The world will not end with a single packing mistake, but make a few and your signature sense of humour will.
Moving all your household goods and personal possessions from one house to another is a huge project that involves a large number of moving tasks waiting to be completed. Yes, the process of moving house is filled to the brim with all sorts of activities, and while some of them prove to be more testing than others, packing is the one known as the time consumption champion.
Considering all the time and efforts that packing up an entire house requires, it’s no wonder that packing mistakes when moving are not a rare sight. To help you have a smooth and quick move to your new home, we have compiled a list of the top 10 common packing mistakes when moving house.
Naturally, any such list of moving mistakes would be worthless if adequate solutions were not given, so we have not forgotten to offer you the best ways to correct the common mistakes when packing for a move.
1. Not Having A Packing Strategy
One of the worst packing mistakes you can make is to start the process without having a clear packing strategy. Be mindful that packing on a random principle will only result in tons of wasted time and shattered nerves. Therefore, don’t even attempt it. Instead, create a packing calendar for each day you have at your disposal until Moving day and fill it in with day-by-day packing tasks.
Still, these packing jobs should be highly customized and duly prioritized to your specific relocation needs. Have your packing calendar ready, stick to it and you’ll see how, all of a sudden, time will turn into your trusted ally.
Besides the packing timeline, your strategy for a quick and efficient packing experience should adhere to these 2 basic rules as well:
To avoid littering your home unnecessarily, start from the rooms you use from time to time and pack your way towards the premises you occupy on a daily basis.
Start packing your larger household items first (furniture, kitchen appliances) and then move on to your smaller possessions (books, clothes, etc.)
Use advanced mathematics to avoid common packing mistakes. For example, if three heads are better than one, then six packing hands are much better than two.
Depending on the number of items found in your home and the time you have until the Big day, the packing task ahead of you may range from being hard to being simply impossible to complete by one person or even one single family. Another common packing mistake is to underestimate the time it will take you to have your entire home placed inside moving boxes and thus refuse any packing help as a result of your gross underestimation.
The packing calendar you have already created will give you a good idea of how badly you need packing assistance. If your moving budget says you can afford it, then the best solution for this typical packing mistake is to hire professional packers – highly trained and extensively experienced individuals who know exactly what it takes to achieve safe and fast packing of any type and number of household items.
On the other hand, if you’re moving on a tight budget, attempt to gather your loyal posse of good friends to give you a packing hand when you need it the most. Send a call for help either in person or through your favourite social network and simply hope for positive answers.
3. Leaving Packing For Later
When speaking of moving mistakes, leaving packing for later is one of the worst packing mistakes you can make, and maybe even the most dangerous one too. The later concept is never a good idea when it comes to packing up an entire household for moving. Instead, take advantage of the now concept and hopefully you won’t have to find out why moving house is often regarded as one of the most stressful events in one’s life.
The solution, of course, is to start placing your household goods in moving containers as soon as humanly possible. Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today, remember?
In order to gain a clear advantage with your race with time, follow these 2 packing principles that have been proven to work really well.
Pre-packing: Begin pre-packing any items which you know you surely won’t need until Moving day, such as winter clothes if you’re moving in the summer.
Daily packing: Not a single day should pass by without at least a few packed boxes – simple as that.
4. Not Obtaining Enough Packing Supplies
Foam peanuts are good space fillers but failure to use them is not a packing mistake.
A common packing mistake when getting ready to move out of your current home is to find out that you don’t have enough packing supplies in the heat of the packing process. Think of all the time and nerves you will lose while you’re trying to get hold of all the extra packing materials you need to pack your possessions safely. So, look at this common packing error this way – it’s always better to have acquired more packing supplies than you will need than to run short in the most inconvenient moment there is.
You can get all the materials you will ever need to pack up your house from your local removal company – just don’t forget to ask them for any ongoing promotions or special discounts, for example if you purchase all the packing supplies from them. Besides the usual moving boxes of different sizes, make sure you also get enough packing paper, bubble wrap and packing tape.
5. Packing All Your Possessions Without Sorting Them First
There’s nothing wrong in packing all your possessions after you have sorted them out first. Remember that inventorying and sorting your household items is something you must do unless you wish to make the costliest packing mistakes of them all.
That’s right – costly! Costly on several levels simply because:
Money: as you know, the final relocation price you will pay for having your goods transported to your new residence will be based on the total weight of the entire shipment. In other words, the more stuff you have packed for moving, the more money you will pay out of your own pocket;
Time: you can never get back the precious time you will waste packing the useless items which you will probably end up getting rid of after the move anyway. And time is money as well, so you get the idea here.
