Packing Cigars when moving house

[Webbo]

I will move home from Central Europe to London next week and have around 50 boxes of cigars to move too. The humidor is being packed by the removal company so hopefully all ok there but the cigars themselves, well I'm open to suggestions. They will go by road in the removal van. At the moment I have a cool box and large sealable plastic box I intend to use. I'm thinking to wrap the cigar boxes in ziplock bags with the air out and then into the big container and cool box where I will have a few large boveda packs. Perhaps some bubble wrap also maybe around the boxes? Any suggestions or experiences gratefully received guys. 

[soutso]

I would suggest you take the example set by the deliveries you receive from online vendors.

They do some or all of the following:

1. Place bubblewrap at the foot of the cigars, I've always thought that this would be a tricky thing to do

2. Place the box is vacuum sealed plastic

3. Place the box in a larger cardboard box and fill it with those little foam bits so it's protected and not bouncing around.

You'll have to consider what to do with boxes of cigars that aren't full. You'll need to fill up the space so that they're not rolling around too. I've used tissues in the past and it's worked. 

Good luck!

 

[Mattb82]

i would second the suggestion of filling the box with packing foam  so there isn't  extreme movement for the boxes. 

[CaptainQuintero]

Your plan seems very solid to me. It's what I would do

 I know some do but personally I don't like the damage to sticks potential with vacuum sealing .

[BuzzArd]

58 minutes ago, CaptainQuintero said:

I know some do but personally I don't like the damage to sticks potential with vacuum sealing .

Agreed.  I've seen damage due to vacuum sealing sticks when removed from their original box.  But if I could slip a box into plastic and vacuum seal that way I'd be okay with it. For a big move anyway.  I'd take 'em right back out when settled though.  

[PapaDisco]

Solid plan: definitely be cognizant of insulating the cigars from all the road vibration.  The only thing that I'd add, is that I'd pack them in a cooler and then box the cooler.  The insulation of the cooler will keep their temperature stable for at least a day or more, and stable temps prevent condensation (admittedly a bigger risk in a chilly aircraft hold than a packing van . . . unless you're moving to Canada  but a brief drive to London ought to be nothing from a thermodynamic perspective.)

It's all a bit of overkill when you think about what El Pres' boxes have to suffer to get to us.   I'd suggest packing like Greg & crew, but that's a fine art almost impossible to emulate!

 

[NSXCIGAR]

Some additional insights on the topic here:

 

[jschrader510]

I just moved back from London to the US a month ago. While I only took five boxes back with me, the methodology may be relevant. I kept the bubble wrap inserts from the foot of each box that I bought and reinserted them. I then put each box in a big ziplock bag. All of the boxes then went in a sealed tupperware container that had packing peanuts in it. Everything got back in great shape with no damaged sticks.

[Fugu]

2 hours ago, PapaDisco said:

Solid plan: definitely be cognizant of insulating the cigars from all the road vibration.

Good point, perhaps the main issue here.

Whole thing will be more about mechanical shock than it will be about environmental conditions. No need to vaccum seal. An airtight seal will perfectly suffice. No need for humidification, as there is plenty of moisture in your sticks. And don't ship them bone dry, as wrappers will suffer more.

The most delicate cigar-packaging type will be SLBs. Tightly packed sticks in dressboxes are least prone to mechanical shock. As has been suggested, cushion cigar feet with bubble wrap, and you may even stuff out the corners to restrict movement of the bundle within its box. Most important, however, is it to keep boxes from touching the outer parcel or cooler-box (or whatever you use) walls. Boxes need to be mechanically decoupled fom the outside! So always carefully cushion all sides, don't try to save space by being thrifty with cushion material! Just a simple image: Dropping a bare box from 2-feet (perhaps even 1-m) hight. How would you cushion your sticks to survive that?

[gweilgi]

FWIW ...

I had the same issue when moving from London to Sydney a few months back (doing my bit to reduce the acute shortage of whinging Poms in the colonies ).  I had to ship something like 60 boxes, and I used a combination of techniques.  Full boxes were vacuum-packed without further measures, as I figured that Cubans pack their boxes so tightly in the first place there would be no risk of movement during transit.  With incomplete boxes, I removed all the cigars, vacuum-packed them and put them back into the box together with tissue paper.  My collection of singles were sorted into some empty boxes, with any leftover space filled with paper and then vacuum-packed.  They then all went into packing crates with plenty of paper to insulate them from shock.  

And yes, I was rather nervous about vacuum-packing my cigars ... but in the end, everything arrived safe and sound after 9 weeks of travel by lorry and air, with no harm  to any of my precious sticks.

just my tuppence...

