Moving tips

Color label those boxes for an easier move

With three kids, a dog, and a rabbit, we decided to take advantage of this economy and “upsize” to a bigger house. I have lots for you to learn from my mistakes! Here are some tips that you won’t find on the usual real estate websites.

1) START NOW!   My sister's best advice ever - no matter how much time you have to pack up, start TODAY.  I had three months to get our household packed and I STILL waited until the last day and regretted it!  You will burn out, things will come up, don’t procrastinate.

2) USE COLOR CODING FOR THE MOVERS.  My husband’s idea will save you a ton of time and wasted energy!  We chose a color for every room.  Kitchen was yellow, master bathroom was red, dining room was green, etc. I put the word “kitchen” on a yellow piece of paper as a label for every box that went in the kitchen.  Then I hung a yellow sign in the kitchen that said “kitchen”.  Duh, but the visual really helps.  Our movers LOVED that we did this and said it saved them about an hour or two (and a few hundred bucks for us)… and they didn’t have to guess or keep asking us “where does this go?” The colors just made it really simple.

3) LABEL EVERYTHING WELL.  You think you will remember where everything is - you won't!  Since we are temporarily renting month-to-month, most of our stuff is in storage in our garage.  I labeled the top and two sides of most boxes so that no matter how they were stacked or stored, it would be easy to see what was in it without taking down every other box.  Also, the more detail you are able to use, the easier it is to get what you need later.  I needed to find my son’s quilt last week (which I used as padding for some picture frames).  Normally I would've just labeled the box “frames” and would've passed it by, but this time I had details “bedroom picture frames, CARS quilt, beige handtowels” etc. so I knew just where to go!

4) KEEP ALIKE ITEMS TOGETHER IN STORAGE.  Don’t just pack your stuff in.  Take your time and do it right. All of our kitchen boxes are together in one area of the garage so when I need a kitchen item (like a blender) I know where to start.  If we are still here at Christmas it may actually be fun to decorate because all of our items are in one area.

5) GET THE RIGHT PACKING TOOLS.  I didn’t want to waste money on boxes and foam peanuts and I partially regret it.  Broke some stuff.  Watch prices, though – I shopped around a lot online and at local stores.  I found inexpensive packing paper at WalMart and cheap boxes and bubble wrap at Costco.com.  It’s worth it if you like your stuff.  Our local Borders was very gracious about giving me boxes… many stores recycle and don’t hand them out anymore.

For more ideas visit the FlyLady or howstuffworks - happy house hunting!