Moving tips and tricks for you so that you can spend less time frustrated at packing and more time enjoying your new home!
Before you start packing:
- Declutter, declutter, declutter! If there’s one piece of advice I can give, it’s moving is the best time to get rid of that ugly sweater your mom gave you four Christmases ago. You should give it away to charity or have a garage sale to help whip up some extra cash to cover moving expenses.
- Give each room a coded color. This will help the hectic nature of a move if you could tell the movers that “purple goes in the kitchen”.
- Make sure you have enough boxes. Also make sure you have the correct boxes! There’s nothing worse than your stuff not fitting or having your box of heavy books completely bottom out. This brings me to my next point.
- Don’t overpack any boxes. I know, I know, you want to get the most bang for your buck. I’m the same way! I want to pack those boxes down to where you can’t even close them. However, this will cause your boxes to get warped, damaged, and fall apart because there’s too much stuff inside the box.
- On the flip side though, don’t under pack boxes either. These boxes could get squished in the move which will lead to your broken items. It could also lead to your boxes being ripped apart by the movement of items against each other.
- Get free boxes! Some places like grocery stores or liquor stores will have boxes in the back. You can ask for them and, if they have any, they will give them to you. It never hurts to ask!
- Have a moving Checklist. Before your big move, check out: “The Ultimate Moving Checklist to Ensure You Have the Best Move Ever” to make sure you haven’t forgotten anything.
While you’re packing:
- You should pack essentials last and unpack them first. You get all settled in after a LONG day of moving, you take a shower, and then you realized, uh-oh, I don’t know where my towels are! Now you’re running through the house naked (and wet) trying desperately to find anything to dry off with. Don’t let this nightmare scenario happen to you! Pack boxes or totes that have your essentials that you need for a week.
- Pack up your hanging clothes easily! You should pack them on hangers with trash bags wrapped around them. It saves time and money! Also, it will protect your clothes just as well as a box without having to take them off the hangers then put them back on.
- Use cloth as packing material. Talking about saving you money, instead of buying bubble wrap, you should use linens or clothes as padding for those breakable items.
- Put your loose knives inside of an oven mitt. Or wrap them in a dish towel with tape around it to prevent yourself from being injured.
- Use old paper towel rolls to keep your cords from getting tangled. You just cut it into appropriate sizes for the wires and then string the wires through.
- Pack up jewelry in an egg carton. Speaking of using old things, use an egg carton (sans eggs of course!) to store your small jewelry in. This will keep your earrings safe and your necklaces from getting knotted.
- Keep leaks at bay! Put your toiletries in plastic Ziplock bags in order to keep them from leaking all over your boxes and belongings!
- Create handles for your boxes with a box cutter or scissors. Cut a small upside-down triangle shape on each side of the box so you can easily grip and carry your boxes.
- Make good use of plastic wrap. You do this by wrapping up storage containers that don’t have a lid. An example is to put plastic wrap on your silverware storage bin. This way you can use it as packing storage and have nothing fall out!
Important other tips:
- Make sure you’re all packed up and ready to go when the movers arrive! You don’t want to use a moving company and realized, the day before, that HALF your stuff is still out and not packed up! This can cause you serious delays on moving day. Not to mention it could also cost you extra money for the inconvenience. I suggest packing every day, even if it’s just for an hour a day. If you need to, set a timer for one hour and pack for that day. Try not to get wrapped up in those beautiful memories you unearth though!
- Have lots of snacks. You should always have a snack bin ready and available for packing and moving. You should fill it full of your favorite snacks but also some dense foods such as protein bars. Keep water available as well! This will keep you full and motivated instead of stopping halfway through to go dig through your belongings to find food.
- Keep valuables on your person. Items like your Social Security Card, drivers license, moving list, or even that piece of paper where you wrote down your new address! Make sure you have all these items on your person and not hiding somewhere in those boxes.
- Update accounts to your new address! Finally, make sure to update all your addresses for every account you have. Subscriptions, utilities, and packages should all be switched over. Do not leave that Amazon account on an old address!
You can just follow this list and make moving a breeze! Don’t forget that when this is all over, you’ll be in a beautiful new home! You should relax and maybe order some pizza in your NEW home or apartment.
