How to pack shoes for moving

A shoe holds its shape because a foot is in it. Empty and under the weight of a packed box, the toe box folds, and on leather that fold becomes a permanent crease. Paper, a rolled sock or the original shoe tree all work. Trainers and canvas recover; structured leather and heels do not, so those are the ones worth the time.

A sheet of packing paper around the pair, soles facing each other, then folded closed. This keeps one sole off the other's upper, which is where scuffing happens inside a box, and it keeps pairs together so unpacking is not a matching exercise. Shoes with a rough sole or a metal fitting get their own sheet before joining their pair.

No, and this is the mistake worth avoiding. Soles carry grit and street dirt regardless of how clean they look, and a sole against a folded shirt in a warm truck leaves marks that do not always wash out. Shoes get their own small or medium box. Original shoe boxes are ideal if you have kept them, and they stack neatly inside a larger carton.

Heaviest at the bottom, flat rather than on edge. Boots and heavy soles first, trainers in the middle, delicate and fabric shoes on top. Flat matters because a shoe on its edge tips and settles into whatever is beside it. Fill the last inch with paper so the top layer cannot move when the box is carried on its side.

Tall boots stand upright with paper packed to the ankle, so the shaft does not fold over. A folded shaft on leather leaves a crease across the front that never fully lifts. If the box is not tall enough to stand them, lay them flat with the shaft supported along its whole length rather than bent, and do not stack anything on top.

Sealing shoes that are still damp, which is how a box arrives smelling of mildew, and packing a box so deep that the pairs at the bottom are crushed flat by the time it is unloaded. Air anything damp for a day first, and keep shoe boxes small enough that the bottom layer is carrying two layers rather than six.