What's your best moving and packing tip?

vintagebknyc

Thu, Dec 13 2012, 10:21 am

Honestly? Hire packers.

I'm serious. When I moved after 14 years in one place I did so, because I knew I would end up sitting on the floor, surrounded by dust bunnies, crying. Condiser it a moving expense, your mover may offer a discount for it if you use the same company for both.

I say this as the most frugal person I know ,I painted my entire new apartment, by myself, instead of hiring so I could pay for the packers. If I hadn't been able to do that, I'd have used the emergency credit card. No lie. One of the best decisions of my entire life.

Maya

Thu, Dec 13 2012, 10:29 am

vintagebknyc wrote:

I was going to say the same thing. Hire professionals. We moved about two years ago, and I vowed never to do it again without hired help.

Eemaof3

Thu, Dec 13 2012, 10:29 am

Label! Don't just say "kitchen" say "meat". Will make it much easier on the other end. At the same time be careful not to say too much on the box which could encourage a mover to steal the box. Buy more boxes, packing tape, and clean newsprint than you think you need. We kept going back to the supply store to buy more and it really added a lot of time and stress. You can always return what you do not use. Start wrapping small, fragile items & label them with tape or write on the package (tissue paper is great for wrapping that stuff) and put back into your cabinets. Enlist people to help -- they can wrap small items or pack books. Do not make your boxes too heavy but fill them to capacity (fill with newspaper or rags so the boxes are stable).
Make sure you have supplies you will need immediately in your car or close at hand. Nice to have are paper goods & plasticware, a toaster oven, kettle, instant coffee, easy to grab food. That way you have food when you arrive. Also have bedding or sleeping bags for that first night, 2-3 changes of clothes (in case you cannot unpack and find things right away) and toiletries.
Be prepared to go nuts trying to find things no matter how organized you are. We could not find our giant bread board (for kneading) for weeks and could not imagine where it went. We eventually found it.
Do you think we have moved a few times?

vintagebknyc

Thu, Dec 13 2012, 10:47 am

Eemaof3 wrote:

This? Why I'd end up in a mental institution and hired packers.

Merrymom

Thu, Dec 13 2012, 11:08 am

Hashemlovesme wrote:

don't know if this was said, but label each box w/ a # or color & then mark each room w/ that # or color so all boxes end up in the room they need to be in.

We did this and moving was an absolute breeze. Our non English speaking movers managed to put every single box exactly where it belonged. Each door had a paper with a colored sticker on it (picked it up in office supply store), and every box had it's corresponding colored sticker. For example the boxes with the green stickers belonged in the green room, also known as my bedroom. My dh told them where to put the furniture and otherwise I hardly even had to be there, it went so smoothly. What a difference from previous moves!!

Sherri

Thu, Dec 13 2012, 11:14 am

Hashemlovesme wrote:

don't know if this was said, but label each box w/ a # or color & then mark each room w/ that # or color so all boxes end up in the room they need to be in.

I was going to post this.

I suggest keeping your silver and valuables by family or friends. Pick it up when you are all settled in.
Firstly because there is a chance of someone taking the stuff during all the packing and transferring, etc. and secondly, because I know people who have somehow lost stuff in all of the chaos.

I also strongly suggest purging your clutter before you move.

