Moving large groups of dolls?

Is there anyway you could possibly get a large tote container and stack them wrapped up by size, while collapsing any boxes and carrying them separate? I feel that the boxes are going to be the most troublesome part since they'll take up far more space than just the doll itself.

Or you could stack them in their boxes by 4 or 6, and then tape/wrap them together in those stacks (I don't know what they call packing saran wrap officially, but we use it here all the time to bundle things together for easier moving). That way you can carry them in small chunks without having to do it 45 times, and they'll all be together still.

 

Remove the heads, store the bodies well wrapped in tupperware containers clearly marked as fragile glassware/BJD's, store the heads in a duffel bag wrapped you can carry. You can fit a lot of doll bodies into a suitcase/tupperware tub if you are not worrying about the heads, and heads are pretty light even in a larger number.

It's how I manage to take almost my entire collection to NYC for Dolpa in a rolling suitcase.

 

I didn't have as many as you have when I moved, but I still had about 20 dolls and I didn't want to risk anything happening to them. Stuff breaks when you move (a simple fact of life as accidents happen). It was great that I had friends who would help me move, so it would be best if I set the circumstances in such a way that if something broke, it would be a $2-5 cup and not a $500-800 doll. It helped create a relaxed atmosphere during the move.

I asked my father to help me move all my dolls the day before the move. I packed them all up in their boxes and doll carries. Those for which I didn't have boxes or carriers I put in suitcases with a lot of padding. Then I loaded them up in my father's car as I too was moving only across town.
You should be able to transport 45+ dolls by car in one go.

 

Apply a simple, common sense approach and you should be just fine.
1. Make sure that wherever they go, you go. Physically be in the vehicle with them.
2. Package them safely, whether in totes or moving boxes or even in the back seat of a car.
3. Be creative with padding...remember, you're also moving things like pillows, blankets, quilts, comforters, bath towels and cushions. Might as well make use of them for protecting dolls since they're travelling to the same place.
4. Move them first, when you're fresh...not when everyone is dog tired from a hard day of moving.

 

Better still, tuck them away in a closet or cupboard. Often, we don't unpack boxes of clothes, dishes and such into those spaces until after everything is moved, so the closets stay vacant until everyone is gone. And unless your mom is paying for your place...and I'm speaking here as a mom of grown kids myself...then it's your move and you call the shots. The day will be stressful enough...so if mom can't behave, then mom needs to stay home.

 

I moved a few years back, not far either. I do have a fair amount of BJDs, mostly tinies, as well as other non-topic dolls but I packed my dolls in their original boxes because yes, I have all their boxes. I put face shields on the bigger dolls, took off their wigs and carefully bagged them, and also removed other items that could break in transport (i.e. BambiCrony wings) or cause the dolls to become scratched (jewelry, accessories, etc.) and everyone was well padded in their own pillows or their special foam packaging. For those with less ample padding, I used bubble wrap sheets to supplement. It helped to take my time packing them up carefully. I packed the doll boxes in large totes and I transported them in my own car and moved them myself. I let the movers move my other well packed doll boxes but not my BJDs.

 

My only suggestion is to wrap each one individually in bubble wrap, or some packing material you can find in an office supply store. Then, if movers aren't going to touch it, maybe get a large plastic bin and gingerly lay them on top of one another - but only if you have face protectors. And it'd probably be a good idea to individually store their wigs in another bin in individual plastic baggies.

But this comes from someone who is kind of senseless at transporting one doll...

 

I'm going to be facing this situation this summer, it's back in their boxes which will ride in the car with the other fragile things nestled in plushies and spare clothes. Smaller dolls will get to hide in the bins full of clothes, I already have things sorted that way so I'll just be compacting.

 

We have 40 dolls in our house, and for some reason we've managed to also keep all of their boxes. We boxed all of them up and did 2 or 3 car loads of them separate to moving all the furniture and whatnot.

If you don't have that, then some way to wrap them and keep them safe is good. Another way I've done it in the past is hand them over to various friends to look after while I moved everything else, then got them back afterwards.

