Mastering the Art of Moving:
Top 10 Packing Tips and Tricks
Moving to a new home can be an exciting but often overwhelming experience. From finding your dream home to organizing the logistics, there’s a lot on your plate. However, one aspect that can significantly ease the transition is packing. When done efficiently, packing can simplify the moving process and help protect your belongings. In this article, we will explore the top 10 packing tips and tricks for a successful move!
Remember, we offer a full packing service for any house move. Get in touch for a free quote today!
1. Disassemble Furniture
Moving home is one of the most stressful times in anyone’s life. In order to make moving as stress-free as possible, we recommend dismantling as much of the furniture as you can. That Ikea double bed won’t come out in one piece, so it will need to be dismantled before you can get it out the door.
Although the majority of our staff are trained to dismantled beds, we also have a dedicated Home Improvement team from Purdie Property Maintenance that can help you along the way. From wardrobes to chest of drawers, if it went together, we can take it apart and rebuild it.
If you’re not using our packing or dismantling service be sure to keep all nuts and bolts together. Put them into a plastic bag and tape them to the side of furniture so you don’t lose them!
Pro-Packing Tips! – take off the handles from any drawers and put the handles on the inside to avoid damage!
2. Use Garment Carriers or Linen Boxes
There’s one thing that real removal men hate, and that’s black bags. These are not suitable for carrying anything other than rubbish to the tip. Instead, use proper boxes designed for moving.
For clothes, we recommend using our linen boxes or our garment carriers. The linen box is perfect for t-shirts, tops and anything that doesn’t require a hanger. Our garment carrier is also available to buy with a garment rail, allowing you to safely and securely hang your clothes inside the box and avoid any creases or damages.
3. Box Clever
We have a range of moving boxes to suit almost anything that needs moved. However, you need to pay attention to what you’re putting into each box. You need to pack them to the top to make full use of the boxes, but if you pack a large box full of books, even our removal men won’t be able to lift it! Instead, put all heavy items like books, into a small box so it’s easier to lift and move.
It’s also pointless to put something like a bedside cabinet into a box. For items like this, we’d usually cover the item with one of our removal blankets on top to protect it from any damage. If the item of furniture is going abroad then it will need to be export wrapped using our furnisoft.
Pro-Packing Tips! – If you use our packing service you’ll get discount on all your boxes!
4. Stack Plates Vertically
To protect your fragile dishes and plates, pack them vertically in boxes with plenty of cushioning materials. Place a layer of packing paper or bubble wrap between each dish and use dividers or cardboard to separate them. Be sure to label the boxes as “fragile“ and “this side up” to avoid the plates getting cracked or smashed. When plates are packed on top of each other, the very bottom plate holds the weight of all the plates, so by stacking the vertically they’re only carrying their own weight inside the box.
Pro Packing Tip! – Don’t put boxes with plates at the bottom of a stack, keep them to the top to avoid heavier objects placing weight on the plates.
5. Use Proper Packing Tape!
You may be tempted to use cheaper alternatives to our own packing tape, but there’s a reason why our packing tape is the only tape we’d ever use!
Not only is our tape designed to be used on furniture, it’s also easy to tear with your fingers, and is very low-tac. This means that when you peel the tape off after use, you won’t get any of that nasty sticky residue found when you use parcel tape or gaffa tape.
This is a really basic packing tip, but one that often gets overlooked; when taping up your boxes, be sure to put at least 2 lines of tape along the bottom fold. This way if you fill the box with books, the bottom won’t fall out when you lift it!
Pro-Packing Tips! – Why not try one of our Tape Dispensers and become a master of taping!
6. Tape Doors Shut!
To prevent doors from swinging open during the move, use our packing tape to secure them. This applies to wardrobes, refrigerators, and any other appliances or furniture with doors that can be opened. If you’re not using our packing tape, make sure not to use tape that will damage the finish of the item.
Pro-Packing Tip! – Removal men use removal ties to strap doors or drawers shut. Each van has about 30 of these straps on board at any one time.
7. If it fits in a box, put it in a box
There’s a saying we teach all of our new staff here at Purdie Worldwide: If it fits in a box, put it in a box!
These words of wisdom are all you really need to remember. The only things you shouldn’t box up are actual items of furniture such a bedside tables. They may fit in a large box or two, but would be better protected if they were wrapped with a layer of our furnisoft instead.
Our core range of boxes include our 3 biggest sellers, our small, medium and large boxes. With the rest of the line-up including TV/Flatscreen and bike boxes. We even have a very popular Golf Club Carrier which will hold an entire set of clubs and even a bag too!
For commercial operations we also have archive boxes which come with lids and can be used to store records and documents pertaining to your business. We even offer a destruction service for both physical and digital media. Our shredding service is ISO approved and our digital data destruction service uses a NATO standard to ensure your hard drives are safely wiped.
Pro Packing Tips! – For oversize items you can use 2 boxes on top of each other & tape them together!
8. Keep Toiletries Separate
The biggest mistake we see people making when moving home is to not properly secure their toiletries. It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve picked up a box that’s covered in shower gel or even worse, milk!
That’s why we always advise you keep your toiletries and any other liquids separate. It might even by an idea to create and essentials box. One that has everything you’d need for a night, things like a change of clothes, toothbrush, toothpaste and anything else you will need on that first day or night.
Pro-Packing Tips! – If you are making an essentials box, be sure to pack the kettle, tea bags, mugs and some milk! Us removers love a cup of tea or coffee and will gladly take anything that’s given to us!
9. Label Everything!
In some cases the actual moving is the easiest part of the home moving process. However, if you’ve failed to prepare with some labels, then prepare to fail at unpacking!
All of our boxes come with a handy table for you to fill out once you’ve packed them. You can add your name, what’s in the box, and the room it came from. That way when it comes to off-loading and un-packing, you know exactly where the boxes should go and it will be much easier to unpack!
Pro-Packing Tips! – Add a number to your box to keep an accurate inventory of how many boxes you have!
10. Take a Picture of your Wires!
For electronic devices such as computers and televisions, take photos of the cable setups before unplugging them. Keep all cables, remotes, and accessories together in labeled bags. Use the original packaging where possible, or pack them securely in boxes with adequate padding to prevent damage during the move.
By incorporating our top 10 packing tips and hints into your moving process you will find the moving process a lot easier to manage. The packing and unpacking stages will be more efficient, organised and hopefully stress-free! Remember, that proper preparation and careful handling of your belongings are key to successful move.
Let Purdie Worldwide be your key to a stress-free move and get a moving quote today, or why not download our Moving App for completely interactive removal experience?
