Packing Supplies and Solutions

1. Getting Started

Moving is overwhelming and stressful.  It tends to sneak up on us and the tasks multiply as time flies.  Sometimes we tend to just put everything off, too overwhelmed by the idea of everything that needs to be done.  The easiest place to start is by collecting your supplies.  Look online for deals on cheap moving boxes and order lots of them.  Get yours hands on as much packaging material as possible!

2. Cheap Moving Boxes

Getting your box situation organized is a crucial step.  Do you invest in some really sturdy, new moving boxes, or do you save yourself a hefty chunk and get some used, cheap moving boxes?  Whatever you choose, it won’t be wrong, and probably just mainly depends on your budget.  The one thing to keep in mind, though, is to go with a lot of medium sized boxes.  Using large boxes makes them too heavy and too awkward.

3. Quick Packing

It’s best if you can give yourself a good two or three months to prepare and organize for a move, but that’s not always realistic.  Some helpful, quick packing tips are: pack small items in small boxes and then put those in larger boxes so that you don’t have a bunch of loose stuff floating around, keep your clothes in their drawers, set aside important papers, pack overnight bags for everyone in the family…

4. Packing the Truck

It helps to plan out how you want to load your moving truck.  Put the largest and heaviest items in first, like appliances and furniture.  Have a bunch of padding set aside (you can collect old blankets or rent some from a moving company).  Place long items in next, like your mattresses, bed pieces, and tables.  Tape disassembled furniture together and keep ALL of the hardware in the SAME place, with the tools that you used.  Pack lighter boxes on heavier, and stuff the holes with bags of clothes and soft items so that there is no shifting during the journey.

5. Extra Packing Tips

You might want to consider letting a moving company prepare your appliances.  If you are going to do it yourself make sure that all of them empty and have been unplugged for at least 24 hours before the move.  Don’t forget to tape all of the doors closed!  Take pictures of the front and back of your entertainment center so that you know your set-up and which cords go where when you move in.  Speciality boxes for large pieces of artwork and frames is highly recommended.  Smaller pictures can easily be packed side by side, with a layer of bubble wrap in between, and then tape them all together.

It’s moving day.  You wake up with a smile on your face and your make-up already done.  You feel so energized and prepared you don’t even need to go and make a pot of coffee.  Your feet hit the ground and they are already in your peppy moving day sneakers.  You’ve got your moving day playlist already loaded, and so you pop in your earbuds and ride the banister down to the entryway, which is full of nicely stacked shipping boxes that are perfectly labeled.  They look like a battalion, ready for inspection.  Does this sound a realistic scenario?

Of course it is!  And that’s because you followed these few simple steps to help make the whole process go so much smoother:

Get Ahead of the Game:

• Start going through rooms weeks ahead of time, sifting through all of your belongings. Now is the time to get rid of clutter!  Ideally, you can hold a garage sale and put that money towards something fun for your new house (which should be a positive incentive to get all the hard work done).
• Figure out how many boxes you are going to need. There are some online calculators to help you determine that number.  Make sure you don’t get a bunch of large boxes, which might sound good in theory but are, in reality, a living nightmare.  The goal is to pack medium sized boxes well that can be carried and stacked easily.  Shipping boxes aren’t cheap!  Calculate the number and secure them way ahead of time.

Prepare for the Immediate Future:

• Set aside anything that you might need immediately after you move in (plastic baggies, tool kit, a small box of kitchen essentials).
• Pack an overnight bag so that you don’t have to go digging through boxes on your first night in your new home.

Pack Smart:

• Packing always takes longer than we think it will. There’s the making of piles of stuff to get rid of, throw out, and pack.  There’s the misting of eyes as we come across precious memorabilia. So start a long time in advance!  Weeks, if you have them.
• Shipping boxes may be heavy duty, but your body probably isn’t. Try to avoid stuffing an entire box with books.  Normally, you want to pack everything that goes in the same room together, but in the case of super heavy stuff like books the suggestion is to pack half books and half linen closet.

