Moving houses - how to pack and transport your pony collection?

[TinyShinyUnique]

So probably in two months I will be moving houses. My collection is quite small in comparison to many of the Arena members and this might be a silly question... But those who had to move your collections from one house to another: how did you do it?

I'm paranoid because the last time I was moving, my Rosette and Pina Colada, along with some of my childhood fakies just vanished  I still remember packing them up, but I don't remember unwrapping them, which still makes me upset. I refuse to let the same thing happen now, so I thought about making a list of my ponies, playsets, accessories, merch, etc. and labeling boxes so I know what exactly is inside... The problems are also the boxes: I worry about squishing too many ponies and wonder if I should just invest in huge amounts of bubble wrap, or use my clothes...? 

To those who had managed to get your pony collections to a new home... How did you do it? Do you have any tips, or advice? I would be very grateful for any 

[cyberunicorn]

I am moving at some point this year (if we ever finish the house) and I have started by listing them all in sets then each in a sealed food bag with the corners cut off so air can circulate and then put them in one of those decorates storage boxes. i just hope it works.

[drusilla]

hi

i have moved many times with my huge collection and every time it is a lot of work.   each pony gets placed into a ziploc plastic bag. then they get placed into large plastic containers with handles. those containers or boxes then get taped shut as well. all ponies, pony merchandise and large pony items are moved together as the last shipment. every box and container is also numbered, marked fragile or heavy etc....

[Khema]

Another option is to put them with shirts and stuff in drawers.

[Jahlila]

I've only moved once but I was also afraid of my pony collection getting lost in the process. I pretty much handled it like precious cargo. I bought specific colored totes for my ponies, so they could be distinguished from my other belongings. I packed my collection up myself and no one was allowed to touch the totes but me. I even taped the lids down to deter anyone from opening them. (I'm crazy, I know.    lol) When it came time to load up the moving truck, everything but my collection went on it. My ponies were loaded into my car (Luckily, my collection was much smaller back then) and I drove them straight to the new house. I unloaded them and placed them in my bedroom until I could get them moved into their new home.

[MiRaja]

I try to keep my ponies packed up in one or two boxes at most.  Just clean white paper towels, wrapped and boxed up.  Nothing fancy.  I've never lost a pony by keeping them to one or two boxes.  I lost one, but she was not packed in either of those two boxes.  A Satin N Lace, but she had been cigarette smell and she was soaking in a bag of vinegar to get it to break down. Last I had seen of her, she was at my mother's house, but when mom packed house and moved, I think she threw her out.  Oh well. 

[CopperBluJu]

My collection has been in boxes for years. I am going through it now. I organized my ponies by year and used plain brown bags to separate each pony and create 'floors'. This way I know approximately which pony is where in each box. I also used colored tubs for easy ID. My so softs were wrapped in tissue paper with lots of room for give t prevent rubbing. Ponies are pretty tough. Don't use newspaper, the ink rubs off. I think for long term storage you want boxes with air vents to prevent 'sweating' you can drop in a couple of those packets that usually come with shoes.

[Stormness_1]

I have those rubbermaid-esque tubs, but when I buy them, I leave the plastic bits in the lid that prevent the box from sealing, if they have them. If not - I put some foam or something in there so it won't completely seal, but the clips still close. I put fabric around the edges (I use my paradise estate sheets, but any white/light coloured fabric will do. Then I wrap each pony in tissues, and mark them off on a checklist as I pack them. When the box is full, I tape down all four sides to keep the lid down, and discourage anyone from opening it. Then I assign a number to the checklist, and write it on the lid of the box, the checklist goes in a folder, and the same with each box. Then the pony boxes go in our car, all together (obviously this isn't always possible with big collections, but there's always the trailer idea). The folder stays with me right through the move, or stays in the car.

Every box I pack has a page in the folder, for the whole house - it makes my life so much easier, it's like a index for packing, and if ANYTHING were to go missing, I'd know immediately when I unpack, not 3 months later when I realise I need it.

