What's the best way to pack?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Our family have lived in the same 2 bedroom apartment for 13 years. We are moving Mayl 1st into a 3 bedroom apartment. We are doing quite a few things that I think are smart. First, we are not taking any of the old furniture and are having the new furniture delivered to the new place. Second, we have paid the rent in our old place for the month of May so that we won’t have to move 13 years worth of crap in one day.

However-- the first approaches and we still haven’t filled one stinking box!! The task seems overwhelming. Where to start? Does anybody have a system? Some advice? A blowtorch and an accelerant?

2

Order large boxes and small boxes from one of those, ummm, box places. Make sure you only pack light stuff in the large boxes—clothing, linens, etc. Use the small boxes for books, dishes (pad them with balled-up newspapers!) and silverware.

Oh, and label the boxes—which room they go into, and what’s in them! In big, easy-to-read Magic Marker.

It sounds elementary, but when you’re flinging things willy-nilly into boxes, it’s easy to forget.

3

Start by boxing the things you need least on an every day basis: sweaters, winter coats, comforters and heavy blankets, non-everyday kitchen stuff like wineglasses, large stockpots, “nice” dishes etc, also books, knicknacks, craft/hobby items.

How’s that for a start?

4

Reduce your problems–have a rummage sale first.

Sell all the junk you accumulated “in case we need it someday”–you won’t.

Sell all non-heirloom furniture older than 10 years–get new stuff, even if it’s junk.

Be ruthless!

5

I would like to offer a few suggestions. Ask your friends, relatives, and neighbors for newspapers they have been saving for recycling. Use these to wrap each breakable item such as glasses, plates, fancy doodads, etc. Try to find someone in your neighborhood (or in the neighborhoods of friends and relatives) that has recently moved into a residence and offer to take the boxes off their hands. As you pack each box, label it with the contents and the room they belong in. When it comes time to move all the boxes, invite your friends, relatives, and neighbors to a “moving day party.” Make enough of some potluck-style food (casserole, spaghetti, chili, etc.) to feed everyone. Have snacks and sodas available, too. And at the end of the move, serve adult beverages, if appropriate. All this assumes that you are trying to make this a “DIY” move, using a rental truck. It sure will be nice not having to move all that furniture! The real trick to a smooth move is to do a little packing each day. Set aside several hours and concentrate on wrapping items and stacking them in boxes. When you have a specific start time and a definite stop time each day, the task doesn’t seem so overwhelming. Since you have until the end of May to complete your move, there’s no reason to get all stressed out about it. Oh, and one more thought: have you planned a “moving sale”? Every time I have moved (I used to move pretty frequently), I have been able to make a little cash by selling some of the stuff that seems to collect over the years. You know, like that pair of crutches that you were going to use to make extensions for your salmon dip nets. And that walking stick made of diamond willow that seemed so handy twenty years ago. And that…

6

Costco & Sam’s both sell giant cheap rolls of butcher paper that are great for wrapping dishes, cups, & other stuff. Loose stuff like your paperclip collection can be cumped into a paper “cup” made from a square of this stuff and just folded up & stuffed in a box. There’s no newsprint transfer, either.

Great boxes can be had for free from behind liquour stores. Get a couple miles of packing tape, go mad with it. It’s a real pain to get your stuff dumped on the sidewalk because you were too cheap with tape.

Throw away lots of stuff or have a garage sale. Bosda is right - Be Ruthless in discarding stuff.

Make sure heavy stuff, like books, gets packed in the small boxes. Nothing like packing a box to the point you can’t pick it up. Pack rooms together as much & possible & label the boxes. That way when you unpack your truck, you can dump the unloaded box in it’s final-destination room right away.

Anything unpacked after a year is probably a candidate to be pitched.

$.02

7

Pack your books first. You won’t be needing them, so they can go in the garage or wherever “out of your way” spot you choose. Then go to the next least likely thing to use. Save your bathroom stuff for the last day when you’re moving.

Put toilet paper in a box that will be easy to find.

Throw stuff out. You really don’t need it.

8

I tend to go room-by-room, packing up all the non-essential stuff first, and then just keeping the boxes handy to work on it over time (I don’t have very much stuff, but even so, I give myself about a week, with most of the packing getting done the night before).

Be careful packing books - they get heavy really quickly, and even if you’re strong enough to lift the box, the box might not be strong enough to hold the books! I tend to put a layer or two of books at the bottom, and then top off the box with lighter stuff, like clothes or stuffed animals or whatever. Clothes also make a great insulator around things you don’t want to get broken (i’m a cheap student, but it works!)

Don’t do it all yourself. Have some friends over, or enlist family members to assit you and help you stay organized. I’m a bit of a “list” person - last time I moved I listed all the things I didn’t want to pack til the last minute, and packed everything else, so I didn’t have to worry about “do I need this or not?”

Everything will go fine! Just take it slow, be organised about it, and it will all get done!

9

I used to work as a Packer for a moving company (I put stuff into boxes - very efficiently, I may point out! - that the burly movers then put onto vans) and I’ve moved house several dozen times, so I have a bit of expertise in this area.

The above advice is very good. Keep in mind some overriding principles:

  • as mentioned above, pack as little as possible. Don’t pack ANYTHING you don’t really want - just get rid of it. Fill your new place with new stuff - that’s the fun of it! (Also see Kalhoun above re: not really needing it.)
  • unpacking is always more of a pain in the ass than you count on. You will never do it as quickly as you think you will.
  • Label, label, label ! Pack things in logical groups: kitchen stuff, the stuff on your dressing table, the stuff in your living room closet.
  • always properly tape the bottom of your boxes! it’s all too common for someone to pick up their box of carefully-packed heirloom bone china and have the box lift up but the contents remain on the ground. Folding the flaps together isn’t going to do it. Tape, tape, tape. And then more tape.

