Moving home can never fail to spring surprises on you. Just when you think you've got everything covered and your preparation has been faultless, something will happen a couple of days before you are due to leave your home when you realise something you thought would take only a short amount of time is going to take a lot longer than you first expected. This means you have a last-minute panic right up to your moving day.
One area which is often under-estimated in terms of time and work is packing. You will no doubt have realised that you need to get as much packing and packaging materials as you can in plenty of time during the build up to your move. Nevertheless, even with this type of preparation you can still be caught out by little things, some of which I'll show here in the hope that they can be prevented.
Packing begins not with the actual packing itself but knowing what you have to pack and how you have to pack it. This, in turn begins by you going around the house and seeing what it is you're going to take and how you want to transport it.
There may be many items which need packing and packaging when at first you don't realise they do.
So when going around your house, in a general way, mark down everything you need to take and how is going to be packaged. Take books for instance. These don't need any specific packaging but they do need packing and into boxes which are sturdy and strong. Don't underestimate how much space books can take up and even if you decide to give some to a charity shop or sell some online, packing books into a box needs care and attention. Think about items such as pot plants and how you're going to wrap them for the journey to your new home.
There are general rules you should follow such as not filling up boxes too much so that it's difficult for the removal men to carry them which in turn slows up your removal day. Make sure all boxes are clearly labelled and, if possible, make sure all your items are arranged in the house in a convenient way for the removal men to carry them out to the van or truck. Fragile items such as plates, cups and other crockery not only need to be wrapped with great care, there need to be placed in boxes correctly.
This means you have to put the heavier and flatter items on the bottom. This will give you more space within each box.
Clothes placed in boxes should be covered over with another material like bubble wrap. You also need to start your packing as early as possible in order to avoid that last-minute rush. Even though it may cost a little bit of extra money, it can be advisable to use the professional packing services of your removal company. Always overcompensate. This means have more boxes and packaging that you think you'll need because you may very well see that you do indeed need these boxes and packaging at sometime.
Use everything you can for packaging. Not just bubble wrap and polystyrene beads but put scrunched up newspaper in the bottom of every cardboard box you have as an extra precaution. It can be very helpful to keep all your boxes in one room because this makes it easier for the removal men and also allows yourself to know where everything is which is packed in boxes. By taking that extra time and care over packing and making sure you don't get caught out at the last minute, you should have a better and less stressful removal stay.
