Five Common Mistakes People Make When Packing for a House Move
Recent research has shown that one of the biggest problems on moving day – along with furniture being too big to fit into your new home and any previous occupants not cleaning up properly – is of cardboard boxes breaking and your precious possessions being damaged.
The Moving Partnership can help with DIY house removals, both in the UK and internationally. Here are our top tips for making sure you don’t make any of the commonest packing errors if you want to enjoy a trouble-free move - at least as far as the packing is concerned.
Logistics
One of the most basic errors you can make is not having enough boxes to pack everything into. It’s always better to have too many than too few. There’s also the question of size – cramming too much into any cardboard box runs the risk of damaging it or the items inside. Putting too little into a carton can be just as big a problem, as it means your possessions may move around while they are en route.
Wrapping
One way of stopping the problem of damage during transportation is to make sure that everything is well wrapped up beforehand; but many people still fail to do this. It only takes one jolt or speed bump to do irreparable damage to some of your items. Newspaper, packing paper or bubblewrap will help keep items in place throughout their journey.
Obviously fragile items like porcelain and glass are most at risk, but liquids are also a potential problem. Cardboard boxes can easily collapse if any moisture leaks all over them. So, make sure anything containing a liquid is fully sealed. One way of doing this is to unscrew the top of a bottle of liquid and put plastic wrapping over the opening, then tightly screw the top back on.
Strength
Many boxes aren’t strong enough to carry the items packed inside them, which again runs the risk of property damage. Ideally all cartons should be double-walled and fully taped up across the top, the bottom and the sides (making sure that the tape overlaps so there aren’t any potential weak points).
The Moving Partnership is partners with Hamiltons Removals, who sell a range of high-quality packing materials at their online shop in Harleston on the Norfolk/Suffolk border. These include decluttering kits as well as item-specific equipment such as mattress covers, wardrobe cartons and sofa and armchair covers. For more information, follow this link.
Labelling
There’s no point in packing everything up perfectly if you don’t know – or can’t remember – what’s inside all the boxes. Mark on each carton what’s inside (it doesn’t have to be an exhaustive description) and keep a separate inventory (which can be more detailed). Otherwise, you could join the ranks of all those movers who have failed to prepare properly and end up spending hours trying to work out where anything is.
Take care not to mislabel any of the boxes. Moving days are sometimes ruined if you accidentally tip a fragile item onto the floor when the label says the carton is full of clothes, or something similarly unbreakable.
Not Having a Spare Box for Essentials
Another error people commonly make is not having a spare box for ‘essentials’. Moving house can be a long process, so make sure you’ve got some food and drink to hand. If anyone is on medication, ensure you pack that too. Don’t forget you may need some documents to complete the move, so don’t put them at the bottom of a box somewhere.
UK and International Removals with The Moving Partnership
Another way of avoiding any packing problems is to use a professional removals company. The Moving Partnership can help organise all aspects of your move, including packing, moving and unpacking, and even cleaning your new or old home.
Thanks to our network of contacts in the international removals industry, we can source a competitively priced package to virtually anywhere in the world. We have helped arrange house removals to countries as diverse as Scandinavia, the United Arab Emirates, China and many other international destinations.
If you would like to know more about any of our services, you can call us on 0808 280 2558 or just follow this link. Fill in the online form on the right of the page and we will get back to you.
