Moving : Packing Your Boxes

• Start packing as soon as you think you might be moving. Non-essentials like knick knacks, wall decor, seasonal items, wedding china, cookware you only use for big holidays, etc., can be packed up months beforehand without being missed. Packing even a box a day well before you need to have everything packed up will make the final days - where you'll be spending all day every day packing - that much easier.

• Try really hard to not mix things that will have two final destinations - i.e. don't pack stuff that will end up in the basement media room in the same box as stuff that will go in the upstairs playroom. Chances are good it will sit in whatever room it ends up in for a long time before being moved. (You probably just spent days upon days moving boxes and unpacking them - the last thing you'll want to do is move more stuff). Some things are unavoidable or make more sense being packed together - like picture frames - but avoid whenever possible. It's better to fill space with packing paper or bubble wrap than to use something from a different room as filler. 

• Where to get boxes? You can find boxes from almost any store, but here are a few hints:

• Go to a liquor or wine store for boxes with cardboard dividers that are perfect for stemware and even everyday glasses (not to mention any wine or liquor that needs to be moved). Another thing they're great for? Moving condiments in glass bottles!

• My FAVE boxes were the copy paper boxes from work. If you - or anyone  you know - works in an office, they probably get a ton of these. I love them because they're small, so they're easy to move and it's hard to pack them too heavy. They're very sturdy, since they hold paper and a lot of paper is heavy. And some of them have handles! (Note: if your handles haven't been popped out yet, do it BEFORE filling them...duh, but yeah, I didn't and had to unpack a couple boxes to do it.)  And they don't necessarily have to be taped shut, so there's easy access to them, both for adding/changing things out while packing and while unpacking.

• The heavier the items, the smaller the boxes. Tupperware can go in a pretty large box, since it's light. Books should go in small boxes (even better - put books in rolling suitcases!). You'll be surprised how quickly a box becomes un-liftable. As you're packing it, pick it up a few times to make sure you can still lift it easily. Remember, you/the movers/your friends will be lifting 100 boxes on moving day, so a box that is heavy now will seem even heavier when it's the 75th box you've carried.

• Start a spreadsheet that lists the type of container, the number of that container, the floor it goes on, the room it goes in, and a detailed list of the contents. I also noted anything special about the box (i.e. "heavy" or "fragile." Make it more detailed than the example below. Make the list of contents BEFORE you tape it up. Because you'll probably forget things and will want to go back to look. I didn't start doing this until after the 12th box and wish I'd done it sooner. Err on the side of too much detail - you can use the spreadsheet to locate items you need when you're unpacking. "I NEED A GLASS OF WINE, WHERE IS THE WINE OPENER?? Let me just control + F on my spreadsheet, and ah....box 83."

• Before you close up the box, take a picture of the contents. This can be useful for claims later should the box go missing or items get damaged. You likely will be able to delete this pics after the move without ever looking at them again, but they can come in *very* handy if needed (also, I can't tell you how many times I realized I forgot to write down what was in a box, so I could pull up the picture to get the contents later).

• When the box is taped, label it with the number, the room, and the contents. Later,* put stickers on (see labeling your boxes post here). This will make the information even easier to read and in a uniform format. But trust - still write it directly on the box, too - both because you can write the info immediately and as redundancy in case the stickers fall off. Once all is said and done, you should have the info in a spreadsheet, written on the boxes, and on brightly colored stickers.    *I say put the stickers on later, because it's hard to guess how many stickers you'll need for each room - putting them on after the fact allows you to only print the number you'll need, saving on paper and ink. 

• Yes, this means that you'll have the contents written down three times - one on the easy-to-read labels, once on the box itself in sharpie, and once in a spreadsheet - AND have a picture of the contents. It seems like overkill, and hopefully it is - but if and when you need it, you'll be so glad you went overboard. When I asked friends and moving companies for advice on moving, literally everyone told me the same thing: label more than you think you need to, and start packing early.

• If, after you've packed up a box, you realize that you left out something that definitely belongs in that box - say the lid to a drink dispenser, or screws to put something back together, OPEN THE BOX and put the item in it. Try not to separate things that go together. You'll only be out some tape and about 30 seconds of time, but it will save your sanity later- not only will you immediately have the complete item when you unpack, but I guarantee you'll throw a lid in somewhere and think you'll remember where it goes, only to be totally befuddled when you unpack. There are some exceptions to this, like if you pack all the sauce pan lids in a separate box than the sauce pans, but whenever possible, keep things that go together in the same box.

• If you can pack by room, do it - but that's unrealistic for most people. Most people pack the non-essentials first throughout the whole house, rather than doing an entire room at once - since generally people need to keep living in the home for several weeks after packing begins. However, once you've started packing things up, try storing the boxes in groupings by floor and by room. You can sort the spreadsheet you created by floor and room to help make it easier. Then pack the moving truck with the same box groupings, and unpack in the same order. Remember, first in the truck = last out of the truck and last in = first out, so rooms like the kitchen and the bedroom and bathrooms should be the last in so you can get them out and unpacked first.

• Once you have the house and it's under contract - but before you've closed - consider asking the homeowners if you can start storing boxes or small furniture items at their house. It's not really kosher (and it's a gray area for liability/insurance, I think, especially if the house is unoccupied), but I know several people that have had homeowners willing to work with them, and it helped them keep their house free of giant stacks of boxes (since they started packing way beforehand) and it made fewer boxes that had to be moved come moving day.  We were lucky enough to have the homeowner allow us to do this, and we started dropping boxes off after a successful home inspection. Keep in mind that should everything go horribly wrong and the move falls through at the last minute, an evil homeowner could keep you from your stuff, so don't put anything valuable there.