Candy boxes with assorted chocolates are usually the go-to when it comes to giving candy as a gift, but I say that we break out of that boring old mold (or box) and go with something fresh and creative!  What am I talking about?  Homemade candy bouquets!  Here are are three different ways to say goodbye to boring old candy boxes and hello to exciting new candy bouquets:

Lollipop Bouquet

Step one: choose your container.  The whole point is to be fresh and creative, so choose an appropriate and thoughtful container.  Use a sand pail for a child, a coffee cup for your coffee-loving friends, a tin or a flower pot.  Don’t get stuck at the first step!

Step two: choose your candy.  Try to find out what kinds of candy the recipient loves, and then try to find similar candy that is brightly packaged and individually wrapped.  This candy bouquet is meant to be edible, so hot glue-gunning individual M&Ms is just not the way to go.

Step three: start at the bottom.  Trace the bottom of the container on a chunk of Styrofoam and then cut it out and glue it to the bottom of the container.  Paint a skewer or stick green (or cover it with green floral tape) and stick it in the Styrofoam.  Paint/tape a Styrofoam ball green and stick that to the other end of the stick.

Step four:  get pinning.  Pin the candies to the ball using floral pins.  Be sure to pin the wrappers- you’re not spearing the candy!  Then fill in the rest of the container with the leftover candy.

Cookie Bouquet

Step one: glue a piece of Styrofoam to the bottom of a coffee mug.  Try pick a mug that speaks to the occasion: Christmas, birthday, the recipient’s favorite something-or-other.

Step two: bake some cookies!  Make them small, so that they aren’t too heavy.  Here there are two options.  You can stick the popsicle stick in the dough before you bake it, or you can sandwich the popsicle stick in between two cookies, using icing for the glue.

Step three: Stick the popsicle sticks in the Styrofoam at the bottom of the mug, and then fill the empty space with tissue paper.  Wrap the mug in a clear cellophane wrap and tie it with a ribbon.

Clearly, you can see that when it comes between choosing candy boxes and candy bouquets that candy bouquets are the answer!  I wouldn’t be surprised if you weren’t even reading this and have already run to the kitchen to begin making your own.

Not everyone is Type A and enjoys the thrill of packing up their entire home in shipping boxes and moving them point A to point B.  Not everyone enjoys the challenge of coming up with creative ways to make the process as efficient as possible.

Thankfully, those people have put together some tips for the rest of us, and here are ten of them:

• Right out the gate, make sure you are properly sealing your boxes.  Shipping boxes are only shipping boxes if you can ship stuff in them without the bottom blowing out.
• Keep the rooms separated.  Don’t pack stuff from the kids room into a box that has hall closet stuff in it.  This will make the unpacking process so much quicker, and easier.
• Save money by keeping your drawers stuffed, securing the contents a couple strips of masking tape (which will not ruin your furniture), or even self-stick plastic wrap.
• Pack your plates standing on their sides.  Wrap each one individually in paper, and stuff all the empty spaces.  A helpful, bonus tip is to pack larger glass items at the bottom, since shipping boxes aren’t usually handled with an extra amount of care.
• Use wardrobe boxes or the trash bag/wardrobe bag concept.  There is no need to take all of your clothes off their hangers when you are moving.
• When its time to tape a box shut, lay a piece of string along the seam, leaving a few inches hanging off one side.  When it’s time to unpack you can pull on the string, which will cut right through the tape.
• Your boxes need to be properly labeled or you won’t know which room they needed to be unloaded into.  The last thing you will want to deal with is a bunch of scattered shipping boxes or, even worse, having one room stuffed with all of them from the floor to the ceiling.
• As you are breaking down your furniture and taking down your picture frames just go ahead and place all of that hardware in plastic baggies and label them.  Then, take those labeled plastic baggies and put them in a bigger bag, or a small box.
• Do yourself a favor and begin the packing process weeks in advance.  It always takes way longer than we think we will, and it’s the biggest project and hugest stressor.
• You may not have heard this tip, and it’s just begging to be told: pack small items in large boxes and large items in small boxes.  The basic concept is to pack heavy items in small boxes so that they don’t go breaking through the bottoms of the large ones.

