30 Packing Tips To Make Moving Less Stressful
Moving to a new home comes with a whole lot of emotions. It’s exciting to start a new adventure, but also a little sad to say goodbye to the home you’ve been living in. It feels revitalizing to have a fresh start in a new house and get everything organized the way you like it, but it’s also incredibly stressful packing up and getting everything ready for moving day.
Since packing is usually one of the most dreaded things about moving, we’ve created a list of 30 packing tips to make moving less stressful!
Create A Portable Supplies Kit
As you move from room to room, packing up things, you’re going to need supplies to help you pack up. Create a portable supplies kit that you can move from room to room. That way you won’t be thinking “now, where did I leave the tape” with each newly packed box. We suggest using a brightly coloured plastic bin that is easy to spot across the room.
In your kit, you should have…
Packing Tape (the good stuff)
Sharpies (at least two)
Two Pairs Of Scissors
Box Cutter
Freezer Bags (both medium and large sizes)
Stockpile Flyers And Packing Papers
Once you know that you’re going to be moving, start stockpiling flyers, papers, and any packing materials that come in delivered boxes. Keep these things in a large LCBO bag or grocery bag so that you can move it from room to room as you pack up. As you pack up anything delicate and breakable, you’ll use these things to keep them safe.
Pro-tip: if you’re wondering if something should be wrapped or not, just wrap it to be safe! It’s better to over-wrap than under-wrap.
Stockpile Sturdy Boxes
Start accumulating boxes right away. Keep sturdy boxes you receive with deliveries. When you go to the grocery store, ask the produce department if they have any empty banana boxes they would be willing to part with. Ask friends with babies to keep their diaper boxes for you.
Then purchase any additional boxes you may need. Try Uhaul, Home Depot, or any storage/moving business in your area. Their boxes don’t come cheap, but they’re good quality and sturdy. If you start stockpiling your boxes early enough you won’t need to buy that many.
Label Every Box With Room Location
Once you’re done packing a box, write what room it needs to go in on the top and two sides of the box. This way as movers or friends and family help you unload the boxes, they know exactly what room to put each box in.
Label Every Box With What’s Inside
Under the room location, write (in smaller letters) what is actually in the box. That way when you’re looking for the toaster, you don’t need to open up every single kitchen box.
Create Donate and Throw-Out Piles
As you’re packing up your home, make donate and throw-out piles so that you’re only packing what you actually want to move with you. A day or two before you move, you can do one load of stuff to donate and one load of stuff to the junkyard.
Sell Early
If there is any furniture or items that you want to sell before you move do that earlier than later. If you wait too long to sell, you might end up needing to drop the prices much lower in order to get it sold before you move. If you sell earlier, you’ll have the time to get the price that you want.
Create A List Of Last-To-Pack
Before you start packing, make a list of the things that you’ll want to pack last. These should be the things you use often, such as a coffee maker, your kids' favourite toys, cleaning products, etc. Keep this list somewhere for the whole family to see so that as people are packing they don’t accidentally pack something that you’re going to want to leave to the last minute.
Create Your Moving Day Tote
There are some things that you’re going to want to keep on you during your move. These are things that you don’t want to have to dig through boxes to find. Keep this tote in your car with you, rather than packing it into the moving truck, on moving day.
In the tote, you’ll want to pack…
Toilet paper
Soap
A hand towel
Chargers
Important documents
Snacks
Water bottles
Assembly tools
Paper plates, plastic utensils and cups
Pet stuff
Baby things
First Aid kit
Don’t Pack A Linen Box
Don’t pack up your linen closet into a box. Instead, use your towels and sheets to wrap up breakable items and pad the items that need to be.
Use Smaller Boxes For Heavier Items
Don’t try to pack your entire bookcase into one box. Instead, pack heavier items like books into multiple smaller boxes to make transportation easier.
Keep Clothes On Hangers
Keep your clothes on hangers and simply lay them flat in a large box or, take a few at a time and lay them in a box, folding halfway and repeating with the next few. Unpacking will be so much easier if they’re still on their hangers!
You can also buy wardrobe boxes and keep your clothes on their hangers in that box.
Wrap Anything Breakable
Anything that is breakable should be wrapped in packing paper, bubble wrap, or hand towels. This is common sense, but it’s important to make sure that any kids that are helping with packing know this as well.
Put Screws And Bolts Into Freezer Baggies And Label
When you’re taking apart furniture, place any screws, bolts, and small parts into a medium-sized freezer bag and label what furniture it belongs to. Then, tape that bag to the furniture. If it falls off during transportation, you’ll still know what it belongs to.
