9 Top Tips for Moving and Packing

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Box Size is Important

You should be packing the heavier items, such as books, in smaller boxes. Larger boxes can be used for lighter items such as pillows. The most common complaint professional movers have is having to move large boxes filled with heavy items. It makes the job more difficult and it also increases the chances that something will break.

How Items are Packed is Important

Put the heavier things to the bottom of the box, with lighter things on top. When loading the truck you should put heavier things to the front of the truck to keep everything balanced properly.

There Should be No Empty Spaces

Fill up any gaps in boxes using things such as towels, clothes, or just packing paper. Movers don’t want to move boxes that feel unbalanced and badly packed.

Don’t Mix and Match Rooms

Give each room its own box and avoid putting things from different rooms into a box together. This makes packing and unpacking much easier and faster.

Give Each Box a Label

Each box needs to be labelled with the room it’s going to and given a brief description of what’s inside. This way you know just where each box is going. Another good idea is to give each box a number and put together an inventory in a notebook. That way you know for sure what you have and that it’s all there when the time comes to unpack.

Tape Boxes Properly

The top and bottom seams of the boxes should be closed with a few pieces of tapes. There’s also a simple movers trick you can employ. Wrap tape all the way around the top and bottom edges of the box, which is where all the stress accumulates.

Enquire About Special Crating for Expensive Objects – Especially Paintings

You should never use paper to wrap an oil painting because it can stick. If you’re packing a picture framed with glass then strengthen the glass using an X made of masking tape. This also keeps everything together if it does shatter. Pictures should then be wrapped using bubble wrap or paper and placed in a frame box. Each frame should then be separated with cardboard for additional protection.

Bundle the Breakables

When packing your dishes you should wrap each one individually with packing paper, and then you need to use more paper to bundle them together in groups of five or six. Dishes should never be packed flat and must always be packed sideways, with plenty of padding provided by bunched-up paper. You can place cups and bowls inside each other, with paper for protection between them, and then bundle them together in groups of three or four. Pack everything together in dish-barrel boxes.

Consider Anything that Needs to be Treated Special

While most TVs can be wrapped in furniture pads, the same as any other piece of furniture, special care must be paid with plasma TVs. These need a special wooden crate to be shipped if you no longer have the original box. Plasma TVs can also be ruined by being packed flat. You need to double-box the TV by putting the TV in one box, and then putting that box in another box packed with packing paper for padding.