How to Have an Orderly Move

Summer is the moving season, but people move all during the year. If you are doing it yourself, it is easy to become overwhelmed and just start tossing things in boxes. But there are certain techniques that can help make your move a much smoother transition.

Try boxing up items by room and loading them onto the truck in that order. This way, not everything in your house is in a jumbled mess, such as with the kitchen spatulas packed with the bedroom curtains. If you want to take this method even further, you can start by packing the rooms that are closest to the door to get them out first and allow easier carrying out of furniture and boxes from distant rooms since there will be nothing in your way. Box up the room's knick knacks with knick knacks, pictures with pictures, etc. Be sure to carefully wrap each item. Things that you wouldn't think would break or chip just might.

Since you are having to handle all of the items in your house anyway, now is a good time to go through them. Keep a "trash" box and a "giveaway" box in each room so that you can toss items that you no longer want or need in them. This way, you won't be running up and down stairs each time you have something that needs to be added to the pile of giveaways. Once you have finished packing the house, gather all of the giveaway boxes and call a local charity to come pick them up.

You could write everything that's in the box on the outside of the box, but that would take awhile and wouldn't much help if you have to store these items. Instead, consider a numbering system. Write a number on each box. Keep a list of each box's number and then write what's inside that box on your sheet. Divide this list by room. That way, instead of digging through boxes trying to find the pizza cutter later on, you'll know that it's in box #4, since boxes 1-10 are kitchen stuff. Of course, to be really safe, you could keep a list and write what's in each box on the outside.

The system can go a little further. If you need to store certain things inside as opposed to outside, it's a good idea to write either "inside" or "outside" or "I" or "O" so that those who are helping you move will know where to put them. This is really helpful, especially if you're trying to move in in a hurry and don't have time to sort all of the boxes into the rooms. A simple "inside" or "outside" label could save you considerable time later on when you're going through unpacking the boxes.

Whichever method you use, trying to implement some order in during a time of transition will be a big help later on, as you seek to establish yourself in a new abode.