Packing for an International Removal to the Czech Republic

Read this before you decide to save the money

Boxes you pack yourself are frequently excluded from damage cover, or covered only for the loss of an entire box rather than for breakage inside it. The logic is straightforward: no insurer covers work nobody witnessed.

That does not make owner packing wrong. It makes it a decision. If a box contains towels, the exclusion costs you nothing. If it contains your grandmother's dinner service, you have just chosen to carry that risk personally for a thousand kilometres of road.

So go through the house once and sort it into two piles: things where the exclusion does not matter, and things where it does. Hand the second pile to the crew. That is part packing, and it usually costs far less than people assume because the fragile proportion of a household is smaller than it feels.

More on how cover is structured, per item limits and what to declare separately is on the Pardubice removals page.

Vibration, not humidity

Most international packing advice is written for sea freight, where the enemies are humidity, salt air and weeks in a container. The Czech Republic is landlocked, so your belongings never see any of that.

What they see instead is days of road vibration and repeated braking across France, Belgium and Germany. Vibration settles contents downwards, works tape loose and lets loosely packed items rub against each other for hour after hour.

The practical consequence: how tightly a box is filled matters more on this journey than it would on a sea route, and a half empty box is a worse idea here than almost anywhere else.

Filling a box properly

1. Full and firm. No space for movement. If it rattles when you tilt it, it is not finished.
2. Heavy low, light high, both inside the box and when stacking.
3. Fill every gap with soft material. Towels and bedding earn their place doing this.
4. Weight it so you can lift it. A crew member is carrying it up a Prague stairwell.
5. Tape the base twice, across and along.
6. Plates on edge, not stacked flat. They survive vibration far better standing up.

Your labels feed the customs entry

This is where a Czech move differs from a domestic one. The inventory is not just a checklist for the crew. It is the document Czech customs reads first, and it has to match what is on the vehicle.

So number every box and make sure the number appears on the inventory. Write the destination room on at least two sides, because the side facing you in the lorry is not the side facing you in the hallway. Note fragile contents clearly.

English is fine. Nobody needs Czech on a box. What matters is that a box on the vehicle is a box on the list, because an item that appears in one place and not the other is exactly the kind of discrepancy that slows a clearance down.

Read the inventory before you sign it. It is a two minute job and it is the only chance you get.

Ask for the list before loading day

Every international moving company refuses the same broad categories, and finding out at eight in the morning on loading day means it stays behind. Aerosols, paint, fuel, gas bottles, lighter refills and anything else flammable are the standard refusals. Open food and houseplants are commonly excluded.

If your load travels as a part load, it sits alongside other people's, so packing quality matters more. Alcohol and tobacco can travel but are excluded from relief under Council Regulation (EC) No 1186/2009, so anything you bring is dutiable regardless of how long you have owned it. The relief conditions are on the customs and duty relief page.

We are not a removal company and we do not pack anything ourselves, so nothing here is a quote. What we can do is set out which decisions cost money later.

Garden equipment with a fuel tank needs draining and running dry first. Fridges and freezers need defrosting and drying the day before, not the morning of.

Questions people ask about packing an international removal

Should I let the crew pack, or do it myself?

Split it. Books, bedding, clothes, towels and anything soft are fine in your own boxes and cost nothing to pack. Glass, china, electronics, mirrors, artwork and lamps should be done by the crew, because those are the items that break and the items your own packing usually excludes from cover.

Why do my own boxes lose insurance cover?

Because nobody can insure packing they did not see. Owner packed boxes are commonly excluded from damage cover altogether, or covered only for the loss of the whole box rather than breakage inside it. This is standard across the industry rather than a trick, but it does catch people out.

Is a road journey harder on a load than a sea one?

Different rather than harder. A container at sea deals with humidity, salt air and weeks of storage. A lorry to the Czech Republic deals with days of road vibration and repeated braking. Vibration works boxes loose and settles contents downwards, so how tightly a box is filled matters more than it would on a sea route.

How should I fill a box for a road move?

Full and firm, with no space for movement. A half empty box collapses under the one above it and a loose box lets contents rub for a thousand kilometres. Heavy items low, light items on top, soft material filling every gap. Weight it so you can lift it comfortably, because the crew will be carrying it up a stairwell.

What needs a crate rather than a box?

Anything flat, rigid and breakable: mirrors, glass tabletops, framed art, marble, stone worktops and television screens above a certain size. Crating is an extra line on the quote and it is the right call for those items. Ask what the mover proposes to crate before you compare two prices.

What can I not pack at all?

Aerosols, paint, fuel, gas bottles and anything flammable are the usual refusals. Open food and houseplants are commonly excluded. Ask your removal company for its list early rather than discovering it on loading day, when the answer is that it stays behind.

Should I label boxes in English or Czech?

English is fine for the crew and the inventory. What matters far more is labelling by destination room and numbering every box against the inventory, because the inventory is what Czech customs reads. A box that appears on the vehicle and not on the list is the sort of thing that delays a clearance.