Whether it’s your 1st time or your 5th time, moving house can be a stressful and lengthy process for anybody. These 10 tips are tried, tested, and guaranteed to make your moving experience a lot easier.
Before you even think about packing, make sure you get yourself the best quality Big Brown Box(es).
Leave yourself enough time
If you’re working to a timescale (moving date) the worst thing you can do is leave packing until the last minute. Although packing can take much less time than you initially think, you don’t want to get into a panicked frenzy the day before you need to move out. If you have a busy work schedule the sooner you can start packing the better. When you should start packing also depends on the size of your current home. It is recommended to start packing 2 months before moving out of a large house, and 1 month for a small house/flat.
Pack one room at a time
Not only can packing be stressful, unpacking can be just as stressful, not knowing where anything is or what goes where. Make life easy for yourself by packing one room at a time, this will allow you to easily distribute and unpack once you are in your new home.
Pack the things you don’t need first
Start in the rooms that you use the least, and pack items that you don’t use on a daily basis.
Seasonal items can be packed first, gardening tools in the winter, and Christmas decorations and winter coats in the summer. From there things such as decorative items (pictures, knickknacks) and spare items (extra mugs).
Wrap it before you pack it
Picture this, you’ve spent hours, days, weeks meticulously packing everything into boxes, only to find that when you get to your new home that all your drinking glasses and the ornament your Mum got you from Tenerife is broken into a hundred tiny pieces. To avoid this nightmare, invest in some bubble wrap to protect some of your more fragile items. The same goes for furniture!
Declutter
Moving house is a great opportunity to do a spot of Spring Cleaning. That vase that you didn’t know you had? Get rid of it. That broken laptop that you were going to get fixed but ended up getting a new one instead? You don’t need it. That unopened soap set that you got for Christmas 3 years ago? You see where I’m going with this. Be ruthless, if you haven’t used it in the last 6 months’ chances are you won’t. A new house deserves a fresh start and so do you. The great thing about decluttering whilst moving is that you can do it before and after. Donate it to charity, sell it, bin it, re-gift it.
Know your limits
It is important to make sure you have the right type of boxes when moving house, for larger, heavier items heavy duty boxes will be required. For other items such as pillows light duty boxes will do the job. It is important to not go over 30kg per box, not just so it doesn’t fall apart if lifted, but so you or whoever is moving it doesn’t get injured.
Fill Up Empty Space
From experience I know the struggle of trying to pack similar items in the same box, and ending up with a box half full of books that can barely be lifted. Try packing lighter items such as cushions and blankets on top to maximise the space in the box. You can also fill up the extra space with old newspaper and rags this will help secure your items and make sure they don’t move about too much.
Stack boxes from heavy to light
After you’re finished packing may want to stack your boxes, as no one wants to have to climb over a sea of cardboard just to get into bed. When stacking them make sure that the heaviest boxes are on the bottom and the lighter ones are on the top. Not only is this safer, but it will prevent any boxes/items getting damaged under excessive weight.
Box of essentials
One of the last things that should be packed is your box of essentials. This box should be full of everyday things such as deodorant, shampoo, tea/coffee or anything else you may need as soon as you move into your new home. Having all these essentials together will ensure you aren’t raking through a truck load of boxes and as these things are packed at the last minute you can use them right until you lock the door for the final time.
Label your boxes
There’s absolutely no point in organising each room into individual boxes if after you’ve taped them up you don’t know what’s in them. Marker pens are a simple and effective way to make sure you know exactly what is in each box to make unpacking easier for you later on.