It has been seven years since I last packed up my house, and this time I had 3 more little humans and all of their belongings to add to the mass. Plus we weren't just moving across town, but across 3 states. I knew I needed a good plan, so I searched and pinned several ideas and kind of mashed them all together to come up with a good system.
Supplies I gathered:
--Boxes: We actually didn't have to buy any boxes. We had a few gracious friends who had recently moved and gave us their broken down boxes! You can also search Craigslist and garage sale sights...sometimes people give them away for free.
--Packing Tape
--A Good Sharpie
--Duct Tape in different colors
--A notebook (this part was probably overkill, but it made me feel like I had CONTROL of the packing) (yeah, I've got issues).
First thing I did was decided I was going to pack for the house I was moving INTO, not the house I was moving out of. Then I assigned each room in my new house a color and made a rubric in the front of my notebook.
I also assigned each room a set of numbers so I could number each box and record each box in my notebook. This way I would have a record of what was in each box. This is what I mean by overkill. I havn't looked at the record one time for unpacking purposes.
So I packed each box, labeled them and put a stripe of tape in the left upper corner so the color could be easily seen.
I DO think that the color-coding helped with the unloading process. I tore out my rubric and taped it up in the front entryway so that everyone who helped unload could see it as they walked in.
I also made a sign to label each room.
Unloading was certainly less painful than loading. And color coding just makes me happy. What packing or moving tips have you used?
Love the tape idea! We used the number system when we moved, but the tape makes it even easier for those helping. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete@Stephanie Thanks! It really did help make the unloading faster!
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