How to Pack a Garage for Moving

Packing is arguably the most tedious, time-consuming, and difficult part of any home move.

And the garage has to rank as one of the worst places to pack when moving home.

“What is the best way to pack a garage for moving?” The right answer to this question depends primarily on what type of things you keep inside your storage area, as well as on their number.

And yet, regardless of the specifics of your garage, successful garage packing always begins with a careful sorting process.

You may also like to read: How to Declutter Your Loft When Moving Home. Ranking alongside the garage as one of the worst places to declutter is the loft. Often filled with items of sentimental value but with little practical use, it can be difficult to declutter the attic. In this guide, we share not only useful decluttering tips but also tips on how to detach yourself emotionally from your possessions.

Decluttering a Garage

Besides the obvious purpose of sheltering a vehicle, garages are also used for storing all kinds of things that are not suitable for keeping inside your home.

As years go by, these miscellaneous items might have kept piling up inside your garage until the point when you don’t even know what you have in store there. And since it would not make much sense to just pack everything inside your garage (think of the packing time and considerable money you’ll waste transporting worthless stuff), it’s time to go through each item and decide whether you’ll be taking it with you to your new residence or not.

The evaluation approach should be founded on the following garage sorting tips:

• Split up the entire garage space into a few individual and logically connected zones (for example, vehicles, hand tools, garden tools, chemicals, miscellaneous, etc.)
• Start the inspection process and keep it one zone at a time
• Designate one corner for all the things you will take with you and that should be next packed for moving.
• Designate another place for the stuff you won’t need anymore.
• If unsure what to do with some items in your garage, chuck them to a third corner and get back to them later after taking a break to decide their fate.

You may also like to read: How to Do a Car Boot Sale Before Moving Out. Having a garage sale or car boot sale is a great way to get rid of the things you no longer need and want and at the same time raise some funds to finance your home move. In this guide, we tell you all you need to know about holding a car boot sale.

Garage Packing Checklist

Packing your garage for moving is a multi-stage process that you are advised never to leave for the last few days before Moving day.

Get adequate packing materials and get to work by observing the following checklist for packing a garage and getting down to packing.

Packing Supplies

Of course, you can’t start packing your garage without the proper packing supplies.

As a minimum, you will need:

• Strong cardboard boxes of various sizes
• Plenty of packing paper or newsprint
• Bubble wrap
• Packing tape
• Tape gun
• Zip ties
• Re-sealable plastic bags
• Marker pens

Garge Items You Cannot Pack

There are specific items that removal companies are not allowed to transport for safety reasons, and most garages are known to contain such prohibited goods.

Any item that could endanger the safety of the loading team or the other items on the removal lorry cannot be loaded onto the removal van.

The list of prohibited items includes but is not limited to Flammable or combustible goods such as:

• Fuel
• Oil
• Paint
• Propane bottles
• Chemicals
• Car batteries
• Fertilizers
• Pesticides

Contact your removal company and request their list of such non-allowables before you start packing up your garage.

You may also like to read: How to Pack and Move Things That Your Removal Company Can’t. There will be some things that although they cannot go on the removal lorry, you will want to take to your new home. In this guide, we offer safe packing tips for the items that your removal company cannot handle for health and safety reasons.

Packing a Car For a Home Move

You’ll probably use your family car to reach your new destination and if so, make sure the vehicle has been properly serviced so that you minimise the risk of a moving day breakdown.

Where possible try to pack things that will go into your car in extra-strong bags as they will squash into the irregular shape of your car interior easier.

For fragile items that you will transport in your car use small boxes to protect them.

Ensure that your spare tyre, car tools, and emergency car kit are not buried under the items you are packing into the car, it would be no fun unpacking your car in the rain to get to them.

You may also like to read: How to Pack a Car for Moving Home. From preparing your car to packing tips, and safe lifting techniques to how to load a trailer or roof box, this is an invaluable guide for anybody taking stuff in their car to their new home.

Packing Tools For a Home Move

Ideally, small hand tools should be locked safely in their toolboxes.

Sturdy medium-sized boxes can also accommodate your screwdrivers, spanners, hammers, pliers, etc. but they should be protected first with packing paper or newsprint.

Make sharp-edged tools safe by wrapping a sufficient amount of bubble wrap or old towels around their exposed blades.

