December 22, 2018 Supercheap
Moving is a stressful and never-ending task, especially if you are moving for the first time. It can cause sleepless nights and tiring days.
Inform your family members and ask your friends for help. Pack everything nicely day before moving house. Here are some of the most practical DIY moving house tips which you should practice while planning to move your home. When you plan to move your home by yourself, there are a lot of things needed to be done, from planning to schedule.
For this purpose, you will surely need others to help. Maybe your family members or if you are staying alone, then your friends or relatives can come and help you move and pack. When you are moving by yourself, you better start a day or two before the final day of the move. However, it totally depends on the size of the home and the number of items you have. These home shifting tips will surely give you a stress-free move.
But there are many moving house tips which you can utilise to make your move as smooth as possible.
- Planning the move
Removal company who also guide you by providing house moving tips.
First and foremost, it is important to figure out whether you will be hiring a removalist or not. You may not employ a removalist with the sole purpose of saving money, but you may lack the skill and knowledge of handling and moving stuff around, causing damage to your valuables and yourself. Hence it is advisable to hire a removalist as they unload most of the moving stress from your shoulders.
Plan in advance
Don’t wait till the last minute to plan your move. You must prepare at least two months prior to your moving date. This helps you get organized and manage the move well.
Administrative tasks
Tackle all your administrative tasks well in advance. Inform post office and service providers about your move. If you have any deliveries such as furniture deliveries, delay them and inform the store about your new address. This way, you save money on moving the new furniture as well. If you have school-going children, inform the school and keep the transfer certificate and all necessary papers ready.
- Packing
Excess items
Now that you have done planning your move, the next step is to start packing your stuff. As you begin packing, you will notice many things which are not needed anymore. Though it is tempting to keep these things and carry them with you to your new home, it is crucial to throwing these things away. You can even donate them or sell them at a lower price. In this way not only are you getting rid of excess items but also making money in the process. Moreover, you are saving money of moving these unnecessary items to your new house.
Moving boxes
Moving boxes are important for packing and moving. Many buy these boxes, but there are many places where you can get them free of cost or for a very cheap rate.
- You can get boxes from stores such as liquor store, bookstore, grocery store, hardware store, and pharmacy.You can also get such boxes from recycling centres, schools, restaurants, malls, and your workplace.
- These boxes are of good quality and capable of moving heavy as well as fragile items efficiently. If you run out of luck and don’t get boxes from any of the places mentioned above, you can either order them online or ask your neighbour/friend who has shifted recently. They are guaranteed to have moving boxes. Moreover, you can get moving boxes of premium quality from your removal company.
- Fragile items require high-quality strong moving boxes. All the antiques or fragile items should not only be wrapped in bubble cover but also be placed and packed safely. Wrapping breakables requires great attention. While wrapping them with air wrap, make sure that the breakables are totally covered. Similarly, you should pack other antiques and delicate items ensuring proper safety.
- You can even put more than one layer of bubble wrap on any item which you feel needs extra protection. At times, the moving vehicles may have to pass through an uneven and rough road, due to which the items may break or damage. But when you pack them in good quality moving boxes, they remain safe.
- The boxes protect the items from jerks and other shocks. Put all the packed boxes in respective rooms as per the labeling. You can even use the color code method if you can remember which color boxes contain which color items.
- Depending on the size of the moving boxes, you should pack the items. Don’t stuff too many items in a box and make sure that the boxes are packed to their capacities. Also, check if all the boxes are sturdy and aren’t damaged to ensure complete safety of the items.
- Lighter items can be packed in normal boxes. But for heavier items, such as oven, LED, etc, you will need good quality, strong boxes. Also, don’t forget to put packing peanuts in the boxes for extra protection. You can buy packing peanuts, also known as foam peanuts from the market. Put heavy items separately and ask your friends for help in loading and unloading.
- You can even use the boxes if you have at home. For example, if you have bought some groceries online and you were delivered the items in a cardboard or carton box, use it, however, ensure if the boxes are in good quality or not. These packing tips will surely help you.
Here are some links to help you with moving house boxes:
– Craigslist
– Freecycle
– McDonald’s fry boxes: Contact them through FB Group
Order of packing
Start packing with things you use the least. Pack things like toothbrush and combs last. Start packing items such as books first, which you might not use because of your hectic schedule of packing. Also, pack the contents of one room in a box. That is, do not pack random items in the box. This makes labeling and unpacking hassle-free. Moreover, fill the box with heavy objects first and light objects. Cling wrap jewelry, so they don’t tangle and liquids such as shampoo bottles to avoid leakage.
