Honeycomb Packing Paper Is a Better, Plastic-Free Version of Bubble Wrap
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When I downsized from a two-bedroom apartment to a one-bedroom this past fall, the experience was just about as stressful and exhausting as moving house tends to be. But it did lead me to a delightful new discovery: cheap, easy-to-recyclehoneycomb packing paperthat cushions just as well as Bubble Wrap and isplastic-free.
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I’d seen the perforated paper inside a couple of packages over the years. But until I started researching and ordering packing supplies for my move, I hadn’t realized that I could so easily order it online for myself, as a more ecofriendly alternative to traditional Bubble Wrap that ships (and can be stored) just as neat and tidy as a roll of brown kraft paper.
The magic happens when you unroll a section and stretch it between your hands, opening the perforations and creating a pop-up texture that transforms the flat paper into a sort of three-dimensional net. The more layers you add around a vase or a plate or a picture frame, the more cushioning you create for that item. And the pop-up texture actually makes each layer stick to the previous one like Velcro, so you end up wasting less time re-wrapping bundles that have come undone while trying to find tape.
Unlike Bubble Wrap, which can be tough to recycle, the paper is easy to dispose of once you’ve unpacked: If you don’t want to recycle it straightaway, it’s good forkids’ craftsand quick to give away on Facebook Marketplace to someone who’s embarking on a move of their own. Or you can smooth out the texture to nearly flat and roll it back up to hold on to until you need to ship something fragile.
There aremany placesto buyrolls of honeycomb packing paperonline, but I got mine — a50-foot roll that came with 20 “fragile” stickers— on Amazon for about $10. During my move, I used about three-quarters of it to wrap everything from dishes and wineglasses to my son’s vintage plaster Snoopy bank.
Then, about a month after moving, I realized that I would need to more tightly curate what’s on display from my collection of vintage tchotchkes, framed artwork, and other décor to fit comfortably in our smaller apartment. So my husband and I rented a small storage unit, and I bought another roll of honeycomb packing paper to protect the fragile and off-season stuff as it rotates through storage.
Now I keep the leftover paper in a medium-sizestorage binwith other packing supplies like tape, scissors, Sharpies, and zip ties. And because anything that makes moving even a tiny bit less terrible is worth shouting from the rooftop of my new apartment building, whenever a friend tells me they are moving, I send them an enthusiastic text message with a link, encouraging them to forget about Bubble Wrap andbuy a roll of the packing paper instead.
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