Packing mistakes most people make:
It’s hardly a surprise that with so
many things to take care of, the process of moving house often proves to be
more complicated than you have originally planned. Add the constantly
increasing move related stress prior to your moving day, and all of a sudden,
you get a highly volatile situation where the number of unforced and forced
moving errors can easily skyrocket.
To help you have a stress-free move from start to finish, we’re offering you
some common mistakes when packing for your move. Stay on track and stay away
from the following bad packing mistakes.
1.To
start packing without a plan:
One of the most common mistakes when
packing for a move is to just start boxing any household items you can find without
having a clear packing strategy in your head or written down on a piece of
paper. The major problem with packing up your home or apartment is on a random
principle is that although it feels like you’ve initiated the most time
consuming process a residential move can kindly offer, in reality you’re only
wasting precious time. And time is exactly what you don’t have the luxury of
wasting when getting ready to move out.
The proper course of action here is to create a personal packing checklist
which you can check often and stick to in order to increase significantly your
packing productivity. Make sure you also prioritize your packing tasks as well
to reflect your unique instance of house / apartment relocation.
2.Leaving packing for Moving Day:
Later is such a dangerous word,
especially when you’re about to pack up your home for a move. Of all common
packing mistakes, a classic example would be to leave most of the packing tasks
for later in order to take care of a “more urgent” job.
The thing to understand here is that, regardless of how much time you have left
until moving day, the more you tend to put off packing, the harder it will be
for you to actually begin the process. Procrastination will lead to stress,
stress will lead to panic, and panic will lead to bad decisions. Usually makes
the moving process go longer than expected.
Just make sure you remember this
fundamental move related concept: the only way to get something done the right
way is to start working on it right away. In other words, initiate the arduous
packing process the moment your house move is confirmed.
3.Is Sorting your items is a waste
of time:
Speaking of common moving mistakes
when packing for a move, another problem when moving house is to assume that
the required step of sorting household items can be skipped without any serious
issues. Of course, there’s a good reason why some people get the impression
that they will save a lot of valuable time by packing everything they own now
and sorting it out later when they arrive in their new homes.
There’s only one big problem with this line of thinking – it is completely
wrong. In reality, such a packing strategy will not only waste more of your
time packing more items will require more time/, but it will also hurt your
budget badly the more your final shipment weighs, the more money you will pay
for its transportation.
So, don’t skip the pre-move sorting task. In the end, you should take with you
only the things you will really need in the foreseeable future.
4.Assume Professional Packers are overrated:
There are plenty mistakes to avoid
when packing for a move, and assuming that you can do without professional packing
materials is probably the most “innocent” error you can ever make during your
pre-move preparations.
The main problem is that often a single misjudgment leads to another, and
pretty soon you may become confident that you can manage the packing job with
just any supplies you can lay your hands on. Which, in turn, will compromise
the packing safety of your entire operation.
For example, don’t use cardboard boxes that are visibly in bad shape as they
can easily break under the weight of their own contents and cause you major
headaches. While acquiring your packing materials, make sure all of them are
clean, dry, and sturdy. If you can afford it, do the right thing and purchase
most of the required supplies from your local moving company.
5.Will you need an essential box:
A packing mistake even super smart
people make when moving house is to forget that once they place their possessions
into moving containers, they will no longer have access to them until after
their shipment is delivered successfully inside their new homes or apartment.
And without convenient access to a number of really essential household items,
things can suddenly become trickier than usual and can become stressful.
Avoid the moving mistake of not packing an essentials box that will contain
your absolute life-savers. This is especially important when you have a baby or
a toddler, and a long road trip is scheduled ahead of the family.
Here are a few ideas of what you should consider packing up inside your
survival kit: bottled water and sandwiches, prescription medications, kitchen
utensils, spare clothes, basic toiletries, a set of hand tools, toys, documents
and specific items when moving house with small children and/or pets.
6.Overfilling Boxes:
Regardless of what priceless packing
tips you’ve read online or heard from friends with considerable moving
experience, the worst packing mistakes to avoid at all costs are all connected
to safety – safety both for all participants in the move and the actual
belongings that are being moved to a new home.
