How To Start Packing For Your Move
Moving home is considered to be one of the most stressful experiences in a person’s life, but it really doesn’t need to be. Even if you’re not an experienced packer and mover, you can still pack up your home and move house in a way that results in less stress on moving day. Ideally, you will have at least a couple of weeks to get started, but even if you don’t, then following the advice here will help the move go as smoothly as possible.
Before you’ve even exchanged contracts on a property, if you know you intend to move house, then it is time to start the big declutter! Be ruthless and throw out anything that you haven’t used in six months, unless it is a book, seasonal, genuinely sentimental or irregular use item. If you have a lot less time, then designate a room per day to declutter and as you do so, pack up your boxes at the same time, leaving only essential items unpacked until the day before moving day.
Figuring out the best place to start packing can seem a little overwhelming initially, but remember that non-essentials should be done first. Whether you decide to start packing away books or children’s artwork first, all the items that you can manage to live without for a few weeks whilst you get moved and unpacked in your new home are the kinds of things that you can pack away first. With the exception of a few clothes and the items you will need when you first move into your new home, almost everything else in your house is a non-essential. You might find it easier to do one room at a time, keeping each packed box in the corner of said room until moving day, or you might opt to try and pack one box for each room, per day. However you choose to do it, the important thing to remember is not to leave it until the last minute!
When packing up your home, it is important to understand that heavy items, such as books, should be packed in smaller, robust boxes to prevent injury to whomever is moving them; lighter items can go in bigger boxes. Ask around neighbours, friends and family to see if anyone has spare boxes, newspaper and bubble wrap to help keep costs to a minimum and to enable you to start packing things away carefully. Fragile items will obviously need to be marked in boxes that say “FRAGILE” and be cushioned with material like newspaper and bubble wrap. If you choose to pack up one room at a time, then as you do so you can label what is in each box and which room they will go into in the new house, for example “Books, non-fiction, A-G, living room”. Being as precise as possible will ensure that you can unpack with ease at the other end.
Packing a bag of clothes for everyone is a good idea, ideally enough for a couple of days after the move whilst you get set up. It is also important to pack a box of essential items that you will need as soon as you get in to your new home, what you might choose to include will depend on your circumstances, but some examples are: important paperwork, including tenancy agreement, kettle, coffee, tea, cups, takeaway menus for the new area, phone chargers, pen and paper etc. You may also find it helpful to arrange for groceries to be delivered for the day after you move, so you have one less thing to worry about.