[ElPuro]

I have about 50 boxes - recently moved. I chose to pack them all in large bins with no packing, but brought them myself by car. Threw in some beads in the boxes for good measure. All good!

 

[Habana Mike]

This situation crosses my mind frequently as we consider a move some point in the near future.

Most likely it will be a less than 8 hour distance over land so I am thinking that while a moving company will handle most all our goods I will move the cigars myself.

Aside from the cabinet humidor and desktops most are tightly packed in dress boxes, cabinets or jars stored in coolidors. Consider I'd rent a Sprinter, pack all the coolers in the back, pick up a couple more coolers for the boxes in the cabinet and transit the stock myself to minimize potential shock from mishandling or extremes in temperatures.

 

[BrightonCorgi]

I moved last year.  I put all the boxes into moving boxes, then the movers wrapped the cabinet and moved everything.  I just moved like 15 miles away.  If it was cross country or the like, I would've vacuum seal or wrap each box first.  

[LGC]

I'm in the process of packing to move. Take all the clothes that your wife used to wear before getting married and having kids, and cram them in all dead space in the coolers. No need to seal each box. Just tape the crap out of the outside of the cooler at the seal. If moved by someone else, also make sure to pack dead space in every box/cab. I'm too lazy to do that... and will skip it since I'm only moving down the road

[Philc2001]

It's tough to deal with 50 boxes, especially cabs. If those are all full, then it might easier, but if they are partial boxes you have to find a way to secure them within their box, which would be a pain. With full dress boxes bubble wrap at the foot wouldn't be too difficult to do. Securing partially full dress boxes would be a bit challenging depending on how many are missing from the box. Cabs same thing, but if the ribbon has been removed then you may have more loose space to fill, otherwise the ribbon will keep them from bouncing around inside the box.

Failing other options, you could dump all the cigars into ziplock bags, and pack them into a cooler or similar container for protection, and then put them back into the boxes once you arrive at the destination. 

[BrightonCorgi]

1 hour ago, Philc2001 said:

It's tough to deal with 50 boxes, especially cabs. If those are all full, then it might easier, but if they are partial boxes you have to find a way to secure them within their box, which would be a pain.

Stuff the partial cabs with crumbled newspaper.  Pad the boxes the cabs go into the same way.  There won't be any movement and take care when moving the box filled with cabs.  These are cigars, not porcelain statues...

[Pixa]

I would be very careful shipping them back into the UK, I would take them all with you personally if you have them shipped with a mover customs could seize them unfortunately. Drive them back or fly with a extra suitcase for them.

[eswary]

Recently moved from Miami to Toledo Ohio(US). It's about 1,200 miles from door to door.
I had a moving company pack my entire house and belongs. My wineador and cigars were a area of concern. Not like paintings or personal items important, but pretty damn close.
I started by removing all boxes and loose cigars from my wineador. I found the largest Rubbermaid containers available. I put 1 piece of cardboard on the bottom of the container to have a flat base. I then starting my "Tetris" packing inside the Rubbermaid container.
Each unopened box I own was layered on the bottom of the Rubbermaid container. The opened boxes I used bubble wrap to fill the empty space in each box, then shrink wrapped them. It was time consuming, but well worth the hassle.
The loose cigars(3 large drawers) I vacuum sealed in bags and packed them away with Bovedas in small cardboard boxes the about the size of shoe boxes. These were layered on the very top of the container.
Each layer in the container was packed snug and I filled each crack or open space with bubble wrap. The remaining space on top was layered with cardboard and more bubblewrap.
The entire container was then shrink wrapped several times so without a doubt it couldn't be opened until it reached its destination. After unpacking and restocking I lost "0" cigars to travel damage. The wineador itself made it with no issue.

The real question I had was how would they manage in a truck from 80+ degree heat in Florida to 9 degrees in Ohio in a matter of 1-2 days. Kind of a shock treatment. But all is well and no issue. Cigars are stronger than we think and can handle some crazy conditions for a short period of time.



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[dflan82]

2 hours ago, eswary said:

 
The real question I had was how would they manage in a truck from 80+ degree heat in Florida to 9 degrees in Ohio in a matter of 1-2 days. Kind of a shock treatment. But all is well and no issue. Cigars are stronger than we think and can handle some crazy conditions for a short period of time.
 

Eric, glad to have you back in the Midwest (although I'm sure that you are going to miss that Florida sunshine for the next few months). Your last sentence nails it in my opinion.  Short fluctuations in climate can easily be remedied with some acclimatization before smoking.  