Make sure that you pack everything in order. If things aren’t packed in proper order, unpacking process will give you a lot of trouble. While packing the items in cardboard boxes, make sure that you label the sides of the boxes. Mark every box and put a list of all the items which are packed in the boxes. This way, when you sit for unpacking and unboxing, you will not have to face any type of trouble.
You can separate the items according to the room. For example, the washroom items can be packed in a separate box and you can paste a list of the items with their names. Pack brushes, toothpaste, toilet paper etc. in a bag. Similarly, the same can be done for the items from your dressing table and from the bedroom. Also, smaller items from the kitchen can also be packed in the same way and you can name all the items over the boxes.
Before you start packing, make sure which items are to be packed in the box depending on the size.
Once you reach the new place, you can immediately put the boxes with kitchen items and unpack them and put them in their respective places. Similarly, all the other boxes belonging to their respective rooms/places can be opened and the items can be arranged.
This way you can save a lot of time and effort which people usually do. Imagine yourself all surrounded by boxes and items and still, a few things went missing. Well, pack properly so that you don’t have to deal with this situation.
Packing supplies
Buy excess of packing supplies such as tapes, markers, bubble wraps and packing peanuts. You can also use sheets and towels instead of bubble wraps.
Clothes
You can use your clothes for covering fragile items or pack them on hangers. You can zip-tie all the hangers (with clothes) together and wrap the whole lot in a plastic wrap to save time.
When it comes to clothes packing, make sure that the clothes are to be packed compactly. Clothes can be squeezed, doing so reduces the space they consume while packing. Season clothing can be packed separately. Clothes can be packed in plastic bags since they don’t occupy too much space.
Normal clothes like regular wears, cotton trousers, T-shirts, socks, etc. can be rolled and bundled to make them compact. Doing so creates enough space in the bag rather than just folding and packing. However, make sure that you pack your heavy clothes or party wears, blazers, coats, etc. separately.
Labelling system
Labelling the boxes is one of the most significant necessities of packing. It makes your packing, accessing, moving, and unpacking extremely easy. If you follow point number 7, you will have contents of one room in one box and not random items. Therefore, your label will have the following written on it: serial number of the box, name of the room from which the contents belong, and names of all the contents. As you go on packing each box, a number it (serial number). Serial numbers are useful during inventory management.
One of the most effective strategies used for labelling is colour code. Use different colours for different rooms.
- For example, if the kitchen is assigned red, stick a red coloured paper on the box containing the kitchen items. Or you can use a red tape while taping that particular box. In this way, you can identify which box has the contents of which room without having to read each and every label.
- Also, it is vital to label and colour all the sides, as well as the top of each box. You don’t want to waste your time and energy tilting every box to check its label.
Checklist and inventory
Keep a list of all the things you need to do while packing; even it is the most apparent point like informing the post office about your address change. It is common to forget things at the last minute due to all the chaos going around.
Having an inventory of the number of boxes packed and its content is crucial as you will know which box has gone missing while on the move and how many boxes are there in total.
Kids and pets
Keep your pets and kids away from the packing process as they tend to add to the chaos, decreasing your productivity. Keep your pets in a separate room with food and bed. You can tell the kids to join in the packing process which is less chaotic.
If your kids are too young, you can ask your relatives to take care of your kids for the day. For this, you should inform them about your move date prior. The moving process will consume you and as well as your lots of time. So having kids, toddlers will not be a good option. With kids around, you may not be able to focus on the packing properly thus, the best option is to leave your kids with your relatives. However, younger ones can help you in everything from packing to unpacking.
To pack the food, use plastic wrap. This wrap keeps the food safe and secured. However, first, check the shelf – a life of the food. There are several things which may get damaged due to pressure such as green vegetables, fruits etc. It’s better to first cover them in a food wrap or plastic wrap and then pack in boxes. When you have to move, make sure you don’t buy more food from the store. Stop buying more food before one or two days of the move and finish whatever you have stored already in the kitchen. This avoids wastage of food as well.
- Moving
Most precious valuables
Keep all your expensive items such as jewelry, money, mobile phones, documents, hard drives in a bag close to you and not in the moving truck.
Parking space
Keep enough parking space for the truck to park and load items efficiently.
These were some of the house moving tips which are guaranteed to help you with your move.
Remember that planning in advance and being organized are the two key elements of a successful and stress-free move.
Thank you for reading.
Suggestion Reading: How to move interstate cheaply – 6 easy ways to follow
