all great changes are preceded by chaos

    A friend is moving, and I resolved to share any advice I can give about how to make that process easier. As a veteran of many household moves, I've got a lot of advice! Take what works, ignore the rest, and always ask for help when you need it.

 

PREPARING

 

    Reuse what you can, from friends or an accommodating business. I have a friend who orders online multiple times per week; he saves his bubble mailers ("puffy packs"), bubble wrap and other sorts of cushioning, boxes, etc. This is a big money-saver, though it requires time to sort and space to store. Good possibilities for used boxes: libraries (public and university), mailrooms of businesses, and small restaurants that use a lot of eggs. Egg boxes are the absolute best: sturdy, not overly large, and generally with cut-in handles. I don't use liquor store boxes; they tend to be heavy even before they are packed, are often wax-coated and so not great for anything delicate, and they often stink like spilled alcohol. For that matter, they sometimes have broken glass inside.

    Make a plan, even if it's sort of unformed. Try to consider what you're not using, so that can be packed first. Try for even weight distribution, sensible colocating, and most of all clear organizing. Try to shake things up from time to time, too—sorting, packing, cleaning, and return to sorting. Too much of any one task is what makes it a drudgery.

    Take a picture of the back of anything with cables that need to be unplugged, or settings that may change during the move. Having those pictures can save hours of searching for owner's manuals or f'ing around on YT trying to find help. Help yourself first. 

     Buy the expensive tape rather than the cheap stuff. (This is advice for life, not just for moving!) You will use less, because it won't take a mile of it to do the job of one strip, it is easier to work with (holds its own shape rather than sticking to itself first!) and it is way more secure. For me, this means 2.5mil at a minimum. According to the chart below right, you can match tape thickness to the size of a box—but that's only if you want to have multiple types of tape available, which would be kind of excessive, I think. Just get one good thickness, buy more than you need, and have a good one-handed dispenser. The little plastic ones that come with a 6-pack of tape are all right for every day but insufficient for moving house. Get a big one! You "catch" the tape on one side of the box to start it, pull it across the opening, and flex the dispenser to tear it off on the other side. Once you've got the hang of it, it's a huge time-saver.

     It can also be helpful to have a duct-tape option, though I use that pretty sparingly. It costs a fortune (relative to the clear stuff), is stupidly sticky to use and remove, and there's not much that it can do that 2 layers of the other stuff can't do. In my last move, I used it to shore up a few boxes that had openings at the bottom (where the flaps do not meet) and for a very small box of super heavy tools. I do not use strapping tape (the stuff with embedded threads) because it's hard for me to work with—but use what works for you.

 

PACKING

 

    Designate a packing headquarters, a landing zone for the stuff you're using all the time: markers, scissors, tape, notebook, pens. No matter what, you'll misplace the one thing you need to make a packing session go well, if it does not have a place to "live". 

    Figure out and consistently use a labeling system. If that means writing the contents of the box on the outside, go for it. If that means taking a phone picture of each packed box including an identifying number or something, do that. Whatever works for you will work for you if you do it consistently from start to finish. Over time, I've realized that writing on the outside of the boxes does not work for me; I like to know exactly what is in each box so I don't end up with 4 partially-unpacked boxes marked "kitchen," when all I need is a pan and ladle for soup. Here's my system:

• Designate a moving notebook.
• 
  
  Each box is labeled on 2 sides and sometimes the top with a specific number. I use crappy scratch paper to write the numbers, then painter's tape the numbers to the box. Why 2 sides? No matter how they're stacked (short way or long way) I can have the number "facing out."
• In the notebook, list exactly what's in each box, by number.
• When unpacking, once the box has been completely emptied, cross it out in the notebook.
• If the box "is what it looks like"—for instance, a TV that's moved in its original box—then it's not numbered but still included in the notebook. Why? If using a moving company, you know what boxes were included (and God forbid if there's an insurance claim, it'll streamline the process immeasurably).
• This all takes some extra time but pays off exponentially in the unpacking phase. 
• This is also kind of nice when you're getting help from people that you might not know all that well, and don't want them to know too much of your business. A box marked "142" on the side is far less interesting than one marked "delicate lingerie" or "credit card and tax documents".
• Mark anything HEAVY or FRAGILE clearly on the outside of the box (2 sides), using a color-coding system (HEAVY is blue, FRAGILE is red) but under-using these designations if possible. Near the end of packing, everything will seem heavy—and, when you think about it, more than half your stuff will be fragile in some way. Save it for the biggies.
• 
  If you're doing a one-for-one move (the new place has exactly the same number of rooms and your stuff will be going from one Master Bedroom to another Master Bedroom, or Second Bathroom to Second Bathroom) it could be helpful to color-code the exterior labels. I've never been in this exact scenario and it seems like a time-waster, but it might be better for some people/circumstances. See an example in the photo at left.
  

