So you have collected your boxes and purged like a champ. Before you start shoving things in boxes, take a step back and think about exactly how you want to move.
How many rooms do you have? How many people are helping you move? Do you have multiple floors?
I am going to use my new home as an example. I have a basement with living space as well as storage on the lowest floor. On the main floor is a living room, half bath, kitchen, and a deck. The second floor has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, the laundry, and an office. Instead asking my friend-movers to figure out which room the box goes in which room, or asking them to dump everything in the living room (then leaving me to sort and carry later), I have come up with a system that bypasses all that struggle.
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| The top tape is orange, but the lighting skewed the color. |
I started doing this after my first move. I knew what was in each box, but the new church family in our new state, didn't, so they just brought the boxes in and dumped them wherever there was floor space. We were grateful for the help and didn't have a ton of stuff anyway, but as we unpacked there was some serious frustration. I couldn't find plates or bedding or anything that was really important. I had to open all of the boxes, redistribute them to the right room, then unpack. In a new church, in a new state, in a new everything, it was hard. If I had simply made it easier for the movers, I would have saved so much effort.
On the next move we settled into an apartment that was much smaller. I marked with colored tape all of the boxes that were going into the apartment. Anything unmarked went into storage. Everything was much easier!! (And in a small apartment with half of the stuff, we didn't have too many struggles.) The mover-friends were thrilled!
One last thing to make the boxes easier to move: I will add a piece of masking tape across the top to identify either what is in the box or more specifically where it goes. The masking tape is a little easier to read and stands out on the box. It's an advertising thing. Make it easy to read and stand out against the background. So if the box is marked with green tape, it will go to the second floor. But to help the movers and myself, I will write on the
masking tape "Living Room Movies" or "Kitchen Utensils." A quick glance lets the person who is carrying the box know exactly what is in it and that makes my life so much easier.
It is true that you can always find a use for duck tape - even when you are moving. :)
This is probably my favorite moving tip. It has saved so much hassle through all of these moves.
Bonus Info: For this most recent move, we had to delay our move-in day because of renters. In fact, the earliest and absolute latest day we could possibly move in is the same weekend that I am required to be away for a teacher's conference. So I am going to be packing up, then going to the conference, and my husband and friends will be moving without me. My husband is getting clear instructions on where everything goes. I created a floorplan of the house in Microsoft Word and drew out where all of the furniture goes and marked where the boxes should be dumped in each room. My husband is just going to tape it to the front door, so as people are walking in they can see where stuff goes. If you are OCD like me, go for it. If you are going to be present at move in, I wouldn't bother.
Missed the previous Moving Tips? Catch up here:
Moving Tip: Intro
Moving
Tip #1: Where to Find Boxes
Moving
Tip #2: Be Ruthless
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