There’s no doubt about it—moving is stressful. That’s why we’ve assembled our favorite moving tips to make the process a lot easier. Let’s get cracking packing!
1| Be creative with your fridge’s contents
You know what’s annoying and time-consuming? Trying to pack up perishable food for a move. Luckily, there are fun tools like SuperCook allow you to enter your ingredients to find a matching recipe!
2| Don’t take clothes off the hanger
This is a popular one for a reason. Instead of taking all your clothes off the hangers, wrap a garbage bag around sections of clothing and move them in clumps. You can also stock up on hanger boxes!
3| In a rush? Get a storage space
If you’re pressed for time and need to figure out what to do with stuff fast, move it straight to a storage space and sort things out in more detail later.
4| Use soft stuff as packing paper
Clean shirts, towels, and bedding are perfect, plush options for wrapping glasses and other breakable items.
5| Bag it!
Got some leftover grocery bags? Wrap them around open shampoo and olive oil bottles to prevent spills. And, if you don’t end up having any spills, they’ll make great doggy business bags.
6| Assemble a moving survival kit
There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to find something amongst dozens of packed boxes, even if they’re labeled. Keep a small bag with a change (or two) of clothes, your medications, shower needs, a fresh towel, a small first aid kit, scissors, packing tape, a permanent marker, and your phone charger.
7| Plan for kiddos and pets
Moving won’t be safe or effective with little kids and pets around, so get a babysitter lined up for moving day. If you do have to have your kid and pets with you on moving day, make sure to plan a bag with all the essentials that they’ll need throughout the day all in one handy place.
For your pets, make sure to keep their collar with tags on them the whole day and always know who is keeping an eye on them. Keep their crate unpacked and handy so you can use it to contain them and keep them safe when people are coming in and out of the house. Also consider using a harness or slip leash during the move so they can’t just slip out of their collar if something spooks them.
8| Take pictures of each of your packed boxes
This is by far our favorite moving tip and a major upgrade to the basic “label each box” approach: take a picture of each box before you close it, assign a number to it, label each side with that number in large print, then use a basic smartphone photo editor to add the number to each matching photo.
9| Clean before you leave, and as soon as you arrive
We’re Madison’s go-to professionals for move-in and move-out home cleaning services. If you’re moving out, we can help you leave behind a spotless space to help recover your security deposit or appease picky buyers. And, if you’re moving in, we can help you have a truly fresh start in your new place.
Book your free estimate today!