Moving Tips And Ideas
If you’re moving or considering moving, here are few easy ideas from Moving On A Dime to point you in the right direction. These moving tips and ideas will help you decide which things to pack first and how to pack most efficiently so moving costs less!
ORDER IN WHICH TO START PACKING
Start with things you don’t use every day.
- Memories – Grandma’s dishes, quilts, old books and Bibles, childhood toys and photos
- Garage items – Christmas and Holiday decorations, camping equipment and things in storage
- Things stored in closets that aren’t used often and out of season clothes
- Knick-knacks, pictures, mirrors and wall hangings
- Seasonal dishes, canning equipment, roasting pans, good china, good silverware, large serving platters
- Unnecessary CD’s, DVD’s and video tapes.
- Sewing room and craft items.
- Home office – Pack as much as possible except bills that need to be paid. Leave office boxes open and tape them closed at the last minute before moving just in case you need something out of them.
- Children’s toys and games – Pack most of the toys they don’t play with regularly.
- One week before moving, pack all unnecessary kitchen items, clothes and linens (except what you need for one week).
PAIN FREE PACKING
Don’t leave empty spaces. Here are some examples of how you might use all available space:
- I fill my china cabinet with light weight soft things like stuffed animals, balls of yarn, quilts, artificial flowers and greenery.
- If you will be moving your refrigerator or washer or dryer, fill it with pillows, wicker baskets or plastic items from the kitchen.
- Fill clothes hampers with bathroom items. If you have a lamp that needs special protection, wrap it carefully in towels and place it in a clothes hamper.
- Fill up even small items like plastic pitchers with kitchen utensils or kitchen knick-knacks.
- I clean out a large outside trash can and use it to pack my hoses, small pots and gardening tools. If I’m not sure if I should keep something, I allow myself to take it if I can fit it in that one trash can. My son-in-law says it is one step closer to the curb that way. ;-)
- Don’t pack glass, porcelain or ceramic containers with loose items in them that could break them. Canning jars filled with marbles or baby food jars filled with nuts and bolts are recipes for disaster.
- Pack heavy things such as books in small boxes.
- Don’t pack things like photos, videotapes, cd’s, candles, plants or pets (especially pets!!!) where heat or cold can get to them. Don’t think any of those things will be safe and protected in a car or truck overnight. If it gets cold, they will freeze. Also plants left in a hot car will not be safe because the heat will kill them. When transporting plants in a car, protect them from direct sunlight with a covering of newspaper because the sun will fry houseplants.
- Pack kids’ rooms last. They need the security of having their room the same for as long as possible. Be sure to put their favorite items in the car such a blanket, stuffed animal or books.
Jill
For more easy packing and moving tips and ideas, check out our Moving On A Dime e-book here.
Photo by: iChris
I know I have read so many times to mark on the box exactly what is in each box.
When we moved and I was doing all the packing I did exactly that. When my husband got home from out of town he took a marker and blacked out all my neat lists.
His reason was that since it was just him and I doing the moving the things would have to sit in the uhaul trailer and the suburban with nobody watching them. Anyone could come along and read on the box. electronics, computers, dvd players. So instead I wrote on a sheet of paper what was in box #1 #2 and so on. I put the list into my purse and I was organized and he felt better about security.
In our e book Moving on a Dime I recommend to number the boxes also. I always mark all 4 sides and top so if there are a lot of items in the box it is easier to mark 1,2 etc then write all the items down but if it is something like 1 lamp it is just as easy for me to just write lamp on the box. Most people only mark a box on one side but it never fails when I need to find something the side with the marking is always turned the wrong way so even if it seems to take more time at first it seems to save in the long run.
Great suggestions. To keep young children from unpacking the boxes I gave them each a specific crayon color and their job was to “decorate” the boxes. Some preferred flowers another drew stick figures and one specialized in smiley faces. It kept them busy and they thought they were helping me. It made the move so much easier as I didn’t have to repack boxes they had unpacked.