Sounds like you had a safe move, for both the cigars and family.  Enjoy the new digs.

[eswary]

Eric, glad to have you back in the Midwest (although I'm sure that you are going to miss that Florida sunshine for the next few months). Your last sentence nails it in my opinion.  Short fluctuations in climate can easily be remedied with some acclimatization before smoking.  

Sounds like you had a safe move, for both the cigars and family.  Enjoy the new digs.

Dan,

Hope this finds you well my friend. I sincerely appreciate that! I will miss those winter temp of SoFla, but we are really enjoying being back around all the family. We were blessed to travel at a young age, make careers, then bring all of that back with us.

Eric


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[Webbo]

A brief update and thanks for all the advice, much appreciated. Yesterday my cigars all arrived, safe and sound to their new home in rainy London. They are now resting in the humidor to recover. I nipped out to JJFoxes in St James for a celebratory JL 1 in their super upstairs smoking room.

 

[Guest Nekhyludov]

I'm planning a move soon, and this thread has been really helpful. I put together a plan based on the suggestions here, so I thought it might be helpful to share my experience for others who may have similar questions in the future.

I started by buying a Food Saver Big Game vacuum sealer on the recommendation of a member here. It was a little pricey, but worth it since this will be the first layer of protection for each box. 

Also picked up some extra 11" bag rolls. Turns out the 11" bag is just big enough to fit a dress box of DCs. It'll also hold a 25 count SLB, but not a 50 cab. I definitely wouldn't recommend anything smaller than this.

Then I picked up some thin foam padding, same kind that some vendors insert below the foot of cigars in the box, two bags of packing peanuts, 30 69% Boveda packs, tape, and two 70 qt. Weathertight clear storage bins from The Container Store. These bins have a nice seal, but come with a strong plastic odor; I'm not worried about that since everything will be vacuum sealed before it goes in. I plan on using these as tupperdors later on (I may not have mentioned this to my wife yet ), so I'll wash it and air it out before then.

 

I filled the gaps in each box with packing foam and placed foam along the feet of cigars to ensure there's no movement inside the box.

Then I sealed each box individually, with a Boveda pack inside, and most - but not all - of the air removed. This ensures the box won't slide around inside the bag, and should create a stable interior environment. 

Customs were bundled, sealed with a Boveda, wrapped in foam padding and placed inside my desktop humidor, which was closed with another (larger) Boveda, locked, bagged and boxed, then wrapped in bubble wrap. 

I put a layer of packing peanuts in the bottom of the Weathertight, then placed one layer of boxes, filled in the gaps with peanuts, laid down another layer, then repeated the process, finally topping off the bin with a final layer of packing peanuts. I also inserted a large Boveda in each bin as a secondary protective measure, then closed and locked the bin. 

I'll update this post in a couple of weeks when I (hopefully) have good results to report. Otherwise, I'll be starting a thread to ask for suggestions for tall thing to jump off of 

Thanks to everyone who posted here before and made this easier to plan.

 

 

 

[Guest Nekhyludov]

Post-move update, as promised. The suggestions made in this thread and outlined above appear to have worked beautifully. 

My entire inventory arrived in pristine condition, although it was obviously subjected to some very extreme cold, having been loaded into a tractor trailer for a week and a half in the dead of winter. 

All of the boxes I intend to age long-term have been moved into the weathertight bin with some cedar planking and 62% Bovedas. They're resting perfectly at 62rh/64F. 

The only issue I've noticed is that the sticks I've smoked out of the stock that was moved have been a little bland. So I'll plan to let them all re-acclimate for 90 days. 

Aside from that, all is well at the new Casa de Nekhyludov!

[Smokin_Safari]

Webbo, I would be more concerned about HM's Customs...

That said, bundles of 20 - 25 in resealable bags should be fine - don't vacuum the bag as you will lose the humidity - just hand squeeze what air you can out. I suggest then using wooden wine boxes with bubble wrap across the top. I recently managed to fit ~200 cigars in a dozen bottle box quite snugly heading back to France.

See you in London then at the next herf !

[manuel11k]

Quote

A brief update and thanks for all the advice, much appreciated. Yesterday my cigars all arrived, safe and sound to their new home in rainy London. They are now resting in the humidor to recover. I nipped out to JJFoxes in St James for a celebratory JL 1 in their super upstairs smoking room.

 

Bubble packing is the best option in such situations, I think. And by the way, what exact moving services do you usually use? Couple of weeks ago, when my brother-in-law had to make a long-distance moving process, he has ordered it from here ( weblink: threemenandatruck.net ). They provide pretty nice and reliable service.