How to Pack a Wardrobe and Hanging Clothes for a Move
Right, here’s a yarn from my own last move. Newcastle to Tighes Hill, only six kilometres, three years ago. Removalist had quoted me $200 in wardrobe boxes alone — $25 a hire from Kennards, eight of them needed for a four-bedroom house, hand them back at the end. Two hundred bucks for what is, structurally, a tall cardboard box with a metal rail through the top. I told him to stick the wardrobe boxes and used what I’m about to show you. Saved the $200, finished hanging clothes at the new place in 20 minutes flat, and the missus didn’t have a single crease to iron out.
The trick is the humble black bin liner. Cut a slit in the closed end, push it up over a bunch of hangers (rail and all), tie the open end around the hanger hooks, and you’ve got a portable garment bag. Twenty hangers per bag, takes 10 seconds to make. I’ve moved my own clothes this way three houses running and a few mates have copied it.
The Aussie gotcha: most Bunnings wardrobe boxes are 1370mm tall, sized for the US standard closet rail height of 1750mm. Aussie built-in robes (BIRs) often have rails at 1850mm or higher, which means the bottom of long dresses and trousers drag along the bottom of the box and crease badly. Bin liners adapt to whatever length you’ve got.
What you’ll need
- Heavy-duty black bin liners — 80L or 120L (Coles Home Brand or Glad Heavy Duty)
- A box cutter or scissors
- String or zip ties
- Permanent marker (label by room/owner)
- Optional: 1–2 actual wardrobe boxes for delicate or expensive pieces
- Tissue paper for shoes and folded knits
- Vacuum bags for bedding and jumpers — Kmart sells a 2-pack for around $10
Step 1: Sort hanging clothes into batches of about 20
Pull 20 hangers off the rail at a time and lay them flat on the bed. Twenty hangers is what an 80L bin liner takes comfortably. If you’ve got dense winter coats, drop to 15. Wedding dress, ball gowns, $800 suits — those go in a real wardrobe box, separately. Everything else is bin liner candidate.
While you’re sorting, this is the perfect moment for a quick KonMari pass — anything you haven’t worn in two years, put it aside for Vinnies. Why pay a removalist to truck shirts you’ll never wear again?
Step 2: Cut the slit in the closed end
Bin liner held vertical, closed end up. Box cutter, make a 4cm slit dead centre of the closed seam. Don’t go bigger or the liner will tear in transit and your shirts will be wearing dust by the time you arrive.
Step 3: Slide the bag down over the hangers
Hold the 20 hangers by their hooks, all facing the same way, and feed the hooks up through the slit from inside the bag. The hooks come out the top, the clothes stay covered inside. The bag now drapes over the clothes like a giant garment bag. Easy as.
Step 4: Tie the open end
The original opening of the bin liner now sits below the clothes. Gather it loosely (don’t squeeze the clothes) and tie with string or zip-tie. This stops the bag from blowing open in the truck and it keeps shoes from migrating into your shirts. Listen mate, the zip-tie option is faster but harder to undo at the other end — if you’ve got little kids who pinch your tools, string is better.
Step 5: Label with marker on the outside
“Mick — work shirts” or “Sarah — winter coats” written big on the outside of the bag in marker. At the other end you can identify which bag goes to which wardrobe without opening anything. Common mistake: not labelling because “I’ll remember”. You won’t. Move day brain is real — by the third trip you can’t remember if a bag is shirts or trousers.
Step 6: Pack shoes separately
Don’t put shoes in with hanging clothes. Shoes go in their own boxes — original shoeboxes if you’ve kept them, otherwise pack pairs in supermarket tote bags with the soles facing the same way. Tissue paper inside boots stops them collapsing in storage. Stinky runners get bagged in their own plastic bag first.
Step 7: Vacuum-bag bulky knits and bedding
Jumpers, doonas, blankets — vacuum storage bags shrink them by 75%. Don’t put suits or coats in vacuum bags; the compression sets creases that take weeks to hang out, and on a wool suit it can permanently damage the fibres. Vacuum bags are for fluffy bedding and bulky knits only.
