 12 boxes * 4 lanterns/box = 48 complete, which leaves two more phases. You will notice the labeling on the boxes. That corresponds to a legend that I am keeping so I will know what lanterns are in what boxes.

[Deanofid]

NOTICE:
This is an update on box sizes from Marty aka bluesky0812 regarding a change in the sizes of boxes from Home Depot. His addition to this thread as follows:

bluesky0812 wrote: Home Depot has changed box sizes. I have included a pic showing old on the right and new on the left. Easy enough to get six in but becomes heavier and requires more material to secure them.

I believe lowes and uhaul still have the original size of box.

Regards,

Marty

Thank you Marty for your update!