All things considered, spending more money than planned or losing extra hours
while placing your stuff inside suitable containers or boxes cannot possible match
due to compromised packing safety.
Here’s a quick packing trick that can save you plenty of troubles: use smaller
moving boxes for heavy items and bigger boxes for lighter items. Never go the
other way round as cardboard boxes and human backs both have breaking limits.
Remember to not overfill your packing boxes and keep a reasonable weight limit
of single packed boxes of around 40-45 pounds, especially when you’re moving
these moving around.
7.Leaving Space in your Moving Boxes:
Another safety related packing
mistake that people tend to make is to leave empty spaces in the packed boxes
when packing breakable items. This qualifies as a packing error not because the
inside of the boxes won’t be fully utilized, but because any available room
that is not taken care of through suitable filling and packing materials can
cause any fragile objects to come into contact with one another. As a result,
such undesirable contacts can only lead to chipped, broken or ruined highly
delicate and breakable pieces.
So, don’t skimp on protecting and filling supplies! Use crumped pieces of
packing paper or newspapers, as well as sheets of bubble wrap or pieces of old
but clean clothing (bath towels are the best!) to fill in any remaining spaces
inside a box and immobilize its
contents. A good way to test whether or not you’ve done a good job packing your
breakables inside a moving box is to lift the container and shake it gently. If
you hear a (muffled) clanking sound or feel that something is moving inside,
start over or put more paper in your box.
8.Packing Items you shouldn’t have:
One of the most common packing
mistakes when moving house is to prepare certain household goods for
transportation only to learn later that your movers won’t load them on their
truck due to their hazardous nature. Needless to say, packing non-allowable
items will only lead to loads of wasted time and efforts.
Avoid this rookie moving mistake by asking your moving company / http://jonesmoverz.com
to give
you the full list of goods forbidden for transportation. Once you have that
checklist in your hands, you’ll be able to figure out what to do with each
individual item well before your move-out date.
In general, such non-allowable items fall into 4 categories:
Hazardous goods: Propane, flammable, paints, explosive or corrosive substances
that can hurt a person or damage the moving vehicle or other possessions in
transit.
Perishables: mostly perishable foods that can go bad on the road or ruin other
goods.
Pets: it’s up to you to transport your pet(s) safely to your new home.
Plants: your leafy friends can be too fragile to survive a relocation trip.
9.Labeling Boxes;
Are you in
the mood to lose hours of valuable post relocation time searching through piles
of freshly
delivered moving boxes only to find your bedding? We thought so.
Interestingly enough, some common packing mistakes when moving house come as a
result of overconfidence. A great example of such a moving error will be to
assume that you know everything items you packed and will somehow manage to
remember what’s inside each box without having to label the containers. Even if
you are truly proud of your memorizing skills, it’s good to remember that the
chaotic period of moving from one home to another is notorious for playing
tricks with people’s minds.
Yes, failure to label your boxes correctly is a good example of moving mistakes
you don’t have to make. Just take a black marker pen and mark each packed
container with its detailed contents, destination room and special handling
instructions both for yourself and for your movers. The usage of colored labels
for each individual destination room is also encouraged.
Of all the packing mistakes to avoid when
moving, the mistake is that you can pack up your entire home on your own is
probably the error that can hurt you the most. How much time you will actually
need to bring the packing marathon to a successful end will surely depend on
how many items you’re planning to take with you and how well you are prepared
prior to the initiation of the most time consuming pre-move task of them all.
However, no matter how you look at the tough job ahead, the best way to pack
for a move is to have a few extra pairs of helping hands. This way, you are
guaranteed that no cardboard box will be left unpacked prior moving day. And
while friends are the usual suspects when it comes to relocation assistance,
don’t make the ultimate moving mistake of assuming that professional packing
services are too expensive to afford. Instead, request a few price estimates
from experienced and trustworthy movers, compare them carefully and choose the
best one to have a smooth mistake-free house move.
Give Jones Moving a Call with any
Packing or Moving questions, we look forward to helping you make your next move
go as smoothly as possible. http://jonesmoverz.com or call 602-944-1413
