Melissa Graham | posted 11:50 AM, November 2, 2021
Whether you are moving out of a small apartment or a multi-storey house, moving out of one space and entering another requires a lot of planning and organization to be completed effectively. However, this guide on how to pack and move will provide you with moving tips and reduce stress during the move. Whether you are looking for specific tips on how to pack or need some ideas to eliminate clutter or reduce the risk of injury, the following moving tips will make you an expert in no time.
If you still find yourself at a loss or lack of preparation during the packing and handling process, please know that you can always ask professional movers for help. These experts usually also provide packaging services, so you don't have to undertake the heavy work yourself.
Time required: 3 days to 1 week Difficulty: Estimated cost for beginners: 100 to 300 USD
Before considering these moving tips, it is wise to develop a moving schedule to know exactly when you need to leave your space and when you will officially move into your new home. Viewing this timetable will allow you to choose a suitable moving date. These dates are also helpful when hiring a professional moving company, so they can know when they will load your box, transport your belongings, and arrive at your desired destination. Once hired, these experts will be able to pack and load your belongings quickly and efficiently, so you don't have to risk straining your back or hurting yourself by pulling on heavy boxes or furniture.
Before you start packing your personal belongings, please collect all the materials and supplies needed to complete a successful relocation. This ensures that you do not go to the home improvement store multiple times on the way, which delays the packaging process and makes moving more expensive. Another way to save money when moving is to ask neighbors and friends if they have a moving box you can use. They may have boxes due to their recent actions or large package deliveries. You can also post on social media channels such as Facebook and Nextdoor to search for free or low-cost moving supplies. If you work in an office, please check your mail room to see if you can take out the remaining boxes from the bulky cargo. Although it may take some time to find a box, it saves money and is more sustainable than buying a brand new box or container.
You also need to seal the boxes with tape, label each box or container with a marker, and use packaging materials such as newspapers, food bags, or towels to protect fragile items. Consider wardrobe boxes for clothes on hangers or special tableware or glassware boxes for delicate items.
Keep all the materials in one place so you can know how much you have in case you need it. You may also need to borrow or buy a trolley or forklift moving belt to lift and move heavy boxes or furniture.
List the items you plan to pack, room by room. Taking inventory by room can help keep things organized and make unpacking quick and seamless. Assigning a specific color to each room and using tape or marker coordination colors to mark boxes and large items to help you determine where they are going after moving into a new apartment or home may even be helpful. Please keep in mind that mattresses, blinds, curtains and other less obvious items, if you want to move them, you need to label and pack them.
When making the list, you can also determine which items in the room can be donated or discarded if they are not used or lose value over time. Once determined, these items can be placed in piles or baskets for later donation, sale or throw away. Tidying up is something you need to do before you start packing-if you just throw them away immediately after opening the package, then it doesn't make sense to move the items to your new home.
After you have completed the inventory list, it is also helpful to have family or friends check your inventory list to ensure that nothing has been forgotten or unnecessarily placed on the list.
Moving can separate you from your belongings from one day to several weeks. Regardless of the length of the move, be sure to pack a suitcase for each family member that contains everything they need to pass, no matter how long they will be on the way. The suitcase should include toothbrushes, toothpaste, skin care products, hairbrushes and any other toiletries needed by family members. Make sure that one person prepares shampoo, conditioner, and body wash for the family. These will come in handy if you stay in a hotel for one night, or if you want to take a shower the first night in a new house and don’t want to rummage over some soap.
Be sure to put the personal items that are most important to each family member in these suitcases. These can include beloved blankets, childhood plush toys or heirloom necklaces. This ensures that each family member takes care of the most emotional and important items to prevent them from being lost or destroyed, in case the moving truck is forgotten or the items are buried under other boxes in the storage facility. Other things to pack in these suitcases include social security cards, birth certificates, medical records, and other important information you want to keep safe.
If you are driving, please carry these suitcases with you in your car. If you are flying, please make sure these suitcases are small enough to be carried with you, and make sure that all your liquids comply with TSA regulations.
According to their age, each family member should be responsible for their suitcases, from packing to the day of the actual move, to ensure that things go smoothly.
This is one of the packaging techniques when moving, once you open the package, it will save you a lot of time. Start packing each room and only put the items in that room into the coordination box. You can then label each box accordingly and put them together as much as possible to make it as simple as possible to disassemble them. For example, all small appliances, silverware, cooking utensils, bakeware, glassware, and other items should be stored in boxes marked "kitchen." Even if there is space left in the box, putting the hand blender and the video game console together in the box will only give you a headache in your new home. An exception to this rule is that you can use pillows, blankets, or towels to help cushion delicate items such as TVs or photo frames.
Putting all the items in the bedroom together can also help young children or children feel safe throughout the process because they will be able to find their box and know that the contents are safe. Handling tips and tricks like this can also help professional movers know where to put a particular box when unloading, so that the bathroom box will not be placed in the basement, and vice versa.
After breaking down oversized items such as dressers and cabinets into smaller pieces, they will become less bulky. Take the master bedroom dressing table as an example. An eight-drawer dressing table is much more difficult to move as an item than to take out and pack the drawers individually.
Other large items, such as bed frames, bookshelves and kitchen utensils, can be broken down into easier and more compact packaging. In addition, protecting each individual shelf, drawer or storage item helps prevent unnecessary scratches or marks during their movement. Items like bed frames may need to be disassembled anyway because they are too large to fit in a normal mobile truck or truck bed. When disassembling the furniture, it is also important to put all the nuts, bolts or screws in the same labelled bag so that when the furniture needs to be reassembled, you will not lose any parts. Consider sticking these bags to the corresponding furniture.
When you pack and move items from closets and other spaces, it is wise to pile up the items you want to donate or discard. Your donation pile can include anything from clothes you no longer wear to household items you no longer use after moving. Before you ship a bag of items for donation, you may want to check whether a local non-profit organization provides a pick-up service. In some areas, you can arrange a truck to collect the date and time of the items you want to donate, which saves you the trouble of packing the car and driving the items to one or more collection centers. In addition, if you keep any donation receipts, you may be eligible for tax relief. If you have time and additional help, it is also wise to hold a garage auction on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist or sell anything you don’t have with you separately.
Once you move out of one space and enter another, packing a "open first" box may be one of the most effective ways to reduce stress. You can use a transparent container to more easily identify the contents, but a regular mobile box with a "open first" label will also work well. In this box, you need some daily necessities, such as toilet paper, paper towels, dish soap and tableware, in order to settle down easily. It is also wise to replace basic tools such as power strips, mobile phone chargers, flashlights, and screwdrivers or Allen wrenches. Whether it’s a backpack, a transparent tote bag, or a labeled box, be sure to put it in the car you are traveling or somewhere else you can easily find when you arrive at your destination.
No matter where you are in your life, you may encounter an action at some point. Whether moving out of a university dormitory or a family home, packing all the things you own and moving them to a different place can cause stress and anxiety. The good news is that a wide range of professional moving services also provide packaging services, which can relieve some of the pressure on how to move and leave more logistics and planning to you. In this way, you can focus on coordinating the movement instead of doing all the packaging work yourself, which can be time-consuming. Professional movers have the expertise and skills to not only pack in an organized and efficient manner, but also load mobile trucks in a way that provides the most space for all your belongings. If you are overwhelmed by the number of items you have or the manual labor required to move them, then hiring packaging and moving services may be your best choice.
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