[achab1984]

I've only moved once but I was also afraid of my pony collection getting lost in the process. I pretty much handled it like precious cargo. I bought specific colored totes for my ponies, so they could be distinguished from my other belongings. I packed my collection up myself and no one was allowed to touch the totes but me. I even taped the lids down to deter anyone from opening them. (I'm crazy, I know.    lol) When it came time to load up the moving truck, everything but my collection went on it. My ponies were loaded into my car (Luckily, my collection was much smaller back then) and I drove them straight to the new house. I unloaded them and placed them in my bedroom until I could get them moved into their new home.

I would do the same thing, ponies are going in my car! 

[goddessofpeep]

My pony collection is huge.  It ended up being boxes and boxes and boxes of ponies.  I've also moved with it twice.  Once I had the majority shipped from one state to another which was the worst experience of my life(all the packages disappeared for a week due to my mother refusing to follow my instructions on how to label the boxes).  The second time we had a moving company and it was a move to a different city within the same state.

This is what I did:

First, I pulled out all my "special" ponies and items.  These are the ponies that are either A) important for sentimental reasons, B) particularly valuable, or C) I just *really* love.  These ponies went into one special bin that I moved myself.  Nobody but me touched that pony bin.  Every pony in that bin was irreplaceable, and they got the royal treatment.

Then I packed up the rest of them in well labeled bins.  All pony bins were ONLY for ponies and pony related items - NOTHING ELSE.  *All* ponies and pony related items went into those bins, so no ponies were scattered around in other boxes/bins to get lost.  As I was packing everything else, I kept one pony bin open at all times.  If I found a pony or pony related item, I'd toss it into either the correct bin, or the "catch all" bin that was always available.  All pony bins were numbered, and kept together, so if one of them somehow went missing, I'd know immediately.

Now my collection is really too big for really detailed organization like labeling which pony is in which bin.  I've actually been working on that for the last year off and on, and I hope to have it done sometime soon.  I also have limited space, so my packing style is more for getting as many ponies crammed into as small a space as possible without mushing them badly.  It stinks, but houses never have basements in my city, and the housing prices are insane.  We got the biggest house we could afford, and there's just not a lot of room.  How you pack the bins should be up to you because only you know how big your collection is, how long it's going to be in storage, and how you're going to get things from point A to point B.  My overall method should work well for any sized collection.  Just number your bins, keep it together, and make sure all pony items make it into the bins and you should move fine.

Good luck!
 

[PrincessLocket]

I got a couple of plastic tubs put ponies in there all standing up anybody with Fluoro hair or especially delicate tissue paper around them and bagged up accessories and put next to each pony.  Come travel time I just threw towels over the top if the tubs.  Ponies arrived wonderfully not even a factory curl squashed.  I didn't have far too travel and ponies went in one of the car trips though not in a moving van.  If in a van I would have done same but put top on tubs and duct taped lid on just prior to them leaving.  How done of that might be helpful good luck:-)

[Corona]

When I was shipping my ponies from college in Indiana back home to California I wrapped them in brown packing paper, padded with packing paper, and just stuck them in a cardboard shipping box. Granted I'm not a terribly picky collector so a bump isn't a total dealbreaker.

Though my wingers were a challenge. I ended up wrapping them in tissue paper and hiding them in coffee mugs wrapped in bubble wrap. Saved space and their wings!

[TinyShinyUnique]

Thank you all so much for your responses I have plastic, translucent bins where I keep my plushies in storage and i think I'll swap them and my ponies  for he move. I'll buy the sip-lock bags too, because that's how I'm moving all of my jewelry supplies - I'll just buy bigger ones to fit the ponies Thank you so much for that idea!

I'm more confident that with a proper organization I will do well and no pony will go missing. Stormness_1, I love your "index of moving"! I was planning to doing the same thing to my jewelry supplies (I have much more of them than ponies ) so doing that with ponies sounds like a great idea I'll also do as goddessofpeep and make one special bin with ponies. I'm not losing my childhood ponies, no way.

[partypony566]

I just moved and packed all mine into airtight plastic containers, see through ones  so I can easily check who is where lol

[CupidStrikes]

I'd pop each pony in a sandwich/freezer bag, as these seem to keep the hair nice and tame whilst they're in movement I would also make a list of which ponies are in each box/bag so then you know if anyone's gone walkabout.