How to Pack for Moving House
It’s a well known fact that moving homes is one of the most stressful things you can do. Even moving rental properties comes with its fair share of headaches and sleepless nights. Moving house often requires so much preparation that packing itself can sometimes end up taking a back seat. To make it easier, here are some tips on how to pack for moving house effectively.
Packing for moving house is difficult and time consuming and it’s important to be organised with it. Here, we explain how to pack for moving house to ensure the process is as stress free as possible.
Start Early
Packing up your life before moving house will often take longer than you anticipate, especially when you’d move abroad. Avoid leaving this until the last minute to prevent a frantic rush to pack everything into boxes. This leads to damaged fragile items, lost belongings, and a chaotic, stressful week during your move.
If you know that you’re serious about moving and are wondering how to move house, starting packing early. Spend a few hours each weekend organising and packing items you know won’t be needed urgently.
Be Tough About What You Keep
We all own a lot of items which we really don’t use all that often. These could be sentimental items in a box or clothes you never quite get around to wearing.
Moving house, even when upscaling, is a great opportunity to assess belongings and eliminate anything unnecessary. It can be tough, but asking yourself, “When was the last time I used this?” helps declutter and start fresh.
Remember, the items that you don’t want to keep anymore don’t need to be thrown to landfill. There are plenty of charities that will collect your unwanted goods for free. You may even know of friends or family who would happily rehome some of your belongings. It’s better to find a new home for your items than just bag them for the weekly bin collection.
Sufficient Boxes & Supplies
It’s difficult to determine exactly how many boxes and moving supplies you’ll need until you start packing. However, there are ways to keep costs down. Follow these tips on moving home. Start sourcing boxes as early as possible, especially if you want to avoid paying for them.
Visit local businesses towards the end of their working day and ask if you can take any boxes for free. Most businesses will be happy to help, especially independent stores over larger chains.
Look for a variety of box sizes to pack your items properly. For example, books should go in smaller boxes as they are heavier. Avoid boxes that are too large for one person to carry. Also, ensure the boxes are stable enough, especially if they’re recycled.
Even after sourcing boxes locally, you may still need to purchase some. New boxes are likely to be sturdier.
Label your boxes to identify which room they belong in and mark fragile items that need extra care.
In addition to boxes, you’ll need strong tape and wrapping for fragile items. Brown parcel tape is a good option, and it’s better to use too much than too little.
Buying bubble wrap is highly recommended for wrapping fragile items. While newspaper can be a cheaper alternative, it’s less secure, so your fragile items like dinner plates and glasses might get damaged.
For furniture like dining chairs or tables, wrapping the legs in bubble wrap adds extra protection from knocks and bumps. Bubble wrap also works well for paintings and frames.
Need to order boxes? We can help, get affordable packing boxes and moving supplies delivered to your door here.
Be Systematic in Your Packing
We mentioned earlier about the importance of starting early. It’s also a great idea to be systematic with your packing. By this, we mean starting with the rooms and items which you use the least. For example, you can begin with storage, garage or loft spaces, then move onto items in your bedroom which you don’t need at a pinch, then your living room and finally kitchen.
Seasonal items like gardening equipment or Christmas decorations can be the first to be packed away safely. Naturally, there will be plenty of household goods which you will need prior to moving house. The closer you get to the moving date, the more this list can be reduced as you gradually pack away more of your home.
Take Inventory of Your Belongings
When moving house, lists will become your new best friend. Make lists of what needs to be packed, when it can be packed and how much time you should allow for this. This will ensure there’s nothing missed when packing for your move and will also ensure you don’t take anything necessary with you. Ensuring you clean before you move will make this job easier.
Don’t Make Your Boxes Too Heavy
This is absolutely crucial, irrelevant of whether you’re using a removals company or doing the move on your own. Boxes which are too heavy will become a hazard to anyone that carries them, the last thing you want is a visit to A&E on moving day. You might have heard some moving house ‘horror story’, where things might have gone wrong on moving day. But boxes that are too heavy, create the possibility of them being dropped, valuables being broken or frantic last minute repacking.
It’s a good idea to ensure your boxes aren’t heavier than about 15kg, though some removals companies will sometimes specify a maximum weight limit. By this, we don’t mean having a scale at hand to weigh every box you pack. Once you’ve finished with a box, give it a lift and determine whether you think someone would be able to carry this up and down a flight of stairs. If the answer is no, it might be worth thinking about doing a bit of reorganising your boxes to spread the load.
Avoid Leakages with Plastic Bags
You know that plastic bag collection you have sitting under your sink which you’ve been waiting to reuse? Now’s the time. Any items like toiletries or kitchen products which contain liquid should be wrapped in plastic bags to ensure they don’t leak in the move. No one wants to carry a box that’s dripping with shampoo or washing up liquid.
Roll Up Your Clothes to Save Space
Anyone who has spent time travelling will tell you that the best way to save space is to roll up your clothes. This is a handy way to reduce the space taken up by clothes and can actually reduce the amount of wrinkles that form while they’re in boxes. There are a lot of guides out there on fancy ways to fold clothes to save space but generally rolling usually comes out on top.
Keep Your Valuables Together
Everyone has a collection of valuables which would be heartbreaking to lose or damage. Take stock of these and pack them all together carefully. This means you know exactly where they are at all times. If you prefer to keep them close, tell the removals company you’ll take them to your new home yourself. That said, removals companies are generally trustworthy, and transporting your valuables should not be an issue. Be mindful to mark the box as fragile.
Keep Important Documents On Hand
Keep passports, birth certificates, driving licenses, bank statements, and other important documents together and easily accessible at all times. The same goes for any documentation relating to your move. These all need to be easily available, not get lost and safely moved from one property to the next. We recommend taking these in the car with you. You certainly don’t want to be diving through box after box to find paperwork that’s you’ll need in your new home.
Pack an Essentials Box
It might take you some time to unpack properly when moving house, as there’s lots to do when moving into a new home. Also, there are plenty of items that you’ll need on the day of moving which need to be packed last and unpacked first. We’re talking toothbrushes, tea and coffee, phone chargers and more. Make sure each person in the household has an essentials box or bag which has everything they need easily available. It’s a good idea to keep them in the car to ensure they’re always on hand.
Need a Removals Company Quote?
Moving house can be tough, using a removals company can take a lot of the stress, strain and heavy lifting out of moving day. Get your no-obligation, affordable removals quote here.
Last Updated: November 21st, 2024
