When you’re packing for a move, especially when you’re rushed because you procrastinated too long on your packing duties, it’s easy to miss things. Overlooking an important memento, vital document or other irreplaceable item can make a stressful move even harder to deal with.
When you’re just moving across town, you may still have an opportunity to retrieve an item you’ve forgotten, if you quickly realize you left it behind. But if yours is a long-distance move and/or you don’t realize right away something is missing, it might be gone forever. Create a solid game plan to ensure you pack up everything of importance before you leave your old home for the last time.
Create A Packing Calendar
Creating a packing timeline for your move helps you stay on track, so you feel less rushed on moving day. When you hurry through your packing, it’s really easy to miss something that could be important to you. A packing calendar offers a reliable guide to keep you focused, motivated, and better prepared to face your packing challenges.
Start packing as early as possible to give yourself plenty of time. Properly prioritize your packing jobs based on what matters most, and set up reasonable deadlines for completion. Break up major packing tasks into easier-to-achieve mini-tasks to keep better track of your progress and avoid being overwhelmed. Stick to your overall schedule to ensure you have everything packed before moving day.
Take Inventory
Before you pack anything, take inventory of all your belongings to see exactly what you have and prioritize your packing. This is also a great time to purge anything you no longer need or use to lighten your load and lessen your packing duties. Your inventory list can be a detailed spreadsheet or a simple pen-and-paper list, whatever you’re most comfortable doing. While a spreadsheet is more easily edited, paper lists are more accessible when taking inventory from room to room.
Go through every nook and cranny in your home and include everything you own. Break items up into appropriate categories. When you’re ready to begin packing, assign everything a number, label each item, and record what box it’s in on your inventory sheet. Your inventory sheet helps ensure you don’t forget anything and can serve as a detailed packing list if you use professional movers.
Pack Room By Room
Pack each room completely before moving on to the next room. Tackling one room at a time keeps you from wasting time rambling from one space to another. It also helps ensure you stay on track and keeps you motivated with clearly defined progress. Once you think you have a room finished, go back through it again carefully to ensure you didn’t overlook anything important. When you’re completely certain nothing remains in the room, close the door and move on.
Do A Final Walk-Through
Even though you did a walk-through each time you finished a room, do a final walk-through of the entire house once you think you’ve packed everything. Go back through every drawer, cabinet, closet, etc., in your home to make sure you didn’t miss anything. Don’t forget the attic and basement, if applicable, which are notorious for hiding things you tucked away and forgot you even put there. If you got an early start on your packing, you should have ample time to slowly go over the entire home before you decide everything is packed and ready to move.
Hire Professional Packers
Professional packers pack for a living and are experts at ensuring nothing is left behind. They also take some of the stress off you, especially if you wanted too long to begin packing. Once the packers are finished, and the movers have moved everything out into the moving truck, put your mind at ease by taking the time to go back through the entire house room by room, checking every potential hiding space to ensure nothing was overlooked.
Rite Move in Hamilton, NJ, is a state-licensed, fully insured moving company that has been providing expert packing and moving services to the region for over a decade. Our highly experienced staff completes every job with extreme professionalism and guarantees safe, secure transport of your belongings. We use top-of-the-line equipment and offer straightforward pricing without any hidden fees. Contact us at 866-MOVE-110 for a free quote or to schedule your move today.