Packing for a move is a highly repetitive task that takes forever to complete.
That’s right, there’s nothing too exciting about the packing process… but the truth is that, considering the emotional toll when moving from one place to another, you could definitely do with a bit less excitement while packing away your things.
Besides, the good news is that once you learn how to pack one single box for moving, then you should be almost ready to pack the rest of the cardboard containers, patiently waiting to be duly filled, sealed, and labeled.
Here’s the best way to pack boxes for moving – 20 steps that will make you a packing hero in no time.
1. USE a good packing timeline
You’ve made up your mind to pack up your home by yourself – that is, without using professional packing services.
So far, so good.
But before you even get to pack your very first box, you’ll have to know how to start packing when moving house.
Knowing what to pack first when moving is critical. You shouldn’t just box your stuff randomly into random cardboard boxes – not only will you lose plenty of valuable time when you don’t have a clear plan of action to follow, but you’ll also exhaust yourself even before you reach the toughest room to pack and move.
Do yourself a favor and use a good Packing Timeline – a special packing checklist tailored to your specific needs. A packing timeline will guide you from start to finish, advising you on what items you should pack first and what items you should pack last of all.
Before you can get boxes for packing up your things, you’ll need to know what types of moving containers you will actually need. Basically, moving boxes can be divided into two types: standard ones and specialty ones.
Standard cardboard boxes can be subcategorized into
small boxes: designed to hold heavy items such as books and tools, as well as to safeguard extra-fragile items that are packed individually;
medium boxes: ideal for clothes, shoes, toys, various kitchen items, small appliances, and so on;
large boxes: good for transporting large yet lightweight items such as blankets, towels, sheets, pillows, and comforters.
Before you learn the best way to pack boxes for moving, it’s useful to know whether you will also need any specialty moving boxes.
Wardrobe boxes: designed to safeguard hanging clothes during a move;
Dish packs: extra-strong cardboard containers for breakables such as kitchen plates and drinking glasses;
Picture boxes (mirror boxes): ideal for transporting framed artwork pieces thanks to their resizing fit-to-frame capability.
Before you learn how to pack boxes for moving, you’ll want to know the approximate number of moving containers that you’ll need to complete the packing task.
Statistical data show that the average number of packing boxes required to pack the content of a home is roughly 60.
Needless to say, there are numerous factors that will determine how many boxes you will have to get hold of before you pack your first carton: number of rooms in your home, square footage, number of people living under one roof, type of lifestyle, years spent in the home, etc.
Once you know the approximate number and types of boxes that you will need, it’s time to acquire those containers as soon as possible.
In order to reduce your packing costs and expenses – a priority task considering how expensive a house move can be, you should try to get hold of cardboard boxes without paying for them.
As long as you have enough time to hunt down such free moving boxes, the invested time and effort should be worth it in the end.
Ask friends, neighbors, and colleagues if they happen to have good cartons they no longer need. Also, check specialized websites, do a tour around local retail stores, or visit a nearby recycling center, if necessary.
It’s a pity that you won’t be able to move your collection of fireworks with you.
Soon you’ll learn how to pack boxes for moving but first, it’s time for a bit of warning: you are not allowed to pack items that are forbidden for transport.
Get in touch with the moving company you’ve picked as your partner and request from them their full list of non-allowable items. Once you have it, you’ll know which items to get rid of before you start boxing up your things.
As a rule of thumb, moving companies will not move any items that are hazardous in nature: flammable, corrosive, or explosive. And since professional movers won’t move such dangerous household goods, you should definitely not bother packing them.
Before you pack your very first box, you just have to be absolutely sure that the things you are about to put inside it are all worth the time and expense to be transported. And that’s valid for all the cardboard boxes you’ll pack too.
One of the most common mistakes when packing for a move is to start packing up your stuff without having sorted it out first and got rid of the useless items. What’s the point of boxing up several pairs of shoes only to never wear them again?
Do yourself a favor and declutter your household items before you pack them up. After the move, you’ll be grateful that you took the time to pare down your stuff.
