Moving can be exciting, but packing makes painful. The luster and optimism of a new home quickly diminishes when you’re busy shoving your stuff in boxes so it doesn’t break on the way. Here are some tips to make it all easier.
1) Get an Early Start
It’s very easy to say “don’t wait until the last minute” to start packing and planning for your move, but that’s not really enough. Instead, get an early start.
2) Get Good Boxes, for Free
Don’t try to move all of your prized possessions in a beat up Heavily prized boxes that have already been through the system once on their way to you. There are plenty available from the Electronic stores, Hypermarket and many good stores near your house.
3) Purge Before You Start Packing, and Purge As You Go
It’s never too early to start throwing away the crap you don’t want to move. Seriously—do it as soon as you know you’re going to move, and then don’t stop chucking the nonsense until the day the movers show up.
4) Clean While You Pack
The last thing you’ll want to do when you get to your beautiful new home is clean while you or your movers are bringing everything in. They’ll want to know where you want your bookshelves, and you’ll be busily trying to wipe off years’ old dust that you could have handled before you left your old place. Clean as you go, your future self will thank you past self when moving day shows up.
5) Label Everything and Keep Your Own Inventory
If you’re moving across town, or even across state, your movers may not keep an inventory of your belongings—they’ll just toss it on an empty truck, and then empty that truck of all your things on the other end of your move. That’s fine, but you should still label all of your boxes and keep your own inventory
6) Ship Stuff To Your New Home (If It’s Cheaper than Moving It)
You know what’s easier than hauling your own stuff down to the back of a van, then driving the van, and then hauling it back up to your apartment? Paying someone to do all that lifting for you Especially if it turns out it’s cheaper to have someone haul your junk than for you to do it yourself, or even pay movers to do it for you.
7) Save All Of Your Receipts
If you’re moving for work, because you got a new job, or your job moved locations, and you move farther than 50 miles, you can deduct many of your moving expenses. Save those receipts!
Seriously—save them all. Maybe you bought boxes instead of getting them for free, or you paid to have movers haul your stuff. Maybe you shipped books USPS, or you bought rolls of tape and bubble wrap to make sure everything survived the move. You might be surprised what’s acceptable to deduct, but don’t go wild.
8) Pack Like You’re Going on Vacation
Once you start packing, there’s a point where you’ll go from “everything fits perfectly in these boxes” to “just toss it all in the box it’s gotta go.” That’s fine, but keep some basic packing tips in mind as you progress. You’ll save space and time by packing everything like you’re going on vacation, and that means doing things like rolling your shirts and towels, using the bundle method to wrap things like shoes inside jackets and so on.
9) Save Your Important, Necessary Items for a “First Night” Box
In the same vein as packing like you’re going on vacation, save the items that you think are most delicate or that you’ll need sooner rather than later when you arrive in your new home, and put them in a “first night” box. This is a tip we’ve mentioned before, but it’s still really important and can’t be understated.
10) Sell or Donate Your Boxes—and Anything Else—Afterward
Once you’ve arrived at your wonderful new home and you’re unpacking, unwrapping all of your safely-transported everything, and doing the endless loads of laundry that come with using clothes and blankets as packing material, you’ll have a lot of slightly used (and other more heavily beaten up) boxes you want to get rid of.