Garden tools with long handles are best transported when grouped size-wise and tied in a tight bundle.

Wrap your rakes, shovels, and brooms with a blanket and secure the package with tape or zip ties for safe transportation.

Strip down your power tools of any detachable elements, such as handles, batteries, or multi-purpose attachments, wrap the power cords around the main bodies, and pack the tools in their original packages or alternative strong boxes according to their sizes.

Pack the detached parts separately but place them inside the same box if possible. Use plenty of padding materials to immobilize the electric tools and keep them safe while in transit.

You may also like to read: Essential Tools for Moving Day. Inevitably there will be a need for some basic tools on moving day, whether that be to reassemble furniture or for some quick fixes. In this guide, we suggest the tools that you will want to keep handy on moving day for all little jobs that will need doing straight away.

Packing Petrol-Operated Machinery

The first thing you should do before packing your petrol-operated machinery for a safe move is to drain completely their fuel.

Use a hand fuel pump to drain out the liquid if there’s quite a lot of it left in the tank or simply run the chainsaw, lawnmower, or any other type of lawn equipment for a while until the fuel is gone.

Then, just like with power tools, remove any detachable parts from the main body frame and pack them separately in either their original packages or suitable strong moving boxes.

You may also like to read: How to Pack Awkward and Odd-Shaped Things for Moving Home. Within your garage are likely to be items that will not fit into conventional-sized packing boxes. In this guide, we suggest ways to pack all those oddly shaped and awkward-to-pack items.

Packing Garden Furniture

Clean your lawn and patio furniture pieces and then do your best to disassemble them as far as they can go.

This way, you’ll have a much easier time packing the pieces, loading them, and transporting them to your new home.

Ensure that any small parts are put into zip-lock bags and firmly attached to the item so that they do not get lost in transit.

If it is not obvious how your garden furniture would be reassembled then take photos of them or mark each part using numbered masking tape to make reassembly easier.

Rather than boxing your patio furniture, it is easier and just as protective to wrap them in furniture blankets that are secured in place with packing tape or industrial shrink-wrap.

You may also like to read: How to Pack a Garden for Moving. In this guide, you will find comprehensive packing instructions for items such as patio heaters, BBQs, garden furniture, hot tubs, and garden sheds.

Should You Leave Tins of Paint When Moving Home?

Whilst paint is expensive, moving opened tins to your new home is just not worth the risk of the lid coming off and the paint destroying your other precious household items.

It may also be that you will want a different scheme to your current home, so the part used tins of paint will be useless to you anyway.

Are you being considerate to the new residents by leaving part used tins of paint or will they think you have just dumped them on them?

As with anything you are thinking of leaving behind when you move home, always get permission to leave things documented or you could end up having to pay for their disposal.

You may also like to read: Can You Leave Stuff Behind When Moving Home? In this guide, we look at what you can and cannot leave behind in your old home, the correct procedure to follow for documenting things you will leave, and what the legal ramifications are if you leave stuff behind that has not been agreed upon.

Bonus Garage Packing Tips

Observe the following garage packing tips for increased packing efficiency.

• Organize a garage sale for all the garage items you no longer need or want. This is the perfect opportunity for a triple bonus: one, you get money by selling them; two, you save money by not paying for their senseless transportation; and three, you save space in your new residence for other much more useful possessions.

Alternatively, if you don’t have the time or energy to organize and execute a moving sale, attempt to sell your garage items online.

If you don’t feel like selling the things you have found while sorting out your garage space but you still don’t want them, consider giving them away to friends or neighbors simply as a token of their friendship.

While packing, keep any small parts in sealable plastic bags and place these bags together with their original items.

When you finish packing your garage, don’t forget to mark each packed container with its content and write GARAGE on at least two sides of the box with a black marker to facilitate the unpacking process.

Garages usually contain oddly shaped tools with sharp blades or edges, dangerous power equipment, hazardous materials, and all other kinds of useful and useless stuff (and even numerous items that fall in between the usefulness-uselessness scale).

The key to a successful garage packing experience is to start as early as possible and apply strictly all the safety measures when packing up a garage for moving.

And yet, if you don’t happen to have enough time or energy to pack your garage properly and the mere glance over your storage area gives you a strong headache, then don’t hesitate to contact a reputable removal company and hire professional packers who will pack your garage for moving in no time.