How To Wrap Or Pack A Dollhouse And How To Ship Your Dollhouse - Some Insights!

How to wrap and ship a dollhouse is a question that lots of sellers, on Etsy for example, might wonder.

You probably have seen by now, that when I am doing reviews on dollhouses or miniature stores, I tend to include if they package their items well and if shipping is fast.

Because, for obvious reasons, that is quite important to know.

You don't want a beautiful dollhouse or miniature in pieces by the time it gets to your place or when you move your own dollhouse to another home 😉

I am not a seller myself (yet, who knows?), but I do have some experience in packaging fragile things.

Adding some research into the mix and here's the next result with a new blog post and a few tips!

Updated 09/12/23

1. What materials to use for safely wrapping your dollhouse?

To ship your dollhouse or delicate piece of miniature, you need to use enough padding, padding, and padding! It is better to be too safe than sorry.

There are a few options to pack your breakables:

• Bubble wrap: the best-known option.

  The air bubbles in this type of plastic have a shock-absorbing effect and ensure that your fragile miniatures and dollhouses are well-protected while shipping.

  All you need to do is wrap them tightly in the foil.

• If you think that just using bubble wrap isn't protective enough, you can also wrap your fragile items in corrugated cardboard first.

  Using a corrugated cardboard roll is much more flexible for our small items than stiff cardboard sheets.

  You can always add some extra bubble wrap over the cardboard and thus significantly reduce the risk of breaking.

• Wrapping paper protects your fragile items as well, especially for our smallest miniatures: porcelain, glasswork, cutlery, etc. Be sure to always use enough.

  Maybe you could just use newspaper as well, but always test beforehand whether the ink from the newspaper doesn't stain your minis!

  And how about using toilet paper as well to wrap your delicate items in?

• If you are sending a very large dollhouse ànd lots of miniatures to your customer, it could be a better idea to transport the large item in a separate box, and not together with all the miniature furniture, for example.

  You could ask the customer if he or she agrees with this.

  This way, for the bigger item, you could add an extra layer of thick foam on the bottom and sides of the box.

Extra TIP: packing your boxed dollhouse into yet another box and filling the layer in between with extra bubble wrap or paper is another idea to be safer!

Which Kind Of Boxes To Use To Ship Your Dollhouse?

I think that the opinions on this could be divided.

To transport a miniature item, of course, there isn't an issue, but to transport a large dollhouse, I really would consider shipping that in two or more separate boxes, to prevent the bottom from breaking.

This of course depends on the total weight, the sturdiness of the box, or if you càn even take apart your dollhouse for transport (I can imagine that's not always the case).

For example, the boxes in the picture below, I would not use to transport a heavy dollhouse. ( just imagine the bottom not closed well enough auwch).

But rather something like this. These boxes are assembled without tape, so the chance of the bottom breaking is a lot smaller.

(available on Amazon)

While these are made for when you are moving and not for transport, I would look for something similar.

When I have found some, I will let you know, but as I said, the opinions on this are variable when I ask around.

TIP: If you really want to secure your (expensive) dollhouse as much as possible, then the best thing ever is to use a crate.

Fill your moving boxes as much as possible!

Another very important thing to do when you ship a dollhouse or miniatures is to fill the box as much as possible.

The reason why is that you don't want your stuff to get too much room to move around.

If you are moving your own dollhouse to another place, you could also cover it with light materials, such as clothing or towels.

You could also buy several types of dividers, available in many stores.

These make sure that you can safely transport breakable pieces of glasswork, for example.

Of course, label each box as "breakable", so that the delivery company and helpers know that they need to handle the package with care!

A few more tips on packaging fragile items.

• When I buy a miniature kit, everything is packed in separate little bags when it's shipped, so I would do the same.

  Don't just throw everything together in one box or little bag, because that would be quite frustrating for the buyer to assemble it or sort things out.

  Put plant parts together, miniature light parts in one bag, cutlery separately, etc.

• For a doll house: it is best to disassemble the house and wrap all the pieces individually.

  If you can wrap each part of the doll house, as I explained first at the beginning of this article, the chances are higher that everything will survive the shipping or moving.

  And then again, put every piece that belongs to another piece together in one bag and label it. Like "exterior wall", or "front window", for example.

TIP: When you disassemble the dollhouse or even a miniature piece, take pictures. Thus you have a VISUAL GUIDE for your buyer or for yourself when it gets assembled again.

• Miniatures pieces that can't be removed or dismantled, like miniature lights, for example, should be attached to something else, so that it doesn't budge.

  Do not use regular adhesive tape for this, but tape which is easily removed or painter's tape.

To finish up, have a look at this fantastic video below, where the lady explains how she is going to move her dollhouse!

I think this answers all the questions you might have on how to pack and transport a dollhouse or miniatures.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to leave a comment below in the comment section.

Or join me on my social media pages or Facebook group, don't be shy to share your work!

I wish you happy crafting!

Kind regards,

Lizzy