Published · 6 min read
Pack for the person unpacking, not for yourself
Packing feels like a chore to get out of the way. It isn't. Every decision you make on the floor of the old apartment comes back three days later on the floor of the new one. It comes back as a badly marked box nobody dares lift, or a bag of screws that is somewhere.
So one rule beats all the others: pack so that someone else could unpack it.
Get the materials first
Matching moving boxes stack, fit in a lift and hold their weight. Cardboard collected from a supermarket is free but comes in a dozen sizes, and mixed sizes do not stack; they slide off the trolley at the exact moment your hands are full.
Have these ready:
- strong packing tape and a tape dispenser
- a thick marker, ideally two colours
- padding: bubble wrap, newspaper or towels
- small resealable bags for screws and cables
- wardrobe boxes for hanging clothes, or bin bags with a hole cut for the hanger hook
- a utility knife that stays with you instead of disappearing into a box
Do not estimate the number of boxes from the floor area of the apartment. Count shelf metres and full cupboards instead. A bookshelf and the upper kitchen cabinets tell you the truth far better than the size of the place.
One room at a time
Finish a room before you start the next one. Packing by category ("all the books in one go") sounds efficient and produces a result where no single box belongs to any single room.
Start with the rooms and cupboards you do not touch daily: storage, bookshelves, out-of-season clothes, the good dishes. The kitchen and the bathroom get packed last, because you need them right up to the end.
Heavy things go in small boxes
The basic rule is short: heavy items in small boxes, light items in big ones. A large box filled with books is a two-person lift, and the base gives way on the stairs.
Test every box. If you cannot get it off the floor on your own, it is too full. Take some out.
Books and paper
Books go on their side or spine down, never with the pages facing down. Fill the box halfway and put something light on top.
Dishes and glassware
Plates travel upright, on edge, like records in a crate. Not stacked. In a stack, the bottom plate carries the whole weight. Paper between each one, and glasses wrapped individually. The kitchen always takes longer than you think. Give it a whole evening.
Clothes and textiles
Clothes are free padding. Wrap dishes in them and use them to fill the empty corners of boxes. Anything on hangers goes into a wardrobe box and straight into the new wardrobe, with no folding stage in between.
Fill the box completely
Empty space inside a box is what breaks things. When the box gets tilted on the stairs, the contents move. Pack the gaps with crumpled paper or textiles, and only tape the lid once the box no longer shifts when you shake it.
Tape the base crosswise too. One strip of tape does not carry twenty kilos down four flights.
Label the sides, not the lid
Boxes get stacked. Writing on the lid is visible on exactly one box at a time.
Write three things on two sides of every box:
- the room it goes to in the new home
- a short description of the contents, for example "kitchen / pots and pans"
- "fragile" or "open first", where that applies
Number the boxes and keep a list on your phone with a fuller description against each number. It repays itself on the evening you are looking for one charger.
Fragile and awkward items
Mirrors and pictures travel upright, not flat. Protect the corners and tape a cross over the glass so that a broken piece stays where it is.
A television travels best in its original packaging. If that is long gone, wrap the screen in a duvet and carry it upright, never face down.
Plants, aquariums and pets do not belong in the load at all. They travel with you, and they go last.
Furniture, screws and cables
Take large furniture apart before moving day, not during it. Bed frames and tall wardrobes often will not go around a stairwell in one piece.
Put each piece of furniture's screws in their own bag and tape that bag to the piece it came from. All the screws in one jar is a way to lose an evening.
Photograph the cabling behind the television, the computer and the network gear before you unplug anything. Mark the cables with masking tape.
Empty the drawers of chests and cabinets. Loaded, the frame twists, and the drawers fly open exactly where you least want them to: on the stairs.
What never goes in a moving box
Liquids, pressurised containers, gas bottles, lighter fluid, paint and solvents do not belong in the load. They are either hazardous waste or need transporting separately. Take them to a waste station well in advance.
Candles, chocolate and cosmetics melt in a hot van in summer. Defrost the freezer and the fridge a couple of days beforehand and dry them out, or you are adding water to the load.
Passports, residence permit cards, contracts, jewellery, cash, medication, your laptop and the keys travel in your own bag. Not in the load, and not "in that blue box".
Packed last, opened first
Pack one box that rides in your own car and gets opened before anything else. In it: toilet paper, hand soap, a towel, toothbrushes, bed sheets and a pillowcase, cleaning spray and bin bags, chargers, a screwdriver and Allen keys, coffee and a couple of mugs, and the utility knife.
Mark it clearly and keep it away from the rest of the load. On the first evening in a new home you need a bed and a shower, not all of your books.
An apartment building sets its own limits
Boxes of the same size fit in the lift and on a sack truck. Assorted bags fit in neither, and end up being carried by hand.
Keep the stairwell clear. An escape route may not be blocked, not even briefly, and a stairwell stacked with belongings is also the thing people trip over. Protect the lift before you move a single box.
If you are packing yourself and run short of time, the kitchen and the bathroom are usually the rooms that swallow the hours. You can request a quote and say in it which rooms you will pack and which ones you would rather hand over.