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I have an entire house to begin packing for a move in the next month or so. Where do you begin? I had a yard sale and got rid of unnecessary items. Have boxes and want to start doing some packing this weekend. Do you usually start with the closets? The laundry room? The kitchen?
I was wondering where do I start packing?
Any advice from those of you who have moved before would be helpful.
And thanks to all of you who post on this forum, it is very useful info!
You start with the items you are currently not using (non-essential kitchen items, closet contents, stuff you already have stored and access only occasionally) and decorative items and nicknacks.
I start with books and movies. I will most likely not need to use those before a move. Then I move onto other things that I will not need before the move. I usualy pack clothes and kitchen last, since I need to wear things and cook meals. Plus I hate to pack the kitchen, so I always put it off until the last minute.
I have an entire house to begin packing for a move in the next month or so. Where do you begin? I had a yard sale and got rid of unnecessary items. Have boxes and want to start doing some packing this weekend. Do you usually start with the closets? The laundry room? The kitchen?
I was wondering where do I start packing?
Any advice from those of you who have moved before would be helpful.
And thanks to all of you who post on this forum, it is very useful info!
Casey
As others have said, start with the things you hardly ever use and won't need until you get to your destination. If you have children, their rooms should be done a few days before the actual move, not to upset them more than necessary.
Worth their weight in gold are the professional packers if you are doing a long distance move. Absolutely the best thing I've learned is to have the packers do the entire kitchen. The kitchen is the most important room until the day before the move, and the absolute worst to pack. The cost is minimal compared to you trying to do it yourself; they use dish paks and everything is properly cushioned. If you have enough room in the bathroom(s), also do those towards moving day. I empty out the contents of the vanity and put everything in boxes in the bathroom or a closet if you have room, then handy to grab things as you need them. Close the boxes the morning of the move.
Shhhh, don't tell anyone, but I get priority mail boxes for small bathroom items, and simply fold in the corners instead of taping to secure and put them in larger box(es) the day before the move.
The distance you move will determine how sturdy the boxes need to be and the order in which you pack. Most professional moving companies have booklets with good information as well.
I was wondering where do I start packing?
Any advice from those of you who have moved before would be helpful.
And thanks to all of you who post on this forum, it is very useful info!
As a former moving services employer, I'll give you a couple ideas.
I liked for my customers to have alot of boxes. If they had only a few, I was more concerned about damage to the non-boxes. Sealed boxes make very good packing tools.
We'd stack boxes as high as needed to protect items and get everything into the truck.
So, make sure you use heavy duty boxes. You can buy moving boxes or consider getting as many as you can from the nearest liquor store. Those boxes hold heavy bottles and are very good boxes for moving stuff. Seal the boxes once you fill them with books, electronics, houseware, etc.
Mark the boxes as to what is in each box. Ex books.
Make sure the loaders put the boxes of books on the bottom. You don't want boxes of books on top of more fragile items.
Go to Office Depot and get some of those round colored stickers. Or make your own.
On each box that will go into bedroom #1 at the new location, put a red sticker on those boxes.
On each box destined for the kitchen at the new house, use a blue sticker, for example.
This helps you separate boxes when you get there. It also tells the unloaders which room to take all the boxes. You may have more than one bedroom. If you have 3 bedrooms at the new location, which boxes go in which bedroom? If the boxes with the red sticker go to bedroom #1, place a red sticker on the door frame at bedroom #1. Same thing for the other bedrooms with colored stickers to match the ones on the boxes that go in those boxes. The unloaders can then quickly know which room to take each box, without you having to stand there and tell them where to go with each box.
Make a list of all boxes so you know how many you have, and it can be used as an inventory list when you arrive, and boxes can be checked off the list as they are unloaded.
If you are not hiring loaders and unloaders and a moving company, then alot of the above might not help you. But, I still recommend heavy duty liquor store boxes.
When my customers had less than 10 boxes I was slightly concerned.
When they had 75-100 boxes, I had to consider the amount of space needed.
When they had 25-40 boxes, it was about right, as they make excellent packing.
Ex: I once moved a grandfather clock. The queen box spring was put in the truck first with the bottom facing the front of the truck. The back of the clock faced the top side of the box spring.
Then boxes stacked on all the of the remaining 3 sides of the clock. Not all the way to the top, just high enough to keep the clock from moving left, right, front, rear, etc. Of course the mechanism inside the clock were pre-packed with bubble wrap, etc.
Last edited by howard555; 10-05-2012 at 04:55 PM..
Check freecycle and/or craigslist for moving boxes from someone who has finished their move and is unpacked.
As suggested color coding and numbering boxes really, really helps.
I have a very big china cabinet with glass shelves and doors on the upper section. I removed all of them and used cardboard and bubble wrap on each one and then into a bigger box. The hinges and handles went into ziplock bags and that went in the box with the doors.
Sheets, towels, blankets, scatter rugs and decorative pillows were used as packing material around such things as lamps and lamp shades, stereo equip., printer, mirrors, etc.
For my dogs I made up extra ID tags with cell phone number and email address on them and got my vet to print me extra copy of their rabies certificates that stayed with us, not in my boxes of files. I also bought martingale collars or harnesses for them since it was 4 dogs and 1 cat in a rented RV going cross country over a period of 10 days.
The really tough part was after I was about 80 - 90% unpacked in the new place - enough to function day to day and I ran out of steam. I think it took another year before the very last of my belongings got unpacked.
I hope the move goes very smoothly and life in your new place is wonderful.
I usually start with the stuff I have not used in months and go from there . But I never use cardboard boxes because they can colapse and break stuff (learned over many years of moving cross country ) LOL .. I go to wal mart etc to buy the plastic crates and they save most of my stuff believe it or not .. I m getting ready to move again from Ohio to South Carolina and i hope i have seen the last of midwest winters , Im hoping the coming winter will be my last one . Im praying for that . Well yes I also agree you should use clothes that you are not using in your moving crates or boxes to sheild stuff from braking . God bless you on your move .
when we moved from WI to SC almost 4 yrs ago, and after we had a garage sale and donated any items we did not need or could not fit in our new place here, we started packing up the lower level, garage/shop, and then room by room doing everything we didnt need first. Obviously clothes for the time you are in, food/kitchen needs, etc were last. We used a combination of boxes and plastic totes for packing bulky items, lawn bags for some of the clothing (it helps having some "flexible" items to fit in nooks and crannies on the truck), and our blankets to help wrap the larger tv's and paintings.
Considering we had goods in the biggest u-haul, back of an suv, and under the tarp of our boat, we only had a couple scratched pieces and one lamp busted. And that was with everything filled to the brim, moving in Jan, and me driving the truck and my wife pulling the boat the first time we ever drove thru the mountains. So we were quite happy with how it turned out.
I'd say pack smart, label everything clearly, and if you are using movers or loaders make sure they are reviewed well.
good luck!
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