Moving can lead to new, exciting possibilities, but it also means leaving behind the people and places you love. While some sentimental items can be taken to your new place, many memories just aren’t transportable. To ensure your treasured belongings arrive safely to your new home, be prepared with these no-stress tips.
1. Make Room for New Memories
Taking every item of sentimental value with you to your new home is not always possible. Moving is the perfect opportunity to organize and purge items you don’t need or won’t use in your new home. To lessen the load on moving day, hold a garage sale or donate unwanted items to a local charity. If you’re trying to sell your current home, the less clutter the better.
Once you’ve determined which objects will make the move, decide where they’ll go in your new place. Make the unpacking process simpler by creating a plan for your new space in advance and pack according to where things will go, not by where they’ve been.
2. Organize, Don’t Agonize
Starting the process early can help avoid nerve-wracking, last-minute packing, and give you time to be a bit nostalgic. Before you begin boxing things up, take videos and photos of each room to preserve your memories of that space. Don’t forget to include outdoor areas like a backyard tree house or handprints in the patio cement.
Then, make a checklist of everything you need to accomplish before moving—packing, cleaning, cancelling and restarting utilities, registering the kids for school—and set a timeline for completing each step. Once you’re ready to start packing, work room by room to make the task seem more manageable. Start with decorative pieces that you can go without for a month or so, keeping items you use daily for last.
3. Protect Delicate Possessions
To ensure your belongings arrive safely, it’s essential to pack possessions with extra care. Safeguard breakables with wrapping materials designed to protect fragile goods, such as bubble wrap cushioning, for the best protection.
Next, pack items in clean, sturdy containers in a variety of sizes. Use large boxes for bulky, yet lighter furnishings, such as pillows and blankets, and place heavier objects in smaller boxes to avoid unnecessary strain. Seal boxes securely with a durable packaging tape.
Be sure to label boxes clearly, marking them on the sides of the boxes, not the top. This step makes it obvious what’s inside, even if they’re stacked. You also can use different colored or printed packaging tapes to color code each room—red for the bedroom, blue for the kitchen, and so on.
4. Have Help on Hand
If you’re moving to a location close to your old home, recruit friends and family to help with packing and unloading on moving day. You’ll love showing off your new place, and it’ll help with the transition to see that loved ones aren’t too far away to make the trip.
Put together an “open me first” box with the gear you’ll need immediately, such as tools to assemble furniture, cleaning supplies and shelf liner for drawers, closets and kitchen cabinets.