 

I don't have quite as many as that - currently the collection is up to 15 - but I've moved three times with all the dolls - and two of those trips were with my then-housemate's 5 dolls as well. I haven't kept all my doll boxes (and a couple of Delf boxes got requisitioned to carry CDs in! ), but I have enough of them plus several doll carriers that we could double-stack dolls in boxes, carriers and have the remainder in a wheeled suitcase, and all the dolls went in the rental car together with the cats and my musical instruments (guitars, mandolin, violin, flutes etc) and came first with me to the new house. Generally I go first a couple of days before the main move so I can et the cats settled in one room where they'll be out of the way of the removals men, and I carefully stack all the doll boxes in that room too. So all dolls, instruments and livestock are safe and accounted for before strangers go stomping round the place packing everything else up.

We're going to be moving again in about a month; we've already packed up the books and other assorted stuff that's not needed or essential at the moment, but I'll pack the dolls a couple of days before the actual move as before, and shift them first again with the cat and the instruments. After so many moves in the past 5 years, we've got it down to a practiced art, though the former housemate no longer lives with us so I don't have to worry about her dolls; she moved back to Australia a couple of years back and we shipped her stuff to her - my partner left the dolls to me to pack and wrap for the trip. They ended up going in 3 boxes taped together then the whole bundle wrapped securely in a whole roll of bubblewrap. Haven't heard any complaints, so I'm assuming they arrived safely!

 

I moved cross-country (about 2,000 miles) two years ago and had to hire a moving service. I had 15 dolls, and since I was flying to my new home, the only one I could transport myself was the one in my airplane carry-on.

The rest I packed tightly in standard cardboard boxes from the moving co. I packed 3-4 to a box, strung with facemasks. I wrapped each doll in bubblewrap and stressed to the movers that these were valuable, irreplacable objects and if they broke I would be filing a damage claim against their company. Just to be safe, I purchased the extra insurance offered through their company.

It took the moving truck close to 2 weeks to get my stuff to the new location, and everything arrived perfectly in tact. I've moved twice since them, used a service both times, and everything has been fine. As long as they're properly packaged and don't have anything piled on top of them and don't jostle around, they'll be fine.

 

I have 40+ dolls of various types, from 11cm tinies to 70cm SDs. And I've moved about 10 times since getting my first doll (not a BJD). When the number of dolls got so large that I couldn't carry them myself I started packing them in a chest/trunk when I moved.

The chest is small enough that it will fit in most cars, but big enough that all my dolls fit in if it's packed carefully. My dolls all get wrapped up individually in fabric scraps and any other padding I have around. The chest is usually the first thing I move and the only large thing that I never use a removal service for. The chest I use is a gorgeous carved wooden chest that I also use to display some dolls on (and to keep my tv on at the moment), making it both a good way to move my dolls and a useful piece of furniture.

 

I would definitely move the dolls in a tote with padding first- and put them in the closet away from the rest of themoving hysteria. I hate moving and always move the fragile items first.

 

Both times I moved, I packed my dolls ahead of time. I had a lot more dolls the first time, and was moving into an established house. Both times I used assorted plastic bins, and tons of bubble wrap and padding. I brought them over in the first batch of my things, and strictly expressed that no one touched them, period, until I had the chance to put them where I wanted them. The second time, though, we were moving into a new empty place, and I brought my dolls to my parent's place and stashed them until the dust settled, then I went over and picked them up once I didn't have to worry about anyone else handling them (seeing how flippant some of our "help" was the last time, I'm glad I did, too).

 

When I moved last year, I packed all of my dolls separately and moved them first. It helped for us since we had access to our new place the day before we had people helping us move so I brought my dolls over to the new place the day before the big "moving day."*

It actually worked out well since I was able to move them myself and find a safe spot in our new place out of the way of all the other boxes. Everyone else was a lot more comfortable since they didn't have to worry about moving my dolls.

 

I don't know if it will help as I have never moved with bjds before but I do have a large off topic doll collection and I pack them every time we evacuate for a huricane. I have several large plasic bins with a top that has a latch on both sides. I wrap each doll with tissue paper then fill in each layer with news paper. They have made it through many a car ride this way. just remember largest and heavyest on the bottom and work your way up. hope this helps.