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I'm actually worried about space too. Don't know how much my furniture is going to take up in the truck. Plus, I don't want to pack too early so I don't have to stare at boxes for months.
I'm actually worried about space too. Don't know how much my furniture is going to take up in the truck. Plus, I don't want to pack too early so I don't have to stare at boxes for months.
We measure the dimensions of our U-Haul truck or trailer onto the floor/walls of garage or room so we can really SEE how much space it actually is. That has really help us.
Here's my tips:
1. Decide if packing is a job you want to complete or if it's going to be a long drawn out adveture as you wonder down memory lane on each item you pick up. Notice that a professional mover can pack a cupboard of photo albums in 1/2 hour but the homeowner takes 3 days as they flip through and choke up obver memories? If your job is to pcak, PACK!
2. Have the supplies you need on hand. Nothing makes packing hard like haviong to stop and run out for boxes or tape, only to have to run out again for more bubble wrap and stuffing. Many of the self moving companies let you buy items and return unused ones when finsihed. So you fork out a couple hundred in advance for enough boxes to ship a walmart, at least you have what you need and not wasting time running around.
3. Stage the home. I was told that what a homeowner needs to do is hit one room and pack what they are taking.. Dissassembel and protect large items. and whatever they are not taking or not sure about, pile in another corner and come back to it later if you have time, otherwise, it stays!
4. Don't waste time on marking boxes on a DIY move. I saw a professional company that slapped a sticker on each box. The sticker had barbell, a wine glass, a see-saw, and a square with a indent on top. Those symbles refered to barbell= heavy, wine glass= fragile, sea-saw= unbalnaced, square with indent = top portion crusable. They didn;t waste time writing fragile or heavy on it , and didn;t spend time putting individual sticker and such. They just circled the symbol and everyone knew what it meant. They also wrote a basic description like bedroom linen, kitchenware, garage tools. Who cares if it has Aunt mables fine napkins, Christmas table cloth, Easter pot holders, or Johns used underware. make it a general description since odds are you going to open most to find something anyways.
5. Uniiversal boxes was another key. All their boxes were designed to stack neatly on each other. No worry about if the box from the liqour store will fit on top of the box from the paper at the office and fit on the box the printer came in. Universal boxes made stacking so much easier and there was no wasted space in the truck as it all stacked in pillars. They also had boxes designed for pictures, flat screen tv's and other odd sizes so instead of tryinga nd wating time on creating boxes that are never just right, they had the box to meet the need. If it wasn;t used, they didn't charge but they brough along what they they figured would do the best job.
6. Although not needed always, they had dollies and hand carts so they didn;t have to carry 4 boxes one at a time. Pack 4, on the handcart out to the garage. They had ropes and straps to make moving things easier. They said the wrong moving equipment can cost twice as much in time and energy over using the right items.
7. If your packing and moving, that's niot the time to entertain Fred and Wilma. If you want to shoot the breeze with them, have them help pack boxes. It takes more time to stop and restart than to do it straight through. If you have time remainding after all the packing, entertain to your hearts content. have people over to watch TV, but packing is packing time.
i guess the whole thing I took from this was, you have to plan to finish things by a certain time. The more you let things fall behind, the more and harder it is to complete the task. If you do it in a steady fashion and concentrate on the packing, it goes smooth, If you let yourself get distracted, you have to catch up and mistakes and bad thing usually happen at that point. I know its hard because professional movers won't go all teary eye when they find the first baby blanket and they won't know go to find the album with the pictures and they won't look at the first set of shoes for the baby and they won't.... they pack!
Here's my tips:
1. Decide if packing is a job you want to complete or if it's going to be a long drawn out adveture as you wonder down memory lane on each item you pick up. Notice that a professional mover can pack a cupboard of photo albums in 1/2 hour but the homeowner takes 3 days as they flip through and choke up obver memories? If your job is to pcak, PACK!
2. Have the supplies you need on hand. Nothing makes packing hard like haviong to stop and run out for boxes or tape, only to have to run out again for more bubble wrap and stuffing. Many of the self moving companies let you buy items and return unused ones when finsihed. So you fork out a couple hundred in advance for enough boxes to ship a walmart, at least you have what you need and not wasting time running around.
3. Stage the home. I was told that what a homeowner needs to do is hit one room and pack what they are taking.. Dissassembel and protect large items. and whatever they are not taking or not sure about, pile in another corner and come back to it later if you have time, otherwise, it stays!
4. Don't waste time on marking boxes on a DIY move. I saw a professional company that slapped a sticker on each box. The sticker had barbell, a wine glass, a see-saw, and a square with a indent on top. Those symbles refered to barbell= heavy, wine glass= fragile, sea-saw= unbalnaced, square with indent = top portion crusable. They didn;t waste time writing fragile or heavy on it , and didn;t spend time putting individual sticker and such. They just circled the symbol and everyone knew what it meant. They also wrote a basic description like bedroom linen, kitchenware, garage tools. Who cares if it has Aunt mables fine napkins, Christmas table cloth, Easter pot holders, or Johns used underware. make it a general description since odds are you going to open most to find something anyways.
5. Uniiversal boxes was another key. All their boxes were designed to stack neatly on each other. No worry about if the box from the liqour store will fit on top of the box from the paper at the office and fit on the box the printer came in. Universal boxes made stacking so much easier and there was no wasted space in the truck as it all stacked in pillars. They also had boxes designed for pictures, flat screen tv's and other odd sizes so instead of tryinga nd wating time on creating boxes that are never just right, they had the box to meet the need. If it wasn;t used, they didn't charge but they brough along what they they figured would do the best job.
6. Although not needed always, they had dollies and hand carts so they didn;t have to carry 4 boxes one at a time. Pack 4, on the handcart out to the garage. They had ropes and straps to make moving things easier. They said the wrong moving equipment can cost twice as much in time and energy over using the right items.
7. If your packing and moving, that's niot the time to entertain Fred and Wilma. If you want to shoot the breeze with them, have them help pack boxes. It takes more time to stop and restart than to do it straight through. If you have time remainding after all the packing, entertain to your hearts content. have people over to watch TV, but packing is packing time.
i guess the whole thing I took from this was, you have to plan to finish things by a certain time. The more you let things fall behind, the more and harder it is to complete the task. If you do it in a steady fashion and concentrate on the packing, it goes smooth, If you let yourself get distracted, you have to catch up and mistakes and bad thing usually happen at that point. I know its hard because professional movers won't go all teary eye when they find the first baby blanket and they won't know go to find the album with the pictures and they won't look at the first set of shoes for the baby and they won't.... they pack!
Great advice
What I can add to this---
professional movers don't talk you to death during the process. Unlike friends, who want an explanation for everything--
Oh, this is so cute, where did you get this?
Why are you keeping this?
Why don't you have a garage sale and sell this?
What do you use this for?
Are you aware this is broken, damaged, dog peed on it?
Professional movers DONT CARE they will pack cat litter if its there---no joke, once I couldn't be there to supervise a move, they packed the cat box, used litter and all! The litter and kitty poop was packed in a bag labeled "biohazard" so at least they knew it was cat $h*t, but they packed it, anyways!
Nice ideas and tips are shared by the members ...really appreciate .I think they will definitely help while packing during before the move.
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