Space: think about the available space in your new house or apartment – even if the living space is not smaller, you don’t want to clutter it from day one, do you?
If you value your time and money, you should never make the moving mistake of not optimizing your household items before you begin the actual packing.
A common mistake when packing for moving is to initiate the packing process only to have it interrupted after learning that some of the goods you have packed are considered a threat and your removal company won’t usually agree to transport them for you. And interruptions are the last thing you want when racing time to the finish line.
Be sure to obtain the list of forbidden items for transportation from your removal firm before the start of the packing operations. Generally, non-allowables are classified into 3 main categories:
Hazardous items: instead of trying to pack any flammable, explosive or corrosive goods and substances, think of the best way to dispose of them before the actual move takes place. Naturally, you can give most of them away to friends and neighbours, and then purchase new ones in your new city.
Perishable foods: do your best to use up all your perishables until Moving day arrives as packing such foods can only bring headaches on the road to your new home.
Pets and plants: it’s up to you to safely transport your furry friends and leafy companions to your new residence. Their heightened level of sensitivity and extraordinary level of fragility makes them really hard to move from one house to another.
7. Not Packing An Essentials Box
The list of the most common packing mistakes when moving house continues with number 7 which is about a possible failure to pack a special moving box full of all the essential items you will need until you regain the access to your other possessions. You will truly appreciate the value of such an essentials box if you are forced to spend one last night at your old place while the packed household items are being transported to your new residence. Similarly, once you arrive in your new house, it could be an entire day or more until your removal company delivers your shipment, so in the meantime, you’re going to need your survival box for sure.
Things you should consider packing in your survival kit are: medication, non-perishable food, bottled water, plastic kitchen utensils, towels, a change of clothes for everyone, toiletries, basic hand tools /a set of screwdrivers, a hammer, a measuring tape, a torch and so on/.
Another example of the common packing mistakes to avoid when moving is to fail to follow the special packing requirements that the various sets of goods require, or in other words to treat all your possessions the same when packing them for a move. It would be unwise of you to do any of the following packing mistakes:
Pack fragile items as if they were non-breakables: easily breakables items need your utmost attention and packing know-how to survive the relocation trip in one piece. Use plenty of soft packing paper and sheets of bubble wrap to protect them from accidents, but just to be on the safe side, don’t forget to immobilize the moving container they are in with sufficient number of padding materials as well.
Packing books as if they were feathers: despite the airy feel of single pages, books have proven time and again that they are surprisingly heavy when packed together in moving containers. Use small to medium sized boxes when packing books for a move and don’t risk any accidents or injuries by making the containers too heavy /50 lbs. is the standard limit/.
Packing furniture without disassembling it first: packing your heavyweight and bulky pieces of furniture is a job best left to professional packers who have been trained to take all the safety measures not only for the sake of your prized furniture but for the well-being of your property as well. And yet, if you have decided to pack your furniture pieces on your own, make sure you have disassembled them as far as they will go for easier and safer transportation.
9. Practicing Unsafe Packing
Wise people say that mistakes are proof that we are trying. They must be wrong though because not making any packing mistakes doesn’t mean that we haven’t tried our best, does it?
Unsafe packing can be easily classified as yet another common mistake when packing for moving. You must do everything in your power to guarantee the well-being of your prized possessions while they are being carried around and hauled to their destination.
Generally speaking, there may be too many instances of unsafe packing but when it comes to safety, the most frequent packing errors are:
Not minding the box size rule: one of the fundamentals of packing for a move states that small to medium boxes should be used to accommodate heavier items while big boxes are meant for lighter goods. Mixing up this rule can compromise the overall safety of your move and lead to property damage or even personal injuries.
Not reinforcing the boxes: a box may look strong enough and still break under the weight of its content. To guarantee yourself an accident-free relocation, reinforce well the bottom of each moving container with high quality tape.
10. Labelling Packed Boxes Only In Your Mind
Last but not least, a typical packing mistake when moving that can cost you plenty of post relocation time is to not label your packed boxes the way you should. Even if you have an infallible visual memory, the situation in your new home will probably be slightly different than how you picture it in your mind. The enormous piles of non-labelled moving containers can easily confuse even the most organized and observant person.
Take a black marker and write down the content, destination room and handling instructions on each packed box, preferably on at least two of its sides. Moreover, you may be willing to go one step further and assign colour codes (labels) that correspond to a different destination room. This way, the process of identifying your delivered boxes, and consequently the entire process of unpacking, will be much easier.
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