Specific tips:

Have a special box (clearly marked!) that gets loaded last, unloaded first, containing things like medication and toothbrushes and can openers and library books, that you really don’t want to be frantically looking for when you’re surrounded by boxes at your new place. (See point above about how much of a pain it is to unpack.) Think about what you’re going to do as soon as you get to the new place. If you’re going to want to eat before unpacking, make sure there are plates/cutlery available. If you’ll want music, ditto CDs/CD player. If you’re going to want to use the telephone / toilet paper / credit cards … and so on. Also a good idea to pack a suitcase with a change of clothes for everyone who’s moving. It’s a good idea to start with the assumption that all your stuff will be stuck in traffic for three days so keep the essentials close to you.

When packing, have 3 types of boxes (or bin bags), each clearly labelled: 1 for stuff to go to the new place, 1 for stuff that’s usable but you don’t want any more (for a garage sale or for charity), 1 for garbage. Make it a goal to put most of it in box 2 or 3.

Make sure everything that could possibly leak is very well sealed. Tape lids on with packing tape, and/or wrap the whole thing in paper.

Generally the tighter the box is packed, the more secure your stuff will be. For example, wrap all your kitchen stuff in paper and pack it into a box in tight layers (pots/pans on the bottom, then a layer of crunched paper, then plates stacked on their sides, then more paper, then glasses, then more paper). Once you’re out of room put in as much crunched paper as you can - it should be difficult to close the box to tape it up. If it’s packed securely you can put stuff on top of the box and not worry about breakage. If you want further hints re: packing kitchens let me know - it’s an art form.

Pack heavy things (picture frames, books, mirrors, tins of beans) in small boxes.

If disassembling furniture, tape the screws and other hardware directly onto the furniture it comes from. If necessary make notations as to which bolts go into which holes. Saves much trouble when re-assembling.

If friends are helping you move, it’s illegal to not buy them dinner.

That’s all I can think of for now. Best of luck with your moving !

10

When we moved, we did the following (it may seem elaborate, but it made moving a BREEZE)

We used the printer to print out pink(any color but white would work) index cards with the following sections:
Box #*
Contents**
Destination***
We taped the cards onto the boxes and furniture, instead of writing directly on things. That way, the movers could just look for the pink cards instead of looking for random writing on the boxes.

  • Box#: We just started at 100 and went up. We then copied the box # into a notebook along with what the contents were. The notebook provides a record in case anything gets lost.
    ** Contents: Just a general idea of what’s in the box, like “kitchen utensils.” If the box contains something valuable, you can detail it in the notebook, and put a more general description visible on the box.
    *** Destination: This was the best part of our system. We assigned each room in the new house a name, like LR, DR, Kit, BR1, BR2, etc. We then hung a piece of paper on the wall in each room with the “name” of the room. The movers just looked at the cards and moved everything into the right room. Since the rooms were labeled, they didn’t have to wonder which bedroom was “BR1.” It saved us all the trouble of constantly asking and answering “where does this go?.” The movers appreciated it immensely, and everything went to the right place.

We also did a lot of the suggested things, like taping hardware and fittings to the things that they went with. Another suggestion would be to pack a box with some supplies you’ll need at the very end at the old place and at the very beginning at the new place, like TP, paper towels, spray cleaner, a utility knife, etc. Another suggestion is to make sure that there are some cold drinks available for everyone the day of the move. It’s easy to get dehydrated–and GRUMPY!

11

Don’t mix breakables wrapped in newspapers in boxes of clothes. (the ink messes up the clothes)

If you aren’t moving far… Big Black Garbage Bags! Take the drawers out of furniture, carefully incase in garbage bag and tie it tightly shut. That way, when you get across town, you just pull the bag off and put the drawer back in.

Also, you can use the bags to cover easily-carriable stacks of hanging clothes, still on their hangers.

and remember LOTS of colas and know where to pick up pizza!

12

That violates **Munch’s Cardinal Rule of Packing:

A book for every box and a box for every book.**

Why? Have you ever tried to pick up a box filled entirely with books? Have you ever paid a chiropractic bill for someone who has? Even small boxes filled with books can weigh upwards of 70 lbs. That’s completely unneccessary, and completely avoidable. Use books as filler - the garnish of the moving entree.

13

Generally speaking, it is best to avoid punching oneself in the nose while packing one’s boob into one’s brassiere.

14

I think there are some great practical suggestions here.

As for the psychology of packing to move, I think you may have made a mistake by paying the extra month’s rent on the old place. If you give yourself a month, that’s how long it will take. If you have only a weekend, you’ll be amazed what you can do.

In my book, a weekend of major stress beats a month of deliberation.

15

I’m moving soon as well. I just wanted to mention that Home Depot has 18"x18"x18" and 18"x18"x24" cardboard boxes for about $2, and $2.50 back with all the storage bins, etc. They’re a lifesaver, since they’re all uniform and therefore stack to save space. Also, for breakables, rolls of bubblewrap are available at Target or such for pretty cheaply, and give more cushion than newspaper.

I agree on being ruthless. A move is a great way to get a fresh start, and getting rid of all the excess junk weighing you down is liberating.

Enjoy the new digs!

16

I like to pack my books in milk crates. The small, cube crates are sturdy and don’t hold so many books you’ll hurt yourself trying to carry them. Then you can use them as shelving in the garage or wherever. Also don’t forget to see if your movers can let you use those nifty wardrobe boxes with the rods in them so you don’t have to fold up your clothes. You’ll need more of them than you think.