![Knowing how to properly load a truck can help you ensure the safety of your belongings during the trip to your new home.](https://www.mymovingreviews.com/move/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/couple-loading-truck.jpg)
Highlights
- Knowing how to pack a moving truck correctly can help you ensure the safety of your items and maximize the available space.
- Choose the right size moving truck for your needs.
- Distribute the weight of your items evenly throughout the truck.
- Start with your largest and heaviest items, load the front of the truck first, and work your way toward the back.
- Pack in tiers and secure items as you load.
When moving house, a single mistake – even a seemingly small one – can cause a lot of trouble and ruin your entire relocation experience.
This is all the more true in the event of a self-move when you don’t have professional help and need to take care of all moving tasks yourself. You need to know how to do things right or you risk turning your move into a relocation nightmare. And since ensuring the safety of your belongings is, arguably, the most essential factor in achieving a successful relocation, you’ll definitely want to know how to provide good protection to your items during transit.
Proper packing, of course, comes first in that regard. Proper loading is a close second. Even a well-packed item can be easily damaged if it bumps against another in the moving truck or topples over during a sharp turn or a sudden stop.
![Loading a moving truck is like a game of tetris.](https://www.mymovingreviews.com/move/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/friends-help.jpg)
Besides, an improperly packed truck will be more difficult to drive and, therefore, more likely to have an accident.
On top of that, if you can’t pack the truck tightly and utilize the available space well enough, you may be forced to make multiple trips between your old residence and your new one (or leave some of your items behind if that is not an option).
So, before you start carrying boxes up the ramp of your rented moving vehicle, make sure you know how to pack a moving truck the right way – so that you can maximize the available space and minimize the risk of damage to your items.
What to Do Before You Start Packing a Moving Truck
As is usually the case, proper preparation matters as much as the actual job – to be able to properly load your rented moving truck, you need to be well prepared:
1) Choose the right size moving truck
When renting a truck to transport your belongings to your new home, you need a vehicle that is big enough to accommodate all your items, but not so large that it remains half-empty (you don’t want to be paying for space you won’t use).
To find out what size moving truck will be right for you, you need to calculate the total cubic footage of the items you have for moving and check what amounts different trucks can hold (click here for more detailed information on the topic).
Keep in mind though that truck rental companies calculate the entire space in the vehicles when listing the sizes of their moving trucks in cubic feet – yet, it is virtually impossible to use the full capacity of the trailers as no one can load and pack a truck so well that there are absolutely no empty spaces (although professional packers and movers come pretty close to it).
Therefore, it is advisable to opt for a moving van that has about 15% more storage space than the estimated cubic footage of your belongings.
Must-read: Moving truck rental guide
2) Make sure you have all the necessary tools and equipment
To avoid property damage and personal injuries while loading the moving truck and minimize the risk of damage to your items, you need to use the right equipment for the job – moving dollies, moving straps, furniture sliders, moving blankets, etc.
These simple, yet highly useful tools will make your DIY-move much safer, easier, and more efficient.
3) Provide the best possible protection to your belongings
Use quality packing materials and safe packing techniques to ensure that your items survive the move intact and unscathed.
![Careful research and proper preparation will go a long way toward ensuring your successful self-move.](https://www.mymovingreviews.com/move/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/medium-size-truck.jpg)
Place as many of your items as you can in similar-sized moving boxes – professional packing boxes are very sturdy and designed to stack nicely on top of one another, which helps maintain the integrity of the load.
Make sure all boxes are labeled with their contents, destination room, and necessary handling instructions.
4) Disassemble furniture
Taking large furniture pieces apart will make them easier to pack and carry and will reduce the risk of accidents and damages during the relocation. It will also help you maximize the space in the moving truck and distribute the load more evenly.
Click here to find out how to disassemble furniture for moving.
5) Protect your property
To prevent damage to the floors, stairs, walls, doors, etc. while taking your items out of the home and into the moving truck, you need to take some precautionary measures to protect your property – cover floors and staircases with protective, anti-slippery materials, wrap banisters and railings in moving blankets, use foam padding and corner guards to protect door frames and wall corners, etc.
See also: How to protect floors when moving; How to protect stairs when moving
6) Clear the way of obstacles
The fewer obstacles there are along the way, the smaller the risk of accidents during the loading process.
So, be sure to remove debris, fallen leaves, snow, ice, mud, and other potential hazards from the path between the front door of your home and the moving van; remove potted plants, boxes, and other items from the entryway and the corridors of your home; take down hanging items such as wind chimes, pictures, and mirrors; etc.
7) Ask friends for help
Loading a moving truck is not a one-man job – if you attempt to manage on your own, you risk not only injuring yourself and damaging your belongings and your property (if you drop a heavy piece of furniture or a box of breakables, for example), but also wasting precious time and even losing money in the process (your truck rental time will be longer and will cost you more, you may need to pay for repairs and replacements, etc.).
Having friends to help will considerably speed up the loading process and will make it safer and easier.
See also: Let friends help you move
Now you’re ready to get your rental truck and start loading it.
Thanks for mentioning that I have to choose the right size of a moving truck that I will rent so that packing will be easy. I think it would be best to have all the necessary tools and equipment to keep my belongings safe when I finally move out of state. I’ll be sure to disassemble my furniture as well so that there will be more space to store my items as well.
Dont move dressers the way they are in these pictures. It should be tipped (so that it is leaning the same angle as the stairs). What they are doing is highly risky. Ex. Stairs: / dresser: /
It’s good to know that you should disassemble your furniture pieces to make them easier to move. My family is planning to move two states away this summer. I will keep these tips in mind to pack the truck safely and efficiently before the hired driver gets here.
NICE!
This article is really helpful to people. Always everyone has fear to get damage of furniture during moving in truck. Thanks to share the best way.
Thanks for explaining how you should evenly distribute the weight of your items throughout the truck. My boyfriend and I are getting an apartment together next week, so we are thinking about renting a moving truck for our furniture. I will keep in mind to avoid loading one side of the truck too heavily.
Thanks for the reminder to avoid placing heavy boxes on furniture with thin legs. My cousin is hoping to find a good deal on a moving truck for rent next weekend since he’s relocating to a larger apartment. I’ll share this info so he can reference it when deciding how to pack the moving truck most efficiently.