Step 8: Use real wardrobe boxes for the awkward stuff
Hire 1–2 from Kennards for the things bin liners don’t suit:
- Wedding dress and formalwear with structured shoulders
- Long winter coats and trench coats that would drag in a short bag
- Anything dry-clean-only with sequins or embroidery
- Suits you wear weekly (these need to come out first at the new house)
That’s $50 of hire instead of $200, and you’ve protected the irreplaceable stuff properly.
Step 9: Load the bin liners into the truck flat or hung
If the truck has a wardrobe rail, hang the bin liners on it directly. If not, lay them flat on top of the soft cargo (mattresses, sofa cushions) right at the end of the load. Don’t stack heavy boxes on top — even in a bin liner, fabric crushes and the creases set during the drive.
If you’re moving a fridge or washing machine on the same truck, our move fridge safely and move washing machine guides cover the appliance-specific gotchas.
Step 10: At the new house, hang straight away
The first thing you do at the new place — before unpacking the kitchen, before anything — is hang clothes. Untie the bottom of each bag, slide the hanger hooks onto the new rail, then pull the bag off downwards from below. Done. Twenty pieces hung in 30 seconds, no creasing, no folding.
Throw the used bin liners in the recycling or save them for actual rubbish later — they’re not pretty enough for a second move but they’ll do for the garden waste run for years.
Bonus tip: the laundry basket method for the last bits
At the end of any wardrobe pack you’ll have 15–20 hangers worth of odds and ends — the items that don’t fit a tidy batch. Don’t make a half-empty bin liner just for these. Grab the laundry basket out of the bathroom (the wife’s planning to pack it anyway), lay the remaining hangers across the top with hooks all facing the same way, throw a beach towel over the top, and the laundry basket becomes a portable garment carrier. Bonus: the basket itself moves to the new house at the same time, which is one fewer thing to find a box for. I did this on my last move with a wicker washing basket and a stack of work polos — fit perfectly, no extra packaging.
Don’t forget the wardrobe shelves and drawers
Built-in robes have drawers and shelves of folded items too. Folded jumpers and t-shirts go in supermarket reusable bags (the green Coles or Woolies ones) — they’re sturdier than cardboard for soft loads, free if you’ve got them, and they stack flat for moving. Underwear, socks and pyjamas can stay in the drawer if the drawer itself can be lifted out of the carcass — most modern BIR drawers slide out by lifting at the front and pulling. Wrap the open drawer in cling film to stop the contents falling out. The drawer travels as-is and slides back into the rails at the new house. Five-minute pack, five-minute unpack. Same logic if you’re using a flat-pack wardrobe at the new house — pack the drawers in-situ and reassemble after.
When to call a tradie
Packing clothes is obviously DIY. But two things to flag. One, if you’ve got designer pieces over $1,000 each — vintage Chanel, couture, antique fur — get an art-and-fashion removalist who does specialist cartage with conservation-grade packaging. Two, if you’re moving a built-in robe itself, dismantling the rail and the shelving is sometimes a carpenter’s job — particularly if it’s an old built-in with the rail screwed into hidden studs you can’t easily access. Pay the cabinetmaker rather than smash the bracket and replace the whole rail at the new place.
Common screw-ups
- Tying the bag too tight at the bottom and crushing the clothes into a wrinkled mess
- Putting shoes in with hanging clothes — soles transfer dirt to white shirts every time
- Vacuum-bagging wool suits and setting permanent creases that take weeks to hang out
- Not labelling because “I’ll remember” — you won’t, every bag looks identical from the outside
- Stacking heavy boxes on top of bagged hanging clothes in the truck — crushes the fabric flat
Cost & time
One pack of heavy-duty bin liners is around $8 at Coles. String and a marker, $5. Total kit under $15 for a whole house. Time-wise, packing a 4-bedroom worth of hanging clothes takes 45 minutes. Unpacking at the other end, 20 minutes. That’s the entire saving over $200 of Kennards wardrobe boxes.
Wrap-up
You’re moving cardboard around, not gold bullion. Wardrobe boxes are a removalist upsell — $25 a box for cardboard with a stick is rough. The bin liner method has moved my clothes from Newcastle to Sydney to Brisbane and back, no creases, no losses, no extra cost. Save the proper boxes for the dress that cost $2,000 and the suits you actually wear, bin-liner everything else, and you’ll save enough to buy beer for the mates helping you load the truck. Easy as.
