There are three things for certain in this life: death, taxes, and moving. None of them are fun, but they can be easy! Follow this clever list to make your move quick and painless. By the time you’re done reading this, you’ll be ready to bust out the duct tape.
First thing’s first: purge. You’re turning the page to a whole new chapter of your life. Celebrate by donating old clothes that no longer spark joy. This will not only lighten up your load but will also give you a great excuse to go on a well-deserved shopping spree at the end of this crazy train. Retail therapy is the best therapy, after all. But don’t stop at your closet – look through the cupboards and pantry for any canned goods to donate to the local shelter. It’s always fun to try and challenge yourself to eat everything in your kitchen before the move, but let’s be realistic, how much Spam can you eat in a week?
Folding, boxing, taping, and other unnecessary tasks can hit the road when you’ve got plastic wrap. Leave your clothes in your dresser by securing them with plastic wrap so they stay in the drawer. If they fit, you can even reuse grocery bags by slipping them on the drawer instead of plastic wrap. Hell, if it’s light enough, wrap the whole dresser in plastic wrap to secure the drawers shut with your clothes still in them. Think of how much time you’ll save without emptying the whole thing, folding everything and tucking them away in boxes you could use for more important items. This concept can also be applied to clothes on hangers. Slip them into a trash bag to keep them clean and together during your move.
Trying to make sense of how to pack up your entire kitchen can be confusing. Try to save storage space by utilizing pots and pans to hold smaller items, like spices, molds, and cups. Use your dish towels, rags, and bulkier fabrics as padding to keep fragile dishware safe through the haul. Sheathe sharp utensils like knives in oven mitts and potholders and tie a rubber band around them to keep them in place. You could also use this concept on the feet of tables and chairs. Linen and towels serve as padding to protect your new floors against the scraping of furniture bottoms being carried into the home. As always, wrap the utensils drawer in plastic to keep silverware from spilling out without the hassle of unpacking them.
Things will get hectic once you’re in the thick of it. Before you get lost in the hustle and bustle of moving, schedule an appointment for water, utilities, electricity, and whatever else you need. The last thing you want is to be left in the cold darkness after spending a whole weekend carrying furniture around. Make sure you have a warm, dry home ready for you by the time you’re done rearranging your whole life. Depending on your service provider, you may have to be home for the appointment.
Use toilet paper rolls to keep your power chords in check. They’ll be easy to pack and carry and on top of that, you’ll be doing planet Earth a favor! You can also use toilet paper rolls to hold stray hair bands, bobby pins, hair clips, and yarn. When all is said and done, you can neatly pack them into color-coded boxes so they are easily identifiable once you set foot on the ground of your new abode. If you want to get creative here, you can decorate the toilet paper rolls with colorful markers and keep them for future use.
This is especially important for those renting or transitioning into their own house for the first time. Organize your rental agreements, contracts, purchase orders, and payments into a folder in case any unexpected problems arise during the moving process (or afterward). Nobody’s going to do your homework for you here. Keeping clean records of everything prevents you from getting stuck with the short end of the stick. A hard copy is likely to get lost in the back of your file cabinet, which will continue to grow throughout the years. I’d suggest uploading your information to an external hard drive or a cloud (just make sure your privacy is secured) so that information is easier to find and takes up virtually no space!
Avoid packing things from different rooms into the same box. It might seem like a quick fix at first, but it will only take longer to unpack and reorganize them all. Ideally, you want to be able to unpack and put away items in an entire box – not just parts of it. To prevent this, try labeling or color-coding each box for the intended room. Use different colored duct tape for each room. If you’d like to be more organized than rainbow duct tape, then try keeping an inventory list around to keep an eye on what goes in where. This will save you time and confusion later.
Pack heavy items into small boxes. It might seem backward but putting heavy objects into large boxes not only adds too much weight to the haul, but it also runs the risk of breaking through the bottom of the box. Save yourself the extra labor by choosing exactly sized boxes to place them in. It will make them easier to identify during the off-loading and your back will thank you. For some larger objects, packing smaller items with it may be exceptional. For example, if you’re packing a crockpot, it’s safe to add oven mitts, towels or small spice containers into it before taping the box up. This likely won’t make it harder to carry.
By the time you’ve accomplished packing, loading, and then the opposite, you’ll likely be too exhausted to dig through hills of taped up boxes to find your toothbrush or pajamas. Plan and organize a bag full of your necessities – like hygiene products, water, snacks, and clothes. It’s easy to forget the routine things you need when there’s a circus going on around you. Even remembering to stay hydrated can be hard. Plus, you won’t feel like you can take a break during his ordeal, especially since time is money for the movers. Stay one step ahead and pack yourself some Gatorade and fig bars.
Keep track of small, hard to locate items like screws and pins in Ziploc bags. This is especially useful for those who have furniture to take apart and put together again after the move. It also helps when you find peculiar thingamabobs that you don’t know what to do with but seem too important to lose (they might come in handy later!). If you’re worried about losing key parts to your Ikea vanity set, have no fear. Sandwich bags are here.
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