Packing a home to move is a serious project that tends to consume all the time available until the move-out date. Therefore, it’s imperative that you initiate the packing process as soon as possibly can.
What order to pack your house when moving? Start from the storage areas in your home – garage, basement, attic, spare rooms, walk-in closet – because they are known to be the toughest rooms to sort and pack.
Tackling the most difficult rooms first is a good packing tactic that will help you progress more quickly in the beginning, when you still have enough energy and motivation to pack up your things on your own.
Before you can start filling up a cardboard box, you have to make sure each container has passed your strict version of quality control. Remember that just because a moving box is free should not automatically make it fit to keep your prized possessions during the physical move between the two homes.
Each (second-hand) packing box should be:
DRY. Reject any boxes with distinguishable water damage, past or present. Wet areas only weaken the integrity and compromise the durability of the cardboard.
CLEAN. Be extra careful when using used boxes – they should be perfectly clean and free of any infestation.
STURDY. Use only cardboard boxes that are seemingly strong so that they can handle the pressure of what you pack inside them without breakage.
The best way to pack for moving is the safest way, so make sure you invest some time and thought to eliminate the possibility of any accidents occurring on Moving day.
Reinforce the bottom of each cardboard box with quality packing tape when using second-hand moving containers. You may also choose to do it with brand-new cartons if you suspect they are not as strong as they seem.
Also, double-tape the corners of the box for extra protection. The idea, of course, is to guarantee an accident-free move by not letting any packing boxes break due to the heavy load inside them.
10. PAD the inside bottom for added safety
Crumpled paper can be more useful than you ever imagined.
When packing boxes for moving house, your ultimate goal should be to ensure your things stay perfectly protected until they reach the new home.
You won’t want to go through any unpleasant surprises when you begin to unpack those boxes, so it’s the safety measures you take during the task of packing that will pay off in the end.
Next, line the bottom of each box with a few sheets of clean wrapping paper as an additional padding layer.
When packing extra-fragile items, consider placing a sheet or two of bubble wrap to create a thicker protective cushion.
Alternatively, you can add wads of crumpled paper on the bottom of the box with the same purpose.
How to pack for moving house? It all depends on what exactly you are packing at any given moment.
When packing breakables – anything made of glass or porcelain, use the individual packing method and wrap each separate item in white, acid-free packing paper to create a soft protective layer around the delicate object.
Then, add another layer of security in the form of bubble wrap – the best packing material when it comes to sheer physical protection from harmful external forces.
The usage of soft fabric materials to safeguard your breakables is also a good idea – thick towels or even socks can create the necessary line of defense for your delicate possessions.
Packing boxes for moving is much more than just stuffing random things in random containers and keeping your fingers crossed that your belongings will reach the new place safe and sound. Don’t rely on sheer luck – instead, follow the basic rules of safe packing to prevent untimely damage.
ALWAYS place heavier things on the bottom of the box, and then arrange lighter items on top of them – that way, the heavy objects should be able to withstand less pressure from the lighter ones above them.
Should you fail to disregard this basic packing rule, then you will risk damage to some of the more delicate articles that are mistakenly positioned on the bottom of the box.
13. FILL the box to the top
Luckily, packing your home to move is a fairly logical process that follows one logical choice after another. It makes as much sense to place lighter items on top of the heavier ones as to fill the box to the top while still leaving enough space for the flaps of the carton to close effortlessly.
Don’t leave any boxes half-empty – or half-full depending on your point of view. First of all, you’ll be wasting usable storage, and secondly, half-empty boxes can cave in much more easily during transport, especially when they are stacked vertically inside the moving vehicles.
Remember that boxes that are not fully packed do NOT stack well and that fact alone may cause more problems during transit. Read on to learn how to pack efficiently for moving by not leaving any empty space inside a packing box.
Going from one extreme to the next is always a bad idea – while leaving boxes half-full is not recommended, making any cardboard boxes too heavy in an attempt to cram more stuff inside them is much worse.
