Do You Need to Prepare for Your Upcoming Move?
Before scheduling movers, did you walk out into the mess that is in your garage and realize you needed to hire movers to move the mountain of boxes that you store there? This is no knock-on garages either; they’re a great way to organize your home and maximize its storage potential.
The question is, what’s the first step?
You probably already realize you’ll be able to save yourself some money if everything is completely boxed up, sealed, and ready to go prior to the arrival of the local movers that you hire.
You’ve come to the correct conclusion.
If everything is in nice and neat piles before your team at Sarver Movers arrives, the move will be much easier to handle. The more clean and organized your move is, the faster it will go. The faster the move goes, the less money you will spend on local moving services in Austin. So here is the ultimate guide to organizing not just your garage but your entire house so that your move is smoother and you save more money. This process should be started at least one to two weeks before your move, giving you plenty of time to have your entire house ready to be moved.
How To Start Organizing Your Home
As you walk inside your garage, or any other room for that matter, make a list of all of the things that would need to happen for you to have a completely organized home. You might want to start by breaking these tasks into three different categories:
- - Sell
- - Junk
- - Repack
The sell pile could consist of things you no longer need but are still in good enough shape to get money for. If you’ve given yourself at least two weeks, you should have plenty of time to maximize the amount of money that you can get for items you’d like to sell. As for the junk pile, you could always mention to your crew at Sarver Movers that you would like to have some junk hauled off, and they will make sure to accommodate that. The junk items are typically items that you could not sell in time for your move or those that are... junk!
Lastly, those items are currently in old boxes or not in boxes at all. The repack category is arguably the most important of the three. Though it does not make you money or allow you to free up space immediately, it does allow you to save lots of time on your move. By having everything boxed up, sealed, and ready to go, you will allow your local movers to move everything at a much quicker rate.
If your items are in brand-new boxes, this will allow our team to quickly pick up these boxes with our dollies and equipment. The faster we can work, the more savings we can offer to anyone who chooses Sarver Movers for moving services in Austin.
Categorize Further
After determining whether or not to sell, junk, or repack each of these items, it’ll be time to properly categorize what’s remaining. You can pick a few categories and write them down to start this process. Choose categories that are descriptive and be as detailed as you want. The more details, the better, as you may have many boxes that you will need to label with similar items. Here is a short list of categories that you might find yourself using in the packing process:
- - Clothes
- - Coats
- - Dishes
- - Decorations
- - Linens
- - Office Equipment
- - Socks
- - Shoes
- - Tools
- - Toys
Pick Your Starting Room And Label
After picking one of the above categories, pick a room to start with. Go room by room and mark items down as either sell, junk, or repack. Work your way through each room, categorizing all of the items that you own. Label all the items with their categories clearly. We recommend using a color-coded system with different color sticky notes representing different categories if you are unable to mark items with Sharpies. As you start the process, you’ll find out whatever works best for you.
Items Your Local Movers Will Not Take
You might want to keep in mind some of the items that local movers typically do not move. You should probably try to sell or junk these. Items that we are unable to move for you would include things like paint cans and buckets, trash or debris from construction, propane tanks that are full, cleaning products that are not completely sealed in spill-proof boxes, ammunition of any kind, explosives, firearms, and any other household items that are not in boxes.
Which Type Of Box To Use
You should always try to maximize your vertical space whenever you’re prepping any room for your upcoming move. There is no better way to do this than by having everything in boxes, and what better boxes out there than stackable containers. Of course, you can always use boxes bought from a local box store, but those typically only survive a few moves and then lose their durability. As regular cardboard boxes wear out, they can’t be stacked and actually become an actual liability for your movers.
Have you ever stacked a few old boxes on top of each other and watched them lean to one side or the other? Those boxes are primed and ready to fall over as soon as the next person puts their hands on them to start the moving process. That’s why we recommend that our customers pack everything into highly durable storage containers. These stackable plastic boxes will allow you to stack items without losing their edge. They also double as a reusable container to store all of your household goods after the move.
Proper Sealing Methods
Making sure to use the proper type of moving tape is crucial when sealing up boxes prior to your move. We like to use the brow snap-off moving tape that professional movers use when sealing boxes or covering items up with moving pads.
Make sure to have everything completely covered in packing paper and sealed using mover tape. Once the individual item is properly wrapped and protected, place it inside a box, filling each box 75% of the way. This allows for the space at the top to be used as a buffer zone between items near the top and the bottom of the next box. This prevents the items in each box from being crushed by the box that is stacked on top of it. You can crinkle up packing paper and place it at the top of each of these boxes to provide a cushion.
Once everything is completely protected inside the box, start by covering the lids of your box and sealing it up with professional mover tape. Make sure to cover the crease of the boxes with tape completely, and feel free to tape up the lids along the crease as well as perpendicular to them. Use a tape gun with a jagged edge on it if you choose to use other types of tape to make a clean cut after you have taped your boxes. You may also find it helpful to keep a pair of scissors handy to cut the tape instead of using a tape gun.
Final Packing Preparations
You can take a look at all of your boxes and then put them together by category. This will allow your local movers to keep all of the boxes organized easily so you don’t have to sift through them at the dropoff location. Once you have them in stacks either by room or by item category, your move will be smooth from there on out.
Summary
We’ve covered how to get your packing process started by separating items into sell, junk, or repack piles. Then, we further listed how to categorize your household items by room or item type. We learned about labeling, what not to ask your movers to move, various types of boxes you can use, and the proper way to seal them. We also went over the proper way to organize your boxes to maximize your movers’ efficiency when they transport them. For more tips on the best ways to pack your items, give us a call at Sarver Movers today to speak with a professional mover!