shiffycc

Thu, Dec 13 2012, 12:15 pm

Its kind of like pasach cleaning. Its overwhelming until you get started. It really is much better if you can purge before you move, but that depends on how much time you have. The worst boxes(and the ones I still haven't unpacked 2 years later) are the ones where I just tossed stuff in at the end.
running back and forth to the moving supply store was very time consuming, I never would have believed that I would spend so much on packing materiels. That being said, I often wonder if it would have been better to higher the movers to do the packing of the glass aand china etc, since its time consuming, and already costs the most as far as packing materials are concerned. When they do it, they include the supplies. The ideas of being super organized with colors on the doors are great, but im not that on top of things. What I did do was buy the stickers from u haul that say bedroom 1, living room, kitchen etc. And most of the boxes made it into the right place. I would write with a sharpie on the box more detail(shoes, crockpot, spices,whatever-but not "jewlrey" or "silver"-I actually wrote those things in hebrew when I moved in america) I personally was moving a few blocks away, so I brought my leichter etc over by myself the night before. And when I moved cross country I did have some things get "lost", so as big as a pain as it is, it would be a really good idea to check off the number of each box as it comes in(they give you a list of all the numbers).
label a box for each room "open first" with the things you will need right away.
they will usually provide you with wardrobe boxes so you can just take things straight from the closet and hang them in the box, and then remove them at the new place.
make sure you check the bbb before you book a mover, we once went with someone and at our destinaation he said we needed to pay an extra $1000 before he would unload the truck(he said that we had more stuff than we showed him on the walk through) this is a really common scheme.

mommy of boys

Thu, Dec 13 2012, 1:25 pm

When we moved I expected it to be really hard but it was a breeze!
We did do the colored post it notes on each box which said whats in each box.

What helped most was:
1-we packed all delicate and expensive items a week in advance and sent to my parents house
2- we packed all books/sefarim in milk crates a few days in advance
3- we ordered extra wardrobes from the company so all closet stuff went straight from old closet to new.
4-I sent my kids away for the day before and day of moving
and....
The one thing that helped me most:
it sounds crazy but I LEFT ALL THE REST OF MY HOUSE TO PACK MYSELF THE DAY BEFORE MY MOVE!
This eliminated all the sorting of whats important and whats not. EVERYTHING was packed at the same time.
I started with one room at a time and put evrything I saw into its colored box and basically wrote whats in it on the post it.
Then the movers put all the boxes straight into the right rooms.
I did have to change some things cuz BH we moved to a bigger apartment and had more rooms so I had to think of that before putting it into the correct box according to the new rooms.
BH I made shabbos the next day and was really a nice experience.

I think all at once took away the hassle of srting what to pack now and then again later. You end up going through each room (never mind each drawer)once instead of a few times!
GOOD LUCK and let us know how it goes!

amother

Thu, Dec 13 2012, 7:56 pm

OP here. Thank you all so much for sharing your experiences and advice. So now I know to keep my silver by family until I get to it. To pack books and seforim in milk crates and to COLOR CODE.

I'm not moving for another two months. So I'm thinking on getting started with the seforim and books. Did anyone back them in normal boxes with a lot of tape? Or is that asking for trouble?

Someone also told me to keep fresh sheets on the mattresses so they are ready right away for a good nights' rest.

Keep the tips coming! Thanks so much.

Mrs Bissli

Sat, Dec 15 2012, 6:26 pm

1. De-clutter/throw away/give away as much as possible BEFORE you start packing. The less you have to pack and move, the less you have to unpack and sort out. Moving is really a good time to go through your belongings and get rid of things you don't need.

2. As much as it's important to mark the box with contents and room, make sure you have a good corresponding "master list". Number each boxes so you can keep track of overall amount of things.

3. Make sure you have enough materials esp change of clothes and toiletries with your check in luggage.

Aribenj

Sat, Dec 15 2012, 10:15 pm

Best advice anyone gave me was to pack a special box with towels and linens. You unpack that FIRST THING and put towels in bathrooms and make all the beds. The last thing you want to do when you've spent the whole day unpacking is to make the beds...

Imagine being able to take a shower and tumble into a clean, freshly made bed at the end of that...

Best thing ever...

Eemaof3

Sat, Dec 15 2012, 10:49 pm

We got lots of boxes from liquor stores. Good & sturdy. But use packing tape and lots of it! Pack now, declutter now, and downsize now. Packing takes much longer than you anticipate. The last time we moved (hopefully for the last time), I was up the whole night before finishing up things while my husband collapsed on the floor (he had his share of sleepless nights that fortnight).
As for movers, really do your research. We once had movers who were such *&%$*! We crossed the US-Canadian border and they had not paid their counterparts on the other side and our items were held for ransom for 3 weeks until they resolved issues with the original movers. We contacted government officials on both sides of the border and no one could help us. It was a nightmare and a half!