The best way to pack for your local move is to hire a moving company that provides home packing services. This can greatly reduce the time that you spend organizing and makes the move a lot easier.
Also, you can know that everything is packed safely and that nothing will get damaged along the way.
But what if choosing home packing services isn’t an option?
Let’s say you want to hire budget movers and save some money by packing by yourself. In this guide, we will show you how to pack for your local move.
Create a Packing Plan
Before you even start, you need to create a plan. With home packing services, packers and movers will bring all the supplies and pack everything one room at the time. Since you are packing by yourself, you will need some time to gather supplies, but also organize your schedule.
Starting with a packing plan will help you stay on track and finish everything on time. Once your movers arrive, everything should be safely packed and ready to be loaded to the truck. Create a checklist with tasks and start doing one task at the time.
Start Early
If you don’t need home packing services, you have to start early. Giving yourself enough time to pack will alleviate a lot of stress and there’s a small chance you will forget or damage anything during the process. People usually underestimate this task and they try to finish in a day and this is when they often make mistakes.
Declutter Your Home
The first step should be to declutter your home. Since you are moving out of the house, you will have to clean everything before you go out.
Over the years, things that we don’t use pile up. Organizing your local move is a chance to go through your items and possessions and find those things that you don’t plan to keep in your new apartment.
Also, starting with this step is really satisfactory because you don’t need professional packing equipment, which means that you can start right away. Also, you will reduce the number of things that you will bring to your new home – there’ll be less to pack.
What can I do with the things I don’t plan to bring with me?
There are several options and it is up to you to determine which one is the best. You can:
- Organize a garage sale
- Donate to charity
- Give them to someone
- Throw them out
Always first consider donating your items to charity, but make sure to check if they need clothes. Some charities might only accept money, so it is best to check it out. Organizing a garage sale is a great way to make some money that you can use later to tip your motivated movers. But if that is too much hassle, you can always just give stuff away or throw them out.
Gather Supplies
Hiring movers that provide home packing services means that they will be responsible for your entire move.
For example, OC Moving services know that packing takes a lot of time and that you need to spend a few weeks before the move to organize everything. That’s why they decided to offer home packing services to everyone who has no time or effort to invest into their local move. Professional packers know exactly how to maximize safety and the best thing is that they will bring packing supplies!
Ready to Move?
Request a QuoteThis makes the task of gathering supplies a lot less stressful. Still, if you want to do this by yourself, we will help you out. Here’s a list of supplies you will need:
- Boxes – This is the number one thing you have to get. And you will need a large number of boxes to pack your books, kitchen utensils and pretty much everything else. Cardboard boxes come in different sizes and you can by them in your local hardware store or order them online.
- Tape – Having a strong tape that can seal the box and prevent it from opening in case they tip over in the truck is a must. A regular duct tape is something everyone has in their home, but you can get this in any nearby store.
- Bubble Wrap – Using a bubble wrap will help kitchen items and prevent them from damaging during the transport.
- Knife – Take any kitchen knife (or scissors) because you will be using it a lot to cut things such as tape and other materials.
- Marker – Once you pack and seal everything, you should label the boxes in order to avoid any confusions when unpacking. Furthermore, as you start to carry the boxes to the truck, you want to know what’s inside them to load the truck properly.
- Plastic Bags – These can be useful for smaller items.
- Blankets – Using blankets provides extra safety for some of the fragile items. The alternative is to fill in the box with newspaper and provide a buffer.
You can make use of some other professional packing equipment, but this is the basic list for anyone that is moving locally. Once you gather all the supplies, it is time to pack.
Below, we will provide packing tips for each room separately.
Packing an Office
If you have a home office, you probably have some important documents to pack, as well as electronics. We suggest you keep all the paperwork together and label the box once you are done. As for the electronics, make sure that the wires are color coded so you won’t have problems later. You can take a photo of the wires so that you know how to put them back together later on.
Papers, documents and electronics can be pretty heavy, so make sure they are separated in a few smaller boxes that will not tip over in a truck. Also, they shouldn’t be too heavy to carry.
On the other hand, packing a real office is a whole different experience. For that, we suggest you find local commercial movers who provide home packing services. Dismantling everything requires time and effort so it is better to have the professionals do it.
Your office movers will arrive earlier to prepare everything for the relocation. They will show up with 2 movers and a truck and start working. For bigger offices, packing sometimes takes a day earlier.
Packing A Bedroom
Packing a bedroom is not that difficult, but there are a few important things to know. You can leave the clothes on hangers and place them directly inside the containers or boxes. If you have any jewelry, you should probably bring this with you and not residential movers.
Besides home packing services, furniture movers usually provide insurance in case something gets lost or damaged. Either way, you should bring the most valuable items with you. Once you pack all your clothes, it is time to move to furniture. You can protect the mattress with old sheets and blankets, while you will probably have to dismantle your closet if that’s going on with you.
Packing a Bathroom
Packing a bathroom is probably the easiest since these are mostly small items such as toothpaste, deodorant and other toiletries. It is best to pack these into smaller plastic bags.
The only advice we have here is to keep some of the necessities for the last minute. On the day of the move, you will have to wash your face and hands, so keeping a soap is a must. Also, leaving the toothbrush and paste and some toilet paper is recommended.
Prepare a bag for it the day before, so you don’t go searching before you leave your home.
Packing a Living Room
This is where home packing services would come in handy. Your living room has everything – from electronics to books and pictures, but also large pieces of furniture such as a table and a bed.
Prepare the packing supplies and start with the smaller items. Empty all the cabinets, pack your books in boxes and use blankets and towels to wrap mirrors and paintings. It is best to use original packaging for TV and other electronics.
Packing a Kitchen
The kitchen may be one of the most demanding rooms to pack, so you may start with this first. You can always contact your local movers and see that they provide you with home packing services for the kitchen if you are not sure. The cost to hire movers would increase, as expected, but you would not have to deal with all the items in the kitchen and you’d save a lot of time.
First of all, use the original package for the appliances such as toasters, popcorn maker or anything else you might have. Wrap all the glasses and cups to keep them from breaking and pack them carefully. When packing kitchen utensils and places, make sure that there’s no wiggle room in the box so that they cannot move during the transportation.
Mark these boxes fragile so that movers carefully carry them to the truck.
Hire Labor Only Movers
Once everything is packed, all you have to do is wait for the movers to arrive. What you can consider is to hire labor only movers. They will carry everything instead of you. Therefore, you can rest assured that nothing will be dropped or broken, especially closets, beds and other heavy furniture pieces that need to be taken out.
Organize Your Move with OC Moving Services
Hiring movers is a difficult task that takes a lot of effort. If you want to move locally, it is best to hire movers who are familiar with Orange County. OC Moving Services provide everything that you need for a local move and we are one of the more affordable movers that you will find in California.
This packing guide should help you prepare everything, but it also shows the complexity of packing and why home packing services are quite popular among the people who move.
If you need home packing services or any other moving services don’t hesitate to contact us today. We offer:
- Local moving
- Residential moving
- Commercial moving
- Storage Services
- Furniture Moving
- Home Packing Services
Once you call us, we will provide you with a free price estimate that will help you determine the budget for your move. One of our representatives will help you decide which of these services will be useful for your move.
Once we schedule the relocation, your to-do list will boil down to a minimum. Although you will have to complete some tasks before the movers arrive, we will pack everything for you. Our team is trained to pack all the items safely and load them into the truck. Once we arrive, we will unload and unpack everything, so you don’t have to worry about anything! Moving with professionals allows you to have a piece of mind!
And if you do decide to move by yourself, feel free to visit this local moving packing guide!