The 5 Things You’re Doing Wrong When Packing Boxes for a Move!

Sure, you can hire a professional moving company to come in and pack up all your belongings for you before that big move, but most people would rather do it themselves. After all, who wants a bunch of strangers going through their personal things, and besides, you know how to put things into a box, and for free, right?

Doing it yourself is a great option for a move, but at the same time, it might surprise you to learn that there are at least 5 things that most people do wrong when packing boxes. So here are a few packing and moving tips to make your next move easier!

1. Not labeling boxes. This is probably the biggest mistake that people make when packing, and it’s the one that can have the biggest impact on how much of a hassle your move becomes. After all, once everything is packed up, the boxes all look the same, so having them labeled will make the job of unpacking a whole lot easier, not to mention letting whoever is actually doing the heavy lifting know what room the box goes into.
2. Mixing rooms. So you’re packing up the stuff from your daughter’s bedroom, and you end up with a partial box, and you figure it won’t hurt to put some stuff from the kitchen in there. Or you’re cleaning toiletries out of the bathroom and right at that moment you remember that you forgot to get the shoes from the top of the closet. However it happens, things from more than one room have a tendency to all end up jumbled together. When you’re packing, keep the things that go into each room separate, and label the boxes that they’re in accordingly. If you absolutely must mix things from more than one room into the same box, label the box with the names of both rooms and, if possible, a breakdown of what goes with which.
3. Putting the heavy stuff on the top. This is one that just seems like common sense, but in the hustle and bustle of packing it can be all too easy to just “toss something in” on the top of a box, when it probably should have been packed near the bottom. The best bet is to plan your packing in advance. Begin packing up boxes a few at a time well in advance of your move, and have a pretty good idea of what’s going to go into each box before you begin packing it. Then put the biggest and heaviest stuff at the bottom of the box, and lighter stuff up near the top. Also remember to pack breakable items with care, and that you can always use things like socks or towels to pad out boxes.
4. Not keeping it all together. This could easily be a corollary of “mixing rooms,” above, but it goes way beyond that. When you’re packing up something that’s got multiple small parts—say, the bolts that hold a curtain rod to the wall—make sure that everything stays together. Put small parts in Ziploc bags and tape them to the items they go with. Wind cords and tie them together using bread ties or hair bands. Do whatever you have to do to make sure that when you get where you’re going you have not just the big stuff, but all the little stuff that goes along with it.
5. Using the wrong supplies. We all know how it goes: You get ready to move, and so you head down to the grocery store or the liquor store and ask the manager for extra cardboard boxes to pack everything into. That’s certainly a cheap solution, but it isn’t always the best one. Boxes that you get from stores may be dirty or warped from moisture, and they may not be strong enough to hold up to the rigors of a move. Your best bet is to buy some moving supplies—like the kind you can get at your local Storage ‘R’ Us location. It may cost you a few dollars more, but you’ll be happy when the bottom doesn’t fall out of the box that you have all your grandmother’s china in. 

When you’re getting ready to pack up for your next move, come on down to Storage ‘R’ Us. We’re not only your moving supply headquarters and Oklahoma’s largest Penske truck rental representative—you can also get packing and moving tips from our friendly and knowledgeable staff, and our secure self-storage facilities can act as a staging area for items that won’t fit in your new place, or that you just aren’t quite ready to move yet.