Best way to label furniture/boxes for moving house

[GillBates]

Does anyone have any suggestions of the best way to label furniture eg chests of drawers and boxes for moving house? For boxes I know I could use any kind of label but would need something that comes off easily and doesn't mark but is highly visible for the pieces of furniture.

A friend suggested masking tape and writing on it in permanent pen. Would this work or are there better options?

[Delayingtactic]

I attach brown paper luggage labels with string to drawer handles with which room it's to go into in the new place. I write on the boxes number and room with essential boxes marked with a star on the sides so if they are stacked I can still see which ones need unpacking first (e.g. Bed linen, toiletries, pots, pans etc). I also pack and put into my car a box of tea, coffee, milk, couple of mugs, couple of plates and cutlery so that if we give up on unpacking we can at least make a brew and have something to eat takeaway off.

[Mandy21]

We had a system of numbered boxes, and then a central list setting out what was in each box. Label each box with the number on the top and all four sides, so that regardless of how its put on the van / stacked / stored, you can see at a glance what number it is.

[Potterer]

I had to have a good system as my stuff was going into storage for a bit!

I raided the children's colour paper stash, chose a colour for each room, and then tore the paper into squares (saved me cutting with scissors) So lounge was yellow, dining room was green, our bedroom was red etc etc.

I had a hard backed A5 book and taped a strip of the coloured paper onto a page with a bit sticking out of the top to book mark that room in my book.

We had normal packing boxes, I wrote in black marker on 5 of the squares per box, ie when I first started I did the kitchen for items that I wouldn't use before we went. So on 5 squares of green paper I wrote "1" and wrote down absolutely everything that went in it or stuff like "drawer contents of sideboard" etc.

The squares were taped with clear parcel tape to each side of the box and one on top. That way when they are stacked you can still see what box is what.

It meant when we moved, the removal men could easily see what boxes went in which rooms. The children chose their own colour for their stuff.

For furniture that we collapsed, we used masking tape and wrote on that, I also put all the fixings from the furniture into plastic zip lock bags, labelled them, and taped those to the furniture pieces.

The coloured label things removed quite easily as I passed the boxes on.

[GillBates]

Thanks, some useful ideas here. We are moving in 5 weeks, only just exchanged so didn't want to start any actual packing before that, but have had a good sort out everywhere.

[capestang1]

Found some great removable box and furniture labels on e-bay under 'home moving box labels' colour coded with room names and box contents already printed on the stickers. cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=190936129924

[poppyD78]

I recently moved house and used printable packing labels. Whenever I've moved before I've always labelled my boxes. This time was easier as the labels were already coloured and we didn't have to read the contents to know which room each box belonged to. I believe they call this colour coding. Frankly it made the unloading a little bit faster and more organised. I glued each of the labels to the moving boxes with standard glue.

As far as furniture goes I used masking tape to keep the labels on the furniture. I think masking tape is best used in this case as it is easy to remove.

Here are the packing labels I used for my move www.bestmove.co.uk/blog/packing-labels-for-moving/
You can buy glue and masking tape in every book store.

[RayofSun]

I used electrical tape in different colours to mark boxes. Then stuck that colour on the door for each room the boxes were allocated to so the delivery men knew where to put them. Also wrote what was in each box on labels so could find easily.

[UnrelatedToElephants]

Masking tape can let through permanent marker - be careful (or nick DC's felt tips!)