Moving house is rarely a process we look forward to. I mean, we get excited about being in our new home, all settled and enjoying the new space, but the actual moving element of it is a source of anxiety and dread for many. You have to contact utility companies, clean your old house top to bottom, hire vans or removal companies and pack everything you own into boxes (or other travel solutions if they don’t fit) and move them from one home to another, preferably without breaking anything you care about. Not an easy feat and a lot of things can go wrong during the process. So how do you pack up a house, ready to move?
Gather Your Supplies
Before you start packing a single thing, you need to gather some basic packing supplies. This will stop you having to run around looking for the tape or another box, and helps keep the flow of packing going. You will need:
- Small packing boxes
- Medium packing boxes
- Large packing boxes
- Heavy duty specialist boxes
- Wardrobe boxes
- Packing tape
- Bubble wrap
- Newspaper
- Furniture wrap
- Sharpies and labels
You will be able to pick up a lot of these things from a local supermarket, but honestly, this is often overpriced and simply not up to the job. A lot of self storage facilities (including us) will have these items for much cheaper prices, so you can walk in and pick up everything you need without breaking the bank. You can also be sure that the quality of boxes you’re using is high enough to pack, move and store bulky or heavy items without collapsing under the weight (like many supermarket boxes do). If you can’t get hold of things like wardrobe boxes, you can fashion your own by using a long box and inserting a metal rail through one end.
The Packing Process
Once you’ve got everything ready, it’s time to start the packing process! Everyone has their own approach to going through everything they own and packing it away, but we have a few general tips that will help make the process go smoothly.
- Start Early. There is nothing worse than staying up until 2 am the night before a move because you haven’t finished packing yet. It just makes you grouchy on the day and the whole process far more difficult. So start your packing early on, maybe just with one box a day, and suddenly it’s not so bad.
- Start With What You Don’t Use. We recommend tackling your packing in 2 batches. The first should be done a month or so in advance, and be used to pack away anything you don’t use often enough to need until you move. The second batch can be done in the run-up to the move and will be much easier to cope with now that the bulk of the stuff is already out of the way.
- De-Clutter. Moving is a fantastic time to reassess what you really need in your life, and what you could stand to lose. Everyone accumulates clutter and junk through their time in a house, most of which goes unnoticed until it’s time to pack it up. So as well as your packing boxes, have a few bin bags ready – one for charity shop items and one for the bin.
- Pack Room By Room. Packing can sometimes feel overwhelming because there are so many things to pack, so an easy way to manage this is to go room by room. Stick with the principles of packing what you don’t use often first and de-cluttering as you go, and this will help break up the process and make it feel less of a monumental task.
- Colour Code. Head down to a stationary shop and grab yourself a pack of different coloured labels or tape. You can then assign each room a unique colour, which makes the moving in process a lot smoother. Instead of having to pile everything up and rummage through to figure out where it belongs, you can just look at the colour coded label and put it in the right place straight away.
- Be Careful Of Weight Limits. No matter what you’re packing make sure you’re paying attention to how heavy your boxes are getting. We generally recommend no more than 30 pounds per box, especially if you’re using cardboard instead of plastic. The last thing you want is for your box of china o split and shatter while you’re carrying it because it was too heavy.
- Have An ‘Essentials’ Box. Make sure you have a small box set aside for ‘moving day essentials’. This should include your overnight toiletries and clean clothes, as well as a kettle, tea, coffee, sugar, and biscuits to keep you going through the day. This means that there is no pressure to get everything unpacked on the first day, and you can do things at your own pace, fuelled by copious quantities of tea and coffee.
Utilise Self Storage
The problem with some of our suggestions is that they require you to have boxes piled up in your house for months before the move. But rather than tripping over them (or making a box fort, because why wouldn’t you?), you could utilise your local self storage facility. These businesses are designed to offer long and short-term storage solutions and are perfect for home movers. Simply choose your unit size and how long you will need it for, arrange to pay any fees and then move your stuff in! This means you have space to move in your house and an easy place to store and collect your belongings from on moving day. At Blue Box Storage, we provide simple, flexible and cost-effective storage solutions for people moving house. For more information on how we can help you manage your move, or provide you with all the packing materials you need, get in touch with us today.