My mom always numbered the boxes according to the room it went in. She would have a “map” of the new house with numbered rooms. So box #1 would go in room #1. It really saved us a great deal of frustration in un-packing the truck and the boxes!
i remember growing up and my mom would do the labeling of each box too . “linens, dishes, cups, etc” .. .. and if we had boxes that had stuff that was our stuff we had to write our names on it .. this way .. if it was our box, then it was given to the person whose name was on it and they were responsible to unpack their own box ..
she said she did this bc if the person didnt pack their box right and something got damaged .. no blaming or etc could happen .. we were responsible for our own stuff .. and if somthing didnt get packed and was thrown out .. oh well .. it was our responsibility to either pack our stuff or get rid of it if we chose ..
with 5 kids mom had enuff to deal with when it came time for moving and the less stress she had to deal with, the better ..
same thing with the decluttering ..
hehehe.. jill .. yep .. i am at it again .. i am down to just the garage and one room now (the room where i was storing everything from my last endeavors of decluttering..) .. i paid the young girl up the street (she is a good friend of the family to help me) and well .. we had so much stuff the garbage men were angry but i gave them some cans of soda and apologized and told them i was decluttering .. i need to make them some cookies but will do that in the fall when i use the oven again.. too hot for now ..
i have some stuff that is belongs to my daughter and i told her when i go thru that room (which will be very soon) if she isnt here to help me go thru her stuff .. then its out the door ..
and the garage? .. well.. hehehe .. i will wait until the end of sept to do that .. its too hot right now .. and i have been assessing the stuff i want out .. and that’s most of it .. i will be hiring some teenagers in the neighborhood to just help bag the stuff up and set out on the road ..
no more than an hr will be needed .. its not alot of little things but it is a lot of bigger things that are not needed or used (hasnt been used for over 2 + yrs now) ..
hubby asked what are we going to do with the various books we have .. i told him they will be donated to the library .. only a few will we keep .. adn he agreed .. same thing with some of his stuff too ..
lots of this stuff has come from when we owned our own house (which was over 3000 sq ft) .. so its time to really take action and just declutter our lives .. and house ..
thought i would share with you ..
Having moved aprox every 7 years when I was growing up, I could pack with my eyes closed…Great source for FREE boxes:) local liquor stores. CALL first and find out what day they receive their deliveries….Less work for them (they have to break them down to dispose of them) and fresh boxes for you! Win-Win!! The boxes are much heavier than packing boxes and some have dividers which work out great for packing small nic-nacs/cups etc!!!
A lot of people buy paper to wrap their items in but my mother always wrapped her dishes, glassware & breakables with the towels, washcloths, sheets & even the out of season clothes. Everything gets moved but no added weight from paper that you have to find another use for. We also “wrapped” our furniture in blankets & bedspreads instead of renting furniture blankets.
This is the way we do it too. Not only does it save money but it also saves space. Why pack a whole box of linens up when you could use them in between dishes or around knick knacks. In all my years of many moves I have never bought packing material or even boxes for anything. That includes packages I send.
I’m 39 and have probably moved that many times! We used to get boxes from grocery stores or Walmart for free. We just went when they were re-stocking and they would have carts full of empty boxes. We would collect a bunch of those free classified newspapers and store ads to wrap everything in. I used to hate moving with my mom because she had a bunch of knick knacks, glasses, special dishes, every day dishes and coffee cups, and EVERYTHING had to be washed because of the newsprint. Too bad we never thought to use all of the cloth items we had for everything. At least I’ll know next time.
Pack an overnight bag for everyone with pjs, a change of clothes, bathroom essentials(don’t forget a towel) and sheets for their beds. Even if you’re just moving down the street, it’s handy to have all of this ready to go. Load it last, along with some kitchen essentials that you’ll need that night and the next morning.
Duct tape comes in so many colors now, it helps to buy different colors or patterns and color code the boxes with the room in which they belong. Also it helps to use stretch cords to secure drawers.
Thank you for your tips on how to handle difficult items like large kitchen appliances and fragile devices. These two things were bound to give me a headache now that we’re arranging our things to move into the new house my family just bought, so this help is appreciated. I’ll make sure we keep these tips in mind so we can pack safely before getting a moving company to assist us.