A Room-By-Room Guide To Packing Your Home When Relocating

Moving is a serious process, and it can be stressful if you don’t plan it out carefully. Depending on how much time you have and how much you have to pack, it’s possible to get overwhelmed. This is why certain techniques for packing might be needed to make the process easier. A simple search on the internet can lead to all kinds of advice for packing. Still, not all kinds of tips and tricks will work for everyone, this is why many still look for help from professional moving services. Hiring movers can make the process easier and faster, and if you want to learn more about it, you could click here.

But one advice that many moving companies give is to start packing room by room. To start off with this strategy, here are some tips and tricks that you could follow:

What You’ll Need

It’s best to reduce waste and expenses when moving, but there will be some things needed so that you could effectively organize and pack your things. To ensure that you have everything ready, you could use this checklist below:

Checklist:

• Boxes
• Cushioning like bubble wrap
• Several rolls of packing tape and a tape gun
• Labeling materials
• Rope or cargo straps
• Scissors
• Painter’s tape
• Twist ties
• Garbage bags

As an additional advice, it’s better to have more boxes, cushioning, and rolls of tape than your estimate. Realizing that you don’t have enough tape or boxes later on might delay your schedule, so it’s important to have more than enough items to make things easier for you.

Start With Rooms That You Use The Least

After you have all the things you need, you could start packing things. One important tip is to start with rooms that are seldomly used. This will keep your most used rooms accessible, so that it doesn’t cause any disruptions in your home yet. As the day of the move closes in, you could start rooms that you use more often. It’s a good idea to make a list as to which room you could start with, depending on your home set-up.

Pack Up Each Room

After you make a list on which room you want to start with, it’s also a good idea to have a plan of attack for each one. Here’s a list of each room you might have in your home and how you could get it packed up easily and quickly.

• Offices

The office will likely have all kinds of things in it that need organizing and sorting out. It’s a mixture of fragile and bulky items which can be tricky to pack because you’ll have to separately pack them to ensure that they’re safe.

• Packing Books

• Pack books in smaller boxes so they can be easier to lift
• Ensure that the books of the same size are laid flat on the box or that their spines touch the bottom of the box
• Don’t overpack boxes with books because it can cause the boxes to rip
• Travel suitcases or plastic boxes are also good for storing books

• Storage Spaces And The Garage

• Pack your tools last because you might need it as you’re packing
• Unpack it first when you finally move into your new place
• For any sharp tools, make use of cloth or towels to be safe
• Tie together mops, brooms, and garden tools to keep them neat and secure

• Outdoor Items

• If you have outdoor items like furniture and a grill, you could get started with cleaning them first
• Then you can dismantle them and pack small to medium items in a box

• Laundry Room

• After doing your final load of laundry, you could start packing up the laundry room
• Make sure to turn off the water before dismantling the plumbing fixtures connected to the appliances
• Ensure that any detergents are closed securely to avoid them from spilling out
• Roll up hoses together and secure them with bubble wrap so they don’t get crushed or damaged in the moving process
• To save up on space, you could store some light linens, pillows, and plushies inside the washing machine or dryer

• Living/Entertainment/Family Room

• If you have lighting fixtures like chandeliers and lamps, ensure to wrap the bulbs, bases, and other parts separately
• Framed photos, albums, or negatives should be brought directly to where you’re moving because storing them in hot and humid places could damage them
• Mirrors and frames with glass should have masking tape in the shape of an X to keep shards from spreading out in case it shatters
• Appliances are best packed inside their original packaging because they’re more secure that way
• Use biodegradable packing peanuts, antistatic bubble wrap or cushioning to avoid damaging your electronics
• Don’t use packing materials that could conduct electricity
• Use twist ties to secure the wires, and then store them inside sealable bags or an air tight plastic box
• Make sure to label boxes as fragile to remind movers to be careful

• Dining Room

• After vacuuming or cleaning up your carpets and rugs, roll them up and tie them securely
• Use painter’s tape to securely shut doors and drawers of furniture
• Cushion glass using bubble wrap, towels, or small blankets to protect them from breaking
• Curtains and drapes can be folded, plastic wrapped, and put into suitcases

• Kitchen

• Sort through your pantry and start putting canned and boxed food in a box
• For any opened packages, try to eat them or give them away, or you’ll have to throw them to avoid spills
• Tape glass jars and bottles or add extra cushioning to keep them from breaking
• All glassware should be wrapped individually with tissue paper or newspaper
• You could also use some clean socks to wrap up your glassware
• At the bottom of the box, add some blankets and towels to add extra cushioning
• Empty out kitchen appliances like coffee makers, slow cookers, and more
• Make sure to wrap up the power cords and wires for each and place them inside the respective appliance
• Again, it’s best to use their original boxes, but you can still use other boxes as long as they’re wrapped
• Label these boxes as fragile, too

