You’ll never realize just how much stuff you have until you come to move home. Suddenly, years of items have to be sorted, packed away, and unpacked at your new place. It’s a big job.
Luckily, there are many tips and hacks you can use to make packing that much easier. We’ve rounded up some of the best ones here.
Start Early
Leaving everything until the last minute is a recipe for disaster. Lessen the stress by starting the process well in advance. You’re less likely to make mistakes that way too.
Declutter Everything BEFORE You Start
Now is the perfect time to have a thorough sort through your items. People prefer to do it in different ways, such as one room at a time, and others prefer to do it by category (paperwork, clothes, etc). Generally, organizing by category is easier. So if you’re sorting out clothes, you can go through every room in the house and collect all of the clothes and accessories together to sort.
Be ruthless and get rid of anything you no longer need. Separate it into piles for rubbish, donating, and selling. Without all those unnecessary items to pack you’re making it easier on the removals company and yourself.
Get the RIGHT Packing Materials
There are a lot of different options when it comes to packing. You can use old boxes you’ve collected from friends and stores, buy new ones or even rent them from the removal company. Get everything together in advance such as boxes, tape, labels, and pens.
Label EVERYTHING
Once you’re in your new home, you want to make it as easy as possible to get unpacked and organized. This starts in your current house. Have boxes for specific rooms such as the kitchen, bedroom, etc. label them clearly so the movers can put them in the right place. You can also put stickers on furniture too.
Don’t Overpack
It’s tempting to use up all of the space in a packing box, but that might not be practical. For example, filling a box to the top with clothes is going to be a lot lighter than if you’d filled it up with books. Someone could hurt themselves by picking it up. Pack a box until it is comfortable enough to carry and if anything is heavy, label this on the outside for safety.
Put Toiletries Inside Plastic
Items are going to move around when they’re transported, even with the most careful removal companies. You don’t want to open up a box of your favorite toiletries to find they’ve leaked and covered everything else. When packing, ensure you check the lid of each one and place it in a plastic bag so that if it does leak, the mess is contained.
Takeaways
There’s a lot to think about when moving and it can be tempting to throw everything you own into boxes and deal with it at the other side of the move. Doing it right and prepping in advance will make sure that you have an organized and decluttered new home for your new start.
