One of the aspects that people tend to dread when it comes to moving to a new home is the packing. This is especially true if you’ve lived in your current space for a long time and have accumulated a lot of belongings.
Packing doesn’t have to be a big obstacle as you get ready to move. Here are the top six simple packing hacks to make unpacking in your new home easier.
1- Declutter
Instead of thinking about how many items you have to pack, think about what you can declutter in order to decrease the amount of belongings you need to take with you. Although this is a backward approach, less is really more when it comes to making unpacking easier. Go through each room of your current home and decide if items can be given away, donated, or thrown away if they are broken. Even getting rid of only a handful of items per room will go a long way to make packing and unpacking faster.
2- Use Portable Moving Containers
It’s easy to become disorganized during the moving process. Instead of hiring a mover with one large truck, utilize portable moving containers instead. Portable moving containers come directly to your doorstep, and you can get a container per room of your home so that each container is assigned to a specific room. Then you simply pack your belongings into the designated container, and the company will move the containers for you to your new home. This keeps each room’s belongings organized to make unpacking easier. You can even choose to have a portable moving container specifically for storage purposes, and the company will store the container in their secure facility so that you don’t need to drive back and forth to a storage unit.
3- Have Enough Moving Boxes
When you’re getting ready to pack all of your belongings, make sure to have enough moving boxes on hand. The last situation you need when packing for a move is to run out of boxes and resort to other less-ideal types of supplies such as trash bags. Having enough moving boxes lets you further organize your belongings (such as by room of your home) to make the unpacking process easier.
4- Utilize Labels
It can be tempting to throw your belongings into moving boxes without labeling just to get packing done as quickly as possible. However, it’s important to utilize labels and other markers to identify what is in each moving box to make unpacking at your new home a breeze. You can label each box with a short few words about the belongings in that box, as well as label the box with the exact room that it’s going to so you can place the box directly in that room at your new home. You can even take it a step further and color code your moving boxes and labels.
5- Separate the Essentials
After you’ve moved into your new home, it can be overwhelming to look at the amount of boxes and items that you need to unpack. Instead of feeling like you need to unpack everything on the first day, try to separate the essential belongings and pack those in designated boxes. Essentials include a few sets of clothes, towels, toiletry products, and anything else you may need in the first few days of moving into your new home. This way you’ll have the necessities within reach without having to rush with unpacking or opening boxes.
6- Create an Unpacking Schedule
Unpacking can get stressful, especially if you are already busy with work and taking care of your family. Instead of feeling pressured to unpack all of your belongings at once as soon as you move into your new home, create an unpacking schedule. This can be a simple plan to unpack one or two boxes each day until you finish unpacking them all, or you can designate one full day on your schedule to unpack a specific room’s boxes and belongings. An unpacking schedule will keep you organized and feel less overwhelmed because you’ll stay productive while unpacking in your new home without feeling the need to unpack everything at once.
Packing can be a momentous task, especially if you have a lot of belongings or have lived in your current home for some time. Strategic packing upfront before making your move will save you time, energy, and frustration when you unpack at your new home.