A container at sea pitches, rolls and heaves for two to six weeks; on a train it takes a slack-action jolt every time the locomotive changes speed. Anything inside that can move, will — and it will keep moving until it has broken itself or something else. Packing a container well is therefore about one thing: eliminating movement. Weight low and centred, every gap filled, every layer tight against the one below, and the whole load braced against the doors. Everything else is detail.
This is the method our crews use at our Toronto loading dock. It applies to a family's household goods and to a manufacturer's palletized freight; the steps are the same, the materials change.
Before the container arrives
- Inspect the box. Walk inside with the doors closed; any pinprick of light is a leak. Check the floor for soft spots, the door seals for cracks, and the previous cargo's smell. Reject a bad container at the terminal, not after it is loaded.
- Know your weight. A 40ft is rated to ~26,500 kg but Ontario roads practically allow ~20,000 kg of cargo on a standard chassis. Weigh or estimate everything first. See our pallet count guide for the limits.
- Stage the load in loading order. Lay it out on the dock or driveway the way it will go in: heavy and flat first, fragile and light last. Loading from a pile wastes hours and ends with the wrong things in the wrong places.
- Protect the floor. A layer of cardboard or kraft paper over the plywood keeps moisture and splinters away from the first tier and makes sweeping out at the other end a two-minute job.
The order of loading
- Heavy, dense items on the floor, centred along the length. Appliances, tool chests, dense cartons, machinery. Keep the centre of gravity low and in the middle of the box, never all at one end — a nose-heavy 40ft is a road-safety problem and the trucker can refuse it.
- Large flat items upright against the side walls. Mattresses, tabletops, headboards, glass (crated). Standing them on edge against the wall uses the least space and lets them act as padding for the layer inside.
- Build tiers from the far end toward the doors. Each tier is a wall of boxes or pallets from floor to as high as it can safely go, tight against the previous tier. Think of it as building a brick wall lying down: no vertical seams running the full height, heavier boxes at the bottom of each tier.
- Furniture pieces nest. Drawers come out and are loaded full of soft goods; tables go on their tops with legs removed; sofas go on end if the ceiling allows. Every cavity gets filled with cushions, linens or packing paper.
- Fragile and light items last and highest. Lamps, pictures (in mirror cartons), plants (if permitted), and the box of things you need first at the other end, right at the doors.
- Leave the last metre for bracing. Do not pack right to the door seals. The final 60–100 cm is where you install the bracing that stops the whole load sliding into the doors.
Weight distribution rules
Think of the container floor as split into thirds along its length. The middle third carries the heaviest freight; the two end thirds share the rest, roughly equally. Across the width, balance left and right so one wall is not carrying everything — a container loaded heavily on one side rides badly on a chassis and can tip a forklift on unloading. The guidance most carriers publish is: no more than 60% of the weight in either half of the length, and keep the centre of gravity below half the inside height. For palletized freight that means heavy pallets in the middle rows and lighter ones at the ends; for a household it means the fridge goes in the middle, not at the back.
If one item is far heavier than everything else — an engine, a safe, a machine base — it needs to be bolted or strapped to a skid, the skid needs to sit across the container's floor beams, and the skid needs to be braced on all four sides. A single heavy object that breaks loose destroys everything around it.
Blocking and bracing
Bracing is the part most first-time loaders skip, and it is the part that matters most. The goal is that the load cannot move forward (toward the doors), backward, or sideways, by more than a couple of centimetres. Three methods, cheapest first:
- Dunnage bags. Inflatable kraft or poly bags pushed into the gaps between tiers or between the load and the wall, then inflated to a few psi. Fast, reusable, and the standard for palletized freight. One bag per gap larger than about 5 cm.
- Lumber bracing. A frame of 2×4 or 4×4 lumber nailed into a bulkhead across the container just inside the doors, with diagonal struts back to the last tier. This is what stops a household load sliding into the doors on a hard stop. Lumber must be heat-treated (ISPM 15) if the container is crossing a border.
- Strapping. Polyester or steel strapping from the container's lashing rings (there are rings along the floor and walls) over or around the load. Used for machinery, drums and anything on a skid.
- Void fill. Any remaining gap gets packing paper, foam, cardboard or empty cartons folded flat. Air is the enemy.
Moisture
A sealed container crossing from a cold Canadian winter into a warm ocean produces condensation — "container rain" — that drips from the ceiling onto whatever is below. Two cheap precautions: a few desiccant poles or bags hung from the lashing rings (one per 10 m³ is a reasonable rule), and no cardboard directly against the walls or ceiling where it can wick. Wrap wood furniture in paper then plastic, never plastic alone, which traps the moisture against the finish. For a 40ft overseas in winter we also recommend a kraft liner over the top tier. Our guide to wrapping furniture for international shipping goes into the materials.
The inventory and the seal
Before the doors close, every box should be numbered and listed with its contents, every piece of furniture listed with its condition, and the whole load photographed from the doors. For an international move this inventory is your customs document — most countries clear used household goods duty-free on the strength of it — and for a commercial shipment it is your proof of what was loaded if there is a claim. Then the seal goes on: a numbered bolt seal through the door hasps, the number recorded on the bill of lading and on your inventory. The container is not opened again until it reaches its destination, and if the seal number does not match on arrival, that is the first thing the receiver reports.
Common mistakes
- Loading heavy items at the back (far end) because they were the first on the truck — nose-heavy container.
- Packing right to the doors with nothing braced — the load arrives against the doors and the first thing to fall out when they open is the heaviest.
- Mixing loose items in with palletized freight — they vibrate down into the gaps and get crushed.
- Plastic wrap directly on wood or leather for an ocean crossing — moisture damage.
- Not knowing the weight until the truck is on a scale at the terminal.
Would rather have it loaded by a crew that does this daily?
We load, brace, inventory and seal containers at our Toronto dock, for household moves and commercial freight, and send you the photos before the doors close.