Use Suitcases And Backpacks As Boxes
Your suitcases make a GREAT “box” for heavy items since it has wheels and is easy to move around. Remember to pack things into backpacks as well, just not anything breakable! You can use other things like coolers as boxes as well!
Put Pillows And Cushions Into Garbage Bags For Transportation
Put soft items like pillows, cushions, throw blankets, and stuffed animals into garbage bags. As you’re packing up the truck or moving box you can use these as filler to keep everything as snug and padded as possible.
Pack A Sleepover Bag
Have everyone pack up an overnight bag as if they were going for a sleepover so that no one has to go digging through boxes on moving night.
These bags should include…
Pyjamas
Toiletries
A change of clothes
Medication
Mark Heavy And Fragile Boxes
Whether you’re hiring movers or getting friends and family to help, you need to make sure that you’re labelling heavy boxes so that no one hurts their back. Labelling fragile boxes is also a good idea for things that need extra care.
Tape Drawers Closed
Tape drawers closed so that nothing pops open and gets damaged during transportation.
Pack Smaller Items Inside Of Larger Items
Things like pots, crockpots, boots, etc. should have smaller items packed inside of them to reduce the number of boxes you use. Simply wrap the smaller things in packing paper and place them inside the pots, crockpots, etc.
Put Your Essential Small Appliances In One Box
Things that you use more often (check your last-to-pack list) you’re going to want to have unpacked quickly. So put those appliances (such as a coffee maker, toaster, or kettle) in one box together and make sure it’s one of the last things to get packed into the truck so that it’s one of the first things unloaded. Put a star on it or some identifier so that it gets unloaded onto the kitchen counter, rather than the floor. That way you know exactly where it is when it comes time to unpack.
Plastic Wrap And Bag Your Utensil Tray
Wrap plastic wrap around your utensil tray and then place it inside of a grocery bag, tie up the bag, and place the bag inside of a box. Now when it comes to unpacking, the tray will be ready to just unload into a new drawer.
Put Bottles With Liquids Into Bags
Bottles with liquids, such as shampoo, cleaning products, etc, should be wrapped up in plastic bags or placed into Ziploc bags so that if they spill during transport you’re not going to have a huge mess to clean up.
Create A Checklist To Keep You On Track
Go room by room and create a checklist of things that need to be de-cluttered, things that need to be taken apart, things that need to be sold, things that need to be packed, etc. The checklist will help you stay on track, will help the whole family know what’s left to be done, and will help you gauge how much still needs to get done as the days go by.
Pro-tip: if you start early and chip away at the packing doing just an hour a night it won’t feel as taxing.
Never Half-Pack A Box
Make sure that each box you pack is filled up. It shouldn’t be overly crammed so that things are at risk of breaking, but having a half-packed box can lead to things breaking as they bounce around in transportation. Use packing paper, towels, and any packing things you’ve saved from deliveries to fill up half-packed boxes.
Roll Up Your Jewelry
Place your jewelry on hand towels and then roll up the towel and secure it with rubber bands. This will keep your jewelry from getting tangled up.
Don’t Skimp On The Tape
Do NOT skimp on the packing tape. The last thing you want is for your boxes to fall apart when they’re being carried to and from the truck. If you’re getting to the last bit of your roll of tape and only have a few boxes left, it’s better to buy a new roll and tape everything up confidently than to try and make the roll last and not tape things up properly.
Start In The Less-Used Rooms
Start packing up things like spare bedrooms, storage closets, the basement, and half-bathrooms. Pack up those areas that are used less often first. Then start packing up decorative things, and then shelves and drawers, etc. Keep the most often used areas to pack closer to moving day.
Chip Away At the Kitchen
Okay, so we JUST told you to start packing in the less-used rooms first, but the kitchen is the one exception to the rule. The kitchen is going to take the most amount of time to pack up. Not only is there a lot to pack up in the kitchen, but it also requires the most amount of wrapping up individual items before packing. So start chipping away at the kitchen from day one.
Start by packing the small appliances that you rarely use, such as waffle irons and bread makers. Next, move to serving dishes that you use when company comes. From there you can pack up baking items and pantry items that you won’t get to before you move. You can pack up extra dishes so that you’re just down to what you would normally use in a day and just start washing your dishes more often. Move down to one or two pans and one or two pots. Soon enough your whole kitchen will be packed up in time for moving day!
Use Moving Blankets Even If It’s Not Far
If you’re not using professional movers and are just loading up a Uhaul with friends and family, you should still get moving blankets to protect your furniture during transportation. Even if you’re not moving far, things jostle around in the truck as you’re driving and the last thing that you want is to move into your beautiful new home with ruined furniture.
