If you are in the process of packing a house and are looking for some quick and easy tips to make everything go smoothly, you have come to the right place. House packing can feel like a daunting task, but if it is broken up into smaller tasks it can be easy and even fun.
1st Step of Packing a House-Purging:
The most important first step of packing a house is to purchase moving boxes EARLY so you can sort your belongings into different categories to purge. You can buy boxes separately or a whole moving kit to provide you with all the supplies you need. This process is easy to do if you have enough storage boxes.
Getting rid of items you no longer use is the critically important first step in packing a house.
Why spend money moving things that you no longer use? Why spend time trying to organize things that you will donate anyway?
Simply go from room to room and bring three empty boxes with you.
1. One box is for items you want to donate or give away to friends.
2. The other box is for items you may want to sell on E-bay or at a garage sale.
3. The third box is for things you want to throw out. You will be amazed at how much trash you will find in each room such as old dry cleaning plastic bags in your closet, or old files in your home office.
Continue room to room with this process and you will be surprised about how many cartons you can fill up by doing this.
Packing a home and need to buy boxes?
2nd Step of Packing a House- The Kitchen
Start in the kitchen and pack all of the items that you will not need to use for the two weeks prior to your move. We all have special kitchen items that we use once in awhile like woks, slow cookers, bread machines and/or fancy popcorn machines.
Make sure to leave a few plates, cups and one pot to cook the items you eat most often. Then pack all of your appliances, china, and things you don’t need to use all of the time 1-2 weeks before your move.
- Try and finish eating as much food as you can from your refrigerator and freezer well in advance of your move. Just plan on getting “take out,” going out to dinner and/or having sandwiches the week of your move.
- Fully defrost your refrigerator and freezer at least a day before your move and dry it completely before moving it.
3rd Step of Packing a House-The Bedrooms
Buy wardrobe boxes and place all of your hanging clothes on the bard inside the box. Separate your summer clothes into one box and your winter clothes into another.
Pack all your clothes that are the opposite season that you are in. If it is winter, pack all of your summer clothes weeks before your move. It is best to use medium moving boxes for folded clothes.
Wardrobe boxes can be stored in your garage after you are moved into your new home. They are a wonderful way to alternate clothes in the seasons.
Place all of the shoes that you do not need that week on the bottom of the wardrobe boxes. This maximizes the space in the boxes.
Step #4 of Packing a House- The Home Office
Even if you do not work out of the house, most of us have files that we save for tax purposes, bills and/or personal items.
Make sure that you have 1-2 boxes with your most important information it in like passports, school records, password sheets and health records. Do not let them movers transport these boxes, do it yourself.
Buy file boxes to store any of your documents that you need to transport. Most movers can not transport file drawers with files inside of them.
TIP: Remember to save any file boxes that you buy. These boxes are wonderful for storing old tax records in your garage, or being a portable box to use in your car.
Step #5 of Packing a House- The Bathrooms
The bathroom is a really the most important area to clean out before you start packing.
Did you know that most hair products, soaps and makeup has an expiration date on them?
Throw out any of these products that are old and outdated. These products are not meant to last for years and years; yet many people store beauty products indefinitely.
NOTE: It is always a risk to move any beauty or cleaning products that are “open” and moving companies generally do not recommend this. Therefore, use up your cleaning products to sanitize your home before moving out (get your full deposit back if renting) and/or clean your new home if you are moving locally.
- If you are moving long distance it is best to give your products to your neighbors who can use them.
Hope these tips are helpful in packing a house and we wish you a wonderful move.