Nobody said that moving was easy, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make it easier.  Being well organized and staying on top of things can make a move go from chaos to controlled.  That being said, not everyone is organized, and that’s okay!  Those people have their own set of amazing attributes. Consider myself: I am incredibly organized individual, but I am also easily frazzled (something I’m working on!).  Consider my friend: she is not very organized at all, but quite a bit more laid back (which I really admire!). Combining the two mindsets and finding a healthy balance is what helps really stressful and involved situations (like moving!) pass by as smoothly as possible. Whether you are on top of your game or just chilling out, here are seven tips to help make moving easier:

• Have a checklist! The interest has a ton that you can download and print for free.  This is so helpful for keeping you on target the weeks leading up to moving day (send out change of address cards, notify post office, child care arrangements, find some cheap moving boxes…), as well as on “the big day”
• Have a moving plan! Pack each room separate from each other, labeled with a specific colored tape or large letters indicating where they go (kitchen, Bobby’s room, laundry room, basement), that way the boxes can be loaded and unloaded in an orderly fashion, saving you the hassle of trying to find certain boxes or move them again after you’ve already moved
• Get ahead of the game! Once you have an established moving date, start packing ahead of time (guest room, hall closets…).  If you are going to have a garage sale, start setting that stuff aside.
• Simplify! You may have found a nice stack of cheap moving boxes, but you don’t need to waste them on all of the clothes hanging in your closets.  Poke a hole in the bottom of a garbage and slide it over your clothes so that the hook of the hangar comes out the top and everything else is simultaneously contained and protected.  Tie the bottom of the bag and don’t forget to label which room/closet they are supposed to go in.
• Utilize the space you have! Store small items in large items (pack your spices in your crockpot).  “Cheap moving boxes” doesn’t mean “completely free”, and this will really help with saving on those.
• Use padding! Use towels, old phone books, newspapers, bubble wrap- anything to properly protect your breakables.  Put them in smaller boxes so that they won’t be too heavy and easy to drop.  Label them with large lettering.
• Provide a detailed label! Each box should be labeled with the room they are going to (not coming from), and specifics of what is inside (Kitchen: hand towels, Scentsy burner, mixing spoons).  Don’t forget to mark fragile, if you need to!

The shipping experience begins and ends with the shipping boxes.  It begins with you, the business owner, packing up the boxes, and it ends with the customer tearing into them.  It’s the last thing that you will see, and the first thing that they will see.  Shouldn’t it be more of a priority to make the receiving of an item the beginning of the excitement and appreciation?  At the same cleverly advertising your business and product during the entire shipping and handling and process?

Businesses like the Honest Company have risen to the challenge and they decorate their shipping boxes from the inside out.  It might seem unnecessary, but that sea of teal you come across as you unpack their box does something to your mood.  Knowing that the company you are spending your money on cares so much about their product, and is willing to invest in the little things, makes you more inclined to go back.

It’s not enough to have just plain old packaging and shipping supplies these days.  Not with how advanced technology is.  It has become kind of a competition between businesses to see who can have the most elaborately and creatively designed supplies and I, for one, appreciate the outcome!  I tend to reuse the packaging and shipping supplies that I get in the mail, and the more creative the better.

It’s a really smart investment to brand your shipping boxes with both your company name and something that identifies your company in an intriguing way.  A company like ModCloth decorates their packaging material with their company name and logo on a bright strip separate from the rest of it.  The remainder of the shipping boxes are covered with designs that resemble the materials of their product: clothes!  So when the delivery guy comes across a box that is cleverly decorated with what looks like string, they will think to themselves, “What is going on here?”  And they will look up ModCloth.  More than likely they will use their phone, which will yield instant answers to their questions.  From there, they might even become patrons of the company.  It’s a win win situation.  The consumer gets to receive a beautifully decorated package, and the company gets to market itself while boxes are in transit to their new homes.  Essentially, there is no downtime of the advertising campaign, which is well worth the investment.