• Bedrooms

• It’s best to start with the guest room, because you can also use it to store the packed boxes as you go
• If possible, use wardrobe cartons to pack any hung-up clothes
• If you’re not too particular about how you want to pack your clothes, you can simply stuff them in garbage bags
• Inside dressers, you could store light pieces like underwear, socks, and shirts
• Make sure to use painter’s tape to close the dressers
• Secure jewelry in a box, but make sure they don’t get tangled up by threading necklaces and chains through drinking straws.
• If you have the original boxes for your shoes, it’s best to use them so that you can easily store them in a medium box
• For extra protection, stuff your shoes with socks, cloth, or newspapers to maintain their shape
• When packing beddings and linens use clear garbage bags so that you can see which ones belong to which room
• For curtains, make sure to fold them and wrap them up with plastic or paper
• Use a mattress protector to make sure that they’re kept clean

• Bathroom and washrooms

• The bathroom can be packed up last because you’ll still be using it every day until the day of the move
• The caps of toiletries should be securely screwed on, and you could also place them inside plastic bags in case they spill
• For bottles with pumps, place a plastic bag over the pump and securely wrap or tie it with a rubber band or tape at the bottle’s neck

Again, each home is different, so you need to adjust and consider which of these tips are applicable to your home. The important thing is that you have a systematic guideline in handling your packing.

Make A Schedule

Before you get started, you might also want to make a schedule so that you can pack each room on time. Procrastinating on packing can lead to a really troublesome situation where you have to rush and dump everything in one box or bag. This could be a nightmare to unpack and unorganized when you finally move.

To schedule your move, here are some things you could integrate into your room-by-room strategy:

• Six weeks before moving – gather packing materials, decide on what to pack and move first, separate the items that you’ll pack last, and then make a schedule
• Four weeks before moving – start packing away seasonal items and things that you rarely use
• Three weeks before moving – pack up things you won’t be using until you move, such as books, home décor, rarely used kitchen things and more
• Two weeks before moving – pack up more of the items that you won’t be using in the remaining time such as accessories, toys, other kitchenware, clothes, and shoes that you won’t be wearing
• One week before moving – pack up clothes, shoes, electronics bathroom, and kitchen items. But make sure you set aside what you’ll be needing for the rest of the week
• Two days before moving – secure documents, valuables furnishings, appliances, and furniture. Start packing the left-over items you used for the week.
• On the moving day – left-over toiletries, medicines, cleaning supplies, bedding, mattress, clothes, and whatever else that has been left behind.

Remember that you don’t have to strictly follow this schedule above, you can simply integrate some of these methods into the moving timeline you’re making for yourself. Take the time to plan it out and check how well these tips or other moving hacks work around your schedule, especially if you don’t have a lot of free time.

Make A Checklist Of Your Belongings

There’s a lot of problems that you can run into while packing and moving. Some items might end up getting lost, damaged, or completely destroyed. Because of this, it’s important to make a list of your belongings. This way, you can check that everything is complete after you move. When making a list, you could break it down so that each list reflects the contents of each box.

Start As Soon As you Can

Once you’ve finalized your decision to move, it’s best to start planning out your packing strategy. Then, you could also get to packing things that you don’t really use at all. And while you’re at it, you could also declutter, donate, and get rid of some things to lighten the load.

Don’t Get Distracted

Another important reminder is not to get distracted. If you’re busy and you have a tight schedule to follow, getting distracted can completely derail you. This is why having a goal for each day is a great way to keep on track. For instance, on one day, you might want to start with the guest room, or the closet. To keep yourself from getting distracted, don’t think about what other things or rooms you’ll have to pack up, just focus on one thing at a time.

Try Not To Do It Yourself

Packing is a big project to take on, and it can be incredibly stressful. This is why you might want to ask for help from friends or family. Dividing the tasks will double or triple the time depending on how many people are helping you. If not, you could also get packing services to help you out. It can be pricey but you can be specific with the kinds of services you want to hire. This way, you can make it fit your needs, especially if you have trouble finding time packing all your items on time for the move.

Conclusion

No matter how exciting moving is, there are necessary steps like packing which tend to be tedious. It can also take a long time to get everything packed completely and properly. And even with a good strategy like taking it room-by-room, it’s still important to be self-disciplined. This means that you’ll have to start as soon as you can, and to keep yourself from getting distracted. But when you’re finally done with packing, moving, and unpacking, you can rest easy and relax in your new place.