Tips to Make Packing More Efficient
While moving companies in generally do offer packing services, some customers may opt to pack on their own instead. If you have the intention of settling your own packing, here are some packing tips to help you along the way.
Pack Early (At least 6 weeks Ahead)
If there is one advise you should bear in mind, it is pack early. This will allow you time to plan and remove the stress of having to rush your packing.
Start by planning what you plan to take along with you, discard or send for storage. Make a list too of items that are non-essential and those that are essential.
Once it is clear how much needs to be packed, ensure that you cater for enough packing supplies to get the job done. The last thing you want is to get into the momentum of packing only to realize you have to stop because you ran out of supplies.
Thereafter, begin by packing infrequently used non-essential items first. If items are seldom used, it is unlikely they will be missed or needed
Pack Room By Room
It is also a good item to pack room by room so that all items in the same room are packed and grouped together. This will make unpacking, later on, much easier as moving boxes from the same room can be unpacked together and placed in their new location more efficiently.
Keep Items Together
Similar to ensuring items from the same room are packed and grouped together, it is also a good idea especially when dismantling larger items to keep their individual parts packed together. For very small parts, it may even be a good item to bag them together first before placing them in the moving boxes.
The last thing you want is having missing parts when you eventually need to reassemble the pieces together again in your new home.
Tips for Placing Things in Moving Boxes
Filling Up the Moving Boxes
Before placing anything in your moving boxes, it is best to line the sides with crushed paper to provide some form of padding. When placing individual items in, it’s a good idea to place heavy and larger pieces of items below. It’s also important to ensure that the boxes are packed tightly and spaces in between are stuff with crushed paper. This will help prevent boxes from being crushed when stacked and stuff inside the boxes from moving or sliding during transit.
While it is important to fill up the box, it is just as essential to ensure that the boxes while full, are flat on top. When in the moving truck, items will inevitably have to be stacked up together and thus the need for flat tops.
Label Clearly (on Top and Side)
Label each box immediately after sealing it, when the items inside are still fresh in your mind. When labeling, it is important, to label both on top as well as on the side of the box. This is so that the markings are still visible even if the boxes are stacked up in the new home awaiting unpacking.
As a minimum, you should mark the box number, which room it is from, which room it is going into in the new location and the list of items that were packed inside. Its also a good practice to have a “this side up” type arrow indicating the top of the box and if the items are fragile, to indicate it clearly as well.
The more effort you put in labeling, the less frustration you will have when unpacking and locating your items later on.
Finally, it is also useful to have a separate inventory list. This can later be used for checking off purposes when loading boxes into the moving truck and subsequently unloading them.
Keep Valuable and Essential Items with You
When packing, it is important to set aside and pack separately your essential items, important documents and valuables and keep them safely with you at all times. This serves a couple of purposes:
It keeps your valuables and important documents safe and prevents misunderstanding should things go missing.
After a hard day of moving, you may wish to relax and leave your unpacking for another day. Knowing where your essential go to box is for things you need for the first night or two will thus come in very handy.
Know Where Your Tool Box Is
If you did the dismantling of furniture yourself, it is just as important to know where your tools needed to assemble them back together again is. You best bet is thus to keep them safely with you or ensure that they are amoung the last items placed in the moving vehicle.
A Final Note on Packing
As can be seen, most of the tips above are simply revolves around good planning and common sense. The more meticulous you are with the details, the less frustration you will have with packing and unpacking when you move.