Keep moving boxes no heavier than 40-45 pounds – otherwise, you’ll be running the risks of both property damage and personal injury should the box bottom fall out.
Also, you could even hurt your back (something you must avoid at all costs!) when trying to lift a box that’s too heavy for you.
Remember this fundamental packing rule: heavy items (books, for example) go into small boxes while lightweight items (clothes, for instance) go into big boxes.
Use your common sense to arrange your things inside a packing box with safety being your main focus.
When packing BOOKS for moving, don’t pack them with their spines facing you as that is likely to damage the book bindings.
When transferring paper-wrapped PLATES into a packing box, arrange the kitchen dishes standing on their edges, NOT flat.
When packing GLASSES, position the paper-bundled breakables with their openings facing downward for added safety.
When packing extra-fragile objects, don’t pack them too tight as that will only increase the pressure inside the moving container. To prevent breakage, arrange breakable items snugly but never too firmly pressed against each other.
16. FILL any empty spaces inside the box
Remember to pack your boxes with plenty of cushioning among the individual items inside the container. Once there is sufficient padding, no item should shift or come into contact with another one during transport, and that will eliminate any chances of potential damage.
Fill in any empty spaces inside the box with the help of wrapping paper, bubble wrap, packing peanuts (the biodegradable type), towels, or even pieces of old clothing that will serve as excellent padding materials.
When ready, all items inside the box should be arranged snugly, with no visible space among them. The good news is that as long as the individual objects inside the moving container are paper- or bubble-wrapped in advance, you can use old newspapers to fill in those empty spaces, thus keeping the packing expenses to a minimum.
17. DO the Shake-Up Test
When packing fragile items, you can never be too sure whether you’ve packed a box safely or not until you do the shake-up test and see the result of your genuine packing efforts.
When you finish packing up a box with breakables and right before you close the lids, lift the cardboard into the air and shake it gently.
Can you feel something moving inside it? If yes, put down the box and re-arrange its delicate content so that nothing shifts inside it.
Can you hear any worrisome sounds, like metal-to-metal scraping or glass-to-glass clanking? If yes, put the moving box down and re-pack those breakables until you won’t be able to hear anything.
Packing things for moving is not easy. And yet, sooner or later you will be ready to close up those cardboard boxes and seal them up for the road.
Make sure the box is not seriously over-packed, with random things sticking out of it or bulging so much that the carton has got out of shape.
Then, close the lids of the box and use high-quality packing tape to seal it, thus protecting it not only from accidental opening during the moving process but also from dust and moisture during the haul.
19. LABEL the moving box properly
The task of packing boxes for moving won’t be complete until you label properly those containers.
Don’t make the rookie mistake of thinking that labeling moving boxes is a waste of time – why should you do it when you can just open the cartons after the move and see what’s inside them?
First of all, labeling your boxes won’t take much of your time. Secondly, the right boxes will be delivered to the right rooms on the move-in day. And thirdly, you’ll know exactly which containers to unpack first to save valuable time.
Write the content, destination room, and handling instructions (if any) on at least 2 sides of each packed box. Use a black permanent marker pen for the purpose, and maybe even a red marker for the FRAGILE, HANDLE WITH CARE, and THIS WAY UP instructions.
Still looking for the best way to pack when moving house?
Then let professional packers pack up your things so that you can rest assured your valuable possessions will reach the new home perfectly intact.
Also, you can definitely use the available time to finish off some other important tasks – have you said your proper goodbyes to your friends yet?
One major risk when you decide to pack up your things without professional assistance is that your movers will not assume liability for any items that have not been packed by them.
What that means, in reality, is that in case of damage to one of the boxes and the things inside it, you may not be able to lodge a complaint with your moving company simply because you’re the one who did the packing in the first place.
If unsure what to do or when time is pressing you hard against the ropes, get qualified assistance from experienced packers who have been trained well in the art of packing a home for moving.
*At MyMovingReviews we will connect you with a professional moving company. Please note that we may not be affiliated with
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