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It's always intimidating to look around your home, planning the packing and moving of your entire life. But with a few easy hints, your move can go smoother than ever.
You Get What You Pay For. This relates not only to the quality of the boxes you will be using to move your possessions, but also for the actual physical moving of said boxes. Purchase new boxes as much as possible even if the move is only a local shift. Used cardboard tends to become weaker each time used, and it's likely that time and wear has worn its way through those storage boxes in the basement. The last thing you need upon shifting the antique glass collection to your shoulder is to hear the bottom fall out. Go to your local hardware store and invest in fresh, new boxes along with a good supply of tape.
Hard plastic containers are useful for packing clothing as well as delicate items you don't feel comfortable placing in cardboard boxes. You can get lots of clothing into a single container and the lids usually snap shut providing you with a storage bin that can be used over and over again in your new home for almost anything.
Label every box as if it were going to a new land - more so if it actually is. Just because you know what's in each box right now doesn't mean that you'll remember a week later when you have to unpack them. Colorcoding the boxes sometimes helps - use a different marker for each room and draw a large circle or symbol on the box so that it can be taken directly to that room instead of being piled up in the living room to be sorted as you shuffle through the stack. On each box write a brief description of the contents, but not so detailed as to illustrate potential items for theft. Tape each container securely shut and make sure the weight is reasonable - books are the worst offenders for this since they tend to pile into a box readily and not give away their potential weight until you risk back injury by lifting it.
Start packing long before the moving date; again prioritizing what can be packed right now due to lack of usage and what can only be packed at the last minutes (ie. dishes, television set, computer). This gives you plenty of time to sort through your belongings and see what you truly want to take and what should be donated to Goodwill. Rushed packing only leads to having more work at the other end as you realize in shock that you have packed and moved the garbage bag - still full of last week's Chinese dinner.
Your moving crew can range from just yourself and family and friends to professionally paid experts who will come into your home and take it all away - to your new home, hopefully. Again, you get what you pay for. It's fine to ask your friends to help out and rent a small truck, but realize that it might be more heartbreaking and backbreaking work than you bargained for. Your friends will have to move and carry your entire life's collection from your place to your new home and they might not be physically or mentally eager to do so. Even if you do offer them beer and pizza at the end of it, you risk damaging your friendships as well as your physical being.
Most professional movers will give free estimates, sometimes over the phone if you have a detailed list of what you have to move and where it's going to. They will usually provide the truck, the movers and a certain amount of insurance on your items to avoid damage. If you are an older person or moving a great distance, give great thought to having a professional do it - if only to save your friends the cost of the chiropractic bills.
When you arrive at your new home don't rush to unpack everything in the first few minutes. Get out the basic survival kit that you should have readied upon the last few hours of moving - sheets for the bed (or sleeping bags if the bed is still in transit) paper plates and plastic cups and cutlery for eating and a small bathroom bag containing toothpaste, shampoo and soap along with a towel or two. This kit will make your first day livable as you struggle to find out where you actually put everything. Having the bare essentials at your fingertips will make it easy for you to sleep your first night and eat your first meal with a minimum of trouble and a maximum of comfort.
Again, this is where labeling of boxes and containers is essential - there's not much logic in unpacking the china when your dishes are still AWOL. Use your labels to prioritize your unpacking for the least amount of annoyance and stress as you set up your new home.
Finally, discard as many boxes as you can; consolidating them into each other as you determine what needs to be unpacked now and what can go into storage. Cardboard is usually only good for a single trip, and tossing them now will avoid having problems when you realize that the delicate porcelain figures you adore are now in the flimsiest of containers possible.
In the end you'll still be sitting on the floor amidst shredded paper, cardboard boxes and chaos, but at least it has the chance to be organized chaos.
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