Steps to Pack Your Home Like a Pro
When you’re moving your family across the country, or even across town, there are bound to be challenged. It’s a lot to take on all at once – especially if you’re busy and have a lot going on in your life. That’s why packing your home isn’t something that should be taken lightly. Think about it: If you don’t plan and execute this with careful attention to detail, you might not just be stressing yourself out unnecessarily but also making things more difficult for yourself later on. A poorly packed home can lead to piles of boxes scattered throughout different rooms, making it impossible for anyone to move around or even see where they are going. A well-packed home makes moving day much easier by reducing a house full of boxes into a few manageable pieces. With the right prep, packing, and organization techniques, your new home will feel like nothing but a fresh new start…
Organize before you pack
Before you even pick up a box, you’re going to want to be sure everything is in order. Rows of packed boxes with random miscellaneous items that are hard to find later is not going to help you at all. So before you even think about packing, go through your home, room by room, and make sure everything is in its place. Remember: when you’re packing, the goal isn’t to just toss everything in boxes and hope you’ll be able to find what you’re looking for later. You want to be able to see what you have, so you can make sure you’re not missing anything as you go. This also makes unpacking and putting your home back together again easier!
Label everything
You may have been taught to label your school books with a label maker when you were a kid, but you may have since forgotten to do it with your own belongings. There’s no better time to start than when you’re packing. Start with your boxes: You’re probably going to have a lot of them, and it will be tricky to keep them all straight if you don’t label them. You want to label the top of the box and the ends, so you can easily see the name of the room the box came from. And don’t just stop with the boxes: You’re going to have a lot of items packed and stacked in boxes, so you’ll need a way to keep them all straight. You can use a label maker, or even just a pen. Be sure to label every item and include the room it came from, the size (if applicable), and the number of pieces included. You can add “fragile” and any other relevant information, too.
Set aside essential items
There are certain items you’re definitely going to want to pack first, so you can be sure you have them on hand when you need them. You may want to pack items like your car insurance information, medical and prescription records, passports and important papers. You may want to pack your most treasured possessions, like heirlooms and other items you want to make sure are protected. These are all things you don’t want to forget, and you don’t want to be in a situation where they’re lost in a sea of boxes. When you’re packing, be sure to keep these items close to the top of your boxes, so they’re easy to find.
Package your most important items first
If you’re packing a room at a time, you’re likely going to have a lot of boxes to go through. Keep to a system where you pack the most important items first, and then work your way down. This way, you’ll have the most important things packed and ready to go first, and you can work your way down from there. Keep your family’s needs in mind, too. If you have a family member who is elderly or has a disability, they may need to be packed first. Or if you have pets that require special crates, make sure to pack them first so you don’t risk forgetting them.
Mark fragile and important pieces
You don’t just want to mark boxes as “fragile” – you want to make sure you’re sending that message to the movers, too. Make sure you mark any pieces that are especially fragile with a warning label as you’re packing.
When you’re packing fragile items, make sure to pack them safely and in a sturdy way so they don’t shift around and break. If you’re packing dishes, for example, you don’t want to just toss them in a box; you want to make sure they’re packed safely and securely.
Use tools to make packing easier
If you’re still struggling to find ways to make packing easier, you may want to look into some packing tools. There are all sorts of gadgets and gizmos out there that can make your packing more efficient. If you want to make sure all the heavier items in your home get packed safely, try investing in a few sturdy pieces of furniture sliders.
This way, you can move the heaviest items in your home one at a time, and you won’t accidentally break items or injure yourself in the process. Another packing tool is a plastic bag dispenser. You’ll be surprised at how often you go to a box and have no idea what’s even inside it.
A plastic bag dispenser is a simple and effective way to keep everything separated, organized, and easily identifiable. If you want to make sure you’re keeping a record of the contents of each box, try a packing checklist. This way, you can keep track of what you’ve packed and make sure you don’t forget anything in the process.
And finally, hire professional movers
Yes, you can save money by packing up and moving your own stuff, but there are things worth spending money on when it comes to packing, and hiring movers is one of them. As you’re finishing up packing, you want to make sure you’re finishing on time, too. Even if you’re a super-organized packer, you can expect to hit road bumps along the way.
You might come across a particularly difficult room that’s hard to pack, or you may run into a few items you simply can’t fit in a box. There’s nothing wrong with that; it happens to the best of us. You’re going to want to be sure you have plenty of time to get everything packed and ready for the movers, so you can be sure everything gets to your new home on time. So as you’re planning your move and thinking about how to pack your home, remember to keep it organized, start with the most important items, and make sure you have plenty of time to get everything done.