    Think about unpacking when you're packing (but don't obsess about it). Keep in mind that any box marked "Misc." is going to be a pain in the ass to unpack, and it gets worse as it gets more random. "Misc. kitchen" is bad but not unbearable; "Misc. downstairs" is a heartbreaking box to find when you're already sick of unpacking. Just "Misc." that contains a spoon, 2 sweaters, a board game, some first aid supplies, and a bag of random used hardware pulled out of the wall before you left...that box can make an un-packer furious. That's a lot of moving around to store stuff when all you want to do is sit in one place and pull bubble wrap off some things and rest your legs.

    Don't waste time sorting recycle/trash/donate etc. unless the situation is dire (such as needing to get the amount or weight beneath a threshold for a moving company). Now is not the time to be micro-thinking. Get 'er done, and deal with the rest later.

    Use baggies and/or tape to attach hardware to items that need to be taken apart (think: picture hanging screws, the exact hex-key for attaching the headboard to bed frame, HDMI cable of the right length, adapter for charging cables, and on and on).

    Resist the urge to use a huge box for anything other than pillows. No matter what else you put into a massive box, it's going to be way too heavy and ungainly for one person to carry, yet stupidly light for a team lift. Sheets and towels are surprisingly heavy. Blankets, too. Clothes are out of the question, unless your clothes are a lot lighter than mine!

    Over-use packing material. Get the enormous roll of bubble wrap and use all of it. If in doubt about "can I fit one more...?", always err on the side of more packing matter rather than another of your potentially breakable items. It's so much better to have an "extra" box or ten to move, than to unpack and find one glass or blow-dryer or book smashed. Also, cheap coffee filters are awesome (recyclable) packing material; put them between anything that might scratch, ball them up to fill breakable stuff, wrap them around things nested inside other things. I even put them between books so the covers don't get torn. 

    Speaking of books: use smaller boxes than you think you need for books, which are far more
weighty than they seem. keep the books upright if possible (like they appear on your shelf), and pack similar-size books together unless you're a master at packing. There's no shame in bubble wrap in a box of books.

    Save suitcases, tote bags, etc. for the very last-minute stuff that you will need right away: immediate clothes, medicine, pet food—and very vital stuff that you don't want to tape inside of a box: laptop, checkbook, phone charger.

    The #1 most useful help is a huge roll of plastic wrap. Environmentally friendly? Of course not - but what about packing and moving is? But possibly recyclable. It's also easy to use, relatively inexpensive, and surprisingly helpful! Heck yeah. Get a nice thick roll with the handles built in, and use it for everything you can think of—keeping plastic bins closed, keeping pillows on the couch (and keeping the whole thing clean), corralling cords to anything that plugs in. It also keeps things from slipping around in a truck or car trunk.

MOVING

 

    Team lift. One stupid "I've got this!" can make your entire move (and potentially the rest of your entire life!) agonizing. You have help for a reason, so take advantage of that. Don't be a hero, and don't let your friends and family be heroes, either.

    First in, last out, first in. The things closest to the door will go in the back of the truck and be brought out last, thereby being "top" or "first" when you start unpacking. For example, if you're moving in the summer, don't pack your winter clothes from the closet and Christmas ornaments first, and start the stack by the door with them. Either wait to pack them or start stacking as far as possible from the door.

    Use your seatbelts to secure stuff being moved in the car. I use them all the time, especially when transporting something like food or plants that I'm especially concerned about keeping upright. (My car also chirps at me when the weight of an item on the seat triggers a "person without a seatbelt" warning, so it's just easier to buckle in a gallon of milk or whatever, since I know it's going to yell at me anyway.)

    The #1 most useful help is to hire out as much of it as possible. My last in-town move cost $650 and was perfectly done. All was handled on time and with a minimum of fuss. Of course there's loads of stuff (pun intended) that I did on my own, since the movers cannot (chemicals e.g. cleaning solutions, and garage stuff) or will not (plants) or ought not to be trusted to (super delicate or costly or irreplaceable breakables or computers) move some things. I was still exhausted from packing and cleaning and moving and cleaning and unpacking and cleaning and cleaning—but at least I hadn't needed to exhaust all my friends and family, too, with the heavy and awkward stuff.

 

UNPACKING

 

    Have an unpacking headquarters, a landing zone for the stuff you're using all the time: box cutters, scissors, tape, notebook, pens. No matter what, you'll misplace the one thing you need to make an unpacking session go well. It takes a moment longer, but always return those things to the HQ.

    Wait to sort recycle/trash/donate etc. unless the situation is dire. Broadly group (such as tossing packing material into a large box or two) and sort it when things have calmed down. Throw unflattened boxes into a garage or basement or unused room, nesting and stacking if absolutely required, to give away or  recycle later. For one thing, your first couple of recycling pickups will probably be full already. For another, there's time for the details later—now just get 'er done.

    Designate a haven from the mess. The #1 most useful help in unpacking is to have a room in the new space—for me it's the master bedroom, for others it's the kitchen—where things at least seem to be as normal as possible on the first day. The clutter is closed in a closet or left in another room, so when you're there, your stress level decreases noticeably. You have what you need: bed with normal covers and pillows, bedside table with the usual contents. It doesn't mean that room is "done", just that it doesn't look like unpacking mayhem.

 

[the title quotation is from Deepak Chopra]