Packing Correctly for your Move

As tempting as it may be to just throw everything in boxes and shove it in the moving truck, packing correctly for your move goes a long way. You can save space and use fewer boxes, and rent a smaller truck in the process, ensure that your items remain safe, and make unpacking that much easier. 

Packing Correctly for your Move

Moving involves a lot of planning ahead, especially when it comes to packing your items. So much can go wrong during a move, but packing properly can help reduce any potential problems.

Gather Essentials

Some companies might provide you with items to move with, sometimes for a charge. If you want to try and avoid this, you might consider gathering all of your moving essentials yourself.

Start with strong packing tape that’s wide to ensure its strength. Pick out stickers for labels, or colored paper if you want to make your labels obvious and easier to read. This is where a pack of permanent markers will come in handy if you don’t already have some at home.

You should also have essentials like scissors and box cutters, and even garbage bags and zip bags to carry items that won’t fit anywhere else. Of course, gather as many boxes as you can manage.

Organisation

You can start organising everything even before your movers come by separating everything into categories. It can be as simple as having boxes set out for your kitchen items, then for your winter items, then for everything you keep in your living room, and so on.

When you have all of your belongings in boxes, proceed to label them. This will make unpacking that much easier while ensuring that you keep track of everything. It’s not a good idea to mix your belongings from various rooms together either. This makes it a lot harder to unpack.

Boxes

You might be tempted to grab a huge box and throw all of your books in there. They’ll all be unpacked on the same bookshelf, after all. However, think about how heavy those books are—it’s better to pack heavy items like that in smaller boxes.

Pack your lighter items in bigger boxes so that your movers don’t drop or struggle with heavy boxes. Not to mention that with heavy things in larger boxes, they’re more likely to break.

Packing

When you have your boxes, make sure that you pack them right too. Any heavier items should be at the bottom to keep your lighter items safe. This will also help your movers lift and move the boxes. Of course, taping the bottom and top of the boxes will help with this too.

Don’t forget to pad your boxes too, especially when it comes to fragile items. You don’t want to have empty gaps where things can fall or crack, but be careful not to overpack your boxes too. This will make it harder to stack them in the truck.

Labeling

Beyond labeling your boxes with the items inside, be sure to label your boxes with indications of “fragile” or “this side up.” Make it obvious too. Your movers are doing a lot of work to lift boxes and they may not see a small singular fragile sticker in the corner.

Having it written in big text too will also help you when it comes to unpacking since you’ll know which boxes you need to be careful with.

When it comes to labeling, you should label each box clearer with its intended destination, for example, if the box should be bound for the bathroom or the kitchen. This makes it much easier for your movers to know which room each box should go to at your new home.

To help you keep track of everything you’ve packed, you can even create an inventory and number each box. This way, it will be easier for you to count the boxes and ensure that nothing is left behind.

Taping

Make sure you tape the top and bottom of your boxes with enough tape. Then, wrap around the top and bottom with a couple of rounds of tape. These areas are where the most pressure will be so it’s worthwhile to strengthen and reinforce them to ensure they hold up well.

Mirrors and TVs

Wrap all mirrors and TVs with bubble wrap or old spare towel sheets. This gives them added protection during transportation.

Glassware and China Plates

When packing glassware and china plates in boxes, use acid-free paper or bubble wrap to wrap each item. This will stop them from banging off each other in the box during transport and will go a long way in preventing any breakage.

Need a Crate?

Not everything can be easily shoved in a box or wrapped up. If you have any delicate or expensive artwork, you should let your movers know in advance and ask for a crate. 

Stacking

You can help your movers even after you have all your items, just by stacking your boxes in neat piles. This will make it easier for them to grab your boxes and go, and might also be better for you in terms of price if they don’t need to spend as much time gathering random boxes.

Garage and Sheds

Don’t forget about your garage and sheds! It’s easy to get caught up with boxing up your belongings indoors but your garage and sheds need to be packed and boxed up for the move too.

Moving Bag

Finally, when you’re packing, you need to make sure that you have a bag just for you. This is your toiletry bag that includes linens, toilet paper, snacks, cups, and anything else you think you might need in the last few days before you move and the first few days after your move.

Conclusion

Moving is a lot of work, but the process doesn’t have unnecessarily complicated, not when you can get all of your boxes packed and labeled properly so that your movers can get you over to your new place with ease. Pack everything with padding and with the right sized boxes and soon, you’ll be settling into your new home!