Boxes for moving and stupid questions

[schroeder]

I have only ever moved from furnished flats and student houses before, so am rather clueless.
Now I have to move from a three bed house, that I have lived in with my family for twenty odd years!

What do I do about things that are already in boxes like underbed storage boxes?
I assume I need to pack the clothes currently in draws? Would you pack them in cardboard boxes or what?

Any other tips you can offer would be appreciated.

I'd get the movers to pack! Is that an option?

Check with your movers, some will take the drawers or boxes as is, some don't.

Getting the movers to pack is not an option.

A good removal agency will give advise even if they are not doing the packing

Ours also said to just leave the tv/pictures that we didn't know how to pack safely

Clothes and bedding in heavy duty bin bags if not wrapping the China

Small boxes from supermarket for books - as they get heavy really quickly

The removal company probably also sells boxes and tape - and you don't pay for what you don't use but you need at least twice as many as you think

Label everything- best cups wrapped in table cloth with 2 cushions detail

Start early

Get a skip

If I have things in large 'really useful' boxes, it seems daft to pack the contents into cardboard boxes and then what to do with the 'really useful' boxes?
I suppose if everything is in standard size box it's easier to stack on the van?

I got fed up haunting supermarkets for boxes and bought mine from www.kitepackaging.co.uk. I got two sizes, the smaller ones for books, double bunded for strength. I also bought a tape dispenser, brown tape and heavy duty bubble wrap.

It really helped when the men loaded the van, the boxes stacked well.

I also bought the zipped blue Ikea bags from Amazon for bedding, I put all my clothes into suitcases.

If you have the floor plan for your new house you can 'colour code' the rooms so the men know where to deliver. I used different coloured tape on my boxes and it did work.

I would recommend packing the kitchen first, I left it until last and it took forever. I ended up using kitchen towel between dinner plates/around glasses/china.

Good luck!

When the movers come to give quotes, they will advise what is best. So they said pack as much as you can in boxes as they are easier to stack, so don’t use bags. Plastic boxes with lids are fine as they can be stacked. Clothes can stay in drawers as if they can’t be lifted, they will take out drawers, put in the van and then put drawers back in. Basically everything needs to be in a square shape/ container. They said to leave tv and they would wrap a blanket round. They advised how many boxes and brought boxes, tape and tissue paper and included them in the quote. They then came and collected all the boxes when we had unpacked and took them away as they sell the used boxes more cheaply.
if you are in the NW then message me and I will say who we used. They were fantastic, so helpful and calm during a very stressful move.

Our plastic boxes got taken as they were - the ones with loose lids were just taped down by the packers.
Chests of drawers were moved full.
Strongly recommend buying, or seeing if the packers will provide, wardrobe boxes. I literally lifted the coat hangers out of one wardrobe, hung in a box, and then put back on the rail in the new house. Took seconds.

Best use of time right now is getting everything in the right place, and getting rid of as much as you can. Paying the packers is highly recommended if you cam find the extra. 3 of them took a day to pack. It was only £300 more, but meant we could live in the house without boxes til the last minute.

We are moving quite far, does anyone know if it's better to use a removal firm close to where you start or where you are moving to?

Be kind to your future self and declutter madly!

Don't forget sharpies (marker pens).

Definitely talk to whoever you book about your packing (empty drawers or not etc) they all have their preferences.

I prefer to book a company closer to the new home. Easier to deal with if any problems AND unloading is more likely to have issues outside your control than loading.

best of luck!

if you fancy listening to something, Dana Dana k white on you tube. She's a decluttering woman who found ways that work for her (and many many others). She has some specifically in moving house. But many more in decluttering in general!

basic points

better (so everything you do makes the space better - not worse) so you can just do 10 minutes and it's better than when you started (and not piles of stuff to then deal with).

take a rubbish bag (preferably a black one) and a donate able donate box, start by pulling out anything that's literally rubbish. (And recyclable if you recycle)

a donate able donate box is one where you can hand it over to the charity shop & don't need it back. Cardboard box, Bag for life etc.

Anything that's 'easy' things that have their own space in your home, but are in the wrong place'. If when you get there, there's no space, look for rubbish or donate able item to remove to make space.

you'll be amazed how much better this makes things.

youtubebir podcasts. Dana K White.

(I should ask her about commission 😂😂)

It's a pain for me that so much advice these days is offered as a video, I find them annoying and slow.

Maybe I'll put something on in the background while I'm sorting my bed linen later.

Thankfully we have decluttered a lot already, but what's left still needs to be packed and dd's stuff will just have to be boxed up and taken as is (she's away at university and too old for us to through her stuff).

Strongly recommend buying, or seeing if the packers will provide, wardrobe boxes. I literally lifted the coat hangers out of one wardrobe, hung in a box, and then put back on the rail in the new house. Took seconds

I second this. Wardrobe boxes are the best thing for clothes.

I'd buy some archive boxes for books, kitchen stuff, and other heavy-ish things (those boxes that are the right size for A4 files). It's so much easier than using free boxes from the supermarket. People often make the mistake of buying boxes that are too big - anything bigger than an archive box is too heavy when filled with books, etc.

Laundry bags are great for bedlinen, duvets, cushions etc - those big blue, pink or red and white check plastic bags. They're strong and very cheap.

Wow am I the only person who has never used a removal/packing company?

A friend gave me some vacuum bags , they were super , so much so that I passed them onto my daughter who was moving to a new house share
Bedding , towels , actual duvets and pillows go into the bags , press shut then remove air with a vacuum cleaner
You’ll need lots of boxes , I bought some and the removal company gave me some , as well as wardrobe boxes
Most important, start sooner than you think , and get more than one price from more than one removal company

I used a misfire of cardboard boxes, plastic storage boxes and cloth storage bags (they type with handles that go into the loft).

mover will move then as long as they are secure and won’t spill out over the van.

also use all your suitcase to pack clothes.

I don't have any suitcases, I have bought some jumbo storage bags like these.

Removal company near where you currently live. We moved 200 miles last year and it's a lot easier this way. They packed and loaded over two days, stuff was stored at their depot overnight whilst we went to a hotel halfway there, then they drove the 200 miles and unloaded on the third day.

Our removers supplied cardbord boxes for books etc- and warned us only to use the smaller boxes for books.
RU boxes I'd imagine they'd just stack as they are. Removers' own cardboard ones are eaier to stack because they share dimensions whatever their actual size. I think I'd just get a decent company in and ask them. Ours were full of helpful advice. And they let us retain any of the cardboard boxed until we'd finished wth them, returning them to get the deposits on the back as we emptied them. Our move was about 100 miles, but I had a reason to drop back to the old town (where the removers were based) a few weeks later and dropped the ones we'd kept till we unpacked off at their depot.
You need masses of parcel tape, and thick black markers. For the RU boxes, unless it's obvious what's in them, I'd put a pice of paper on the top and down each side inside with the contents written on it- easier to know what's in a stack that way.
We did some of the moving earlier, ourselves, with our van, and bought large 2nd hand plastic crates for that- the sort of crates supermarkets use for their goods, with the lids with 2 opening flaps.