Whether you are packing up a huge truck to move across country or just your car to move across town, you will likely worry about making sure all your belongings arrive in one piece. The best way to ensure a safe move is to learn a few packing tricks from the professionals. After all, professional movers are the experts. Keep reading to learn some packing hacks used by the pros to help reduce your stress during a move of any size:
1. Label Everything In Detail
Instead of labeling a box with the word "toys," be more specific. Put the name of the child who the toys belong to, and indicate which room to put the box in. You should always label both the top of the box and at least one side. If you are really organized, you can also color coordinate the labels on your moving boxes by room or by floor. For example, all of your son's items can have red labels. Or all boxes that need to go to the basement can be labeled in blue.
2. Use As Many Boxes As Possible
The more boxes you pack, the better. It's not only easier to pack similarly sized and shaped items together in one box, but it's also easier to pack square boxes into a car or truck than it is to pack unusually-shaped items. As you pack boxes, make sure each one is well padded and filled to capacity. Nothing in the box should shift around when the box is moved. This will reduce the risk of items breaking.
If you do have larger items of unusual sizes, like golf clubs, floor lamps, and garden tools, then pack these items into large wardrobe boxes. You can then put things like patio pots into the same box as the garden tools or table lamps to fill the space inside the box.
3. Don't Buy Filler
It is essential that you put soft stuff around breakable items in a box or between large pieces of furniture loaded into a truck. But there is no need to spend money on this filler. Instead, use your blankets, comforters, quilts, clothes, sheets, pillows, and even stuffed animals. Smaller items like stuffed animals and towels are great for packing between dishes and other small items going into a box. For larger items, put blankets and comforters into plastic garbage bags to protect them from dirt and grime, and then place the filled bags between furniture in the truck.
4. Pack Dishes On Their Edges
Contrary to popular belief, you should not stack dishes on top of each other in a box. They will be less likely to break if you pack them on edge. You will still need to use a lot of filler between the dishes to protect them. Dish towels, face cloths, t-shirts, and newspaper work great as a filler when you're packing dishes.
5. Tape Small Items To Big Items
It's very easy to lose small items during a move. To reduce this risk, you can tape small items to the items they go with. For example, tape the remote control to the side or back of your TV and tape a finial to the lamp it goes with.
6. Always Have An Essentials Box
This box will contain everything you'll need immediately upon arriving at your new home. It should be filled with things like a flashlight, coffee and coffee maker, paper plates, plastic cups, plastic utensils, toiletries, paper towels, toothbrushes and toothpaste, soap, tools for re-assembling furniture, and anything else you know you'll need right away. This box should be the last thing that is loaded into the car or truck when you leave your old home and the first thing that comes off the car or truck when you arrive at your new home.
These are only 6 packing hacks that are used by professionals that will help you greatly during a move of any size. If you have any questions, or you'd like to learn more about hiring a professional to help you move, then contact your local moving company. They will be happy to provide you with moving quotes and additional information.
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