Be a Savvy Mover, Pack your Items Carefully
During a move, you will be constantly worrying about the welfare of your items, but when you are packing them beforehand, the effort of doing all of the wrapping and sticking necessary to make sure that they are safe is often too much of an effort. Unfortunately many of us are unable to feel the same sort of anxiety about our belongings’ safety when we’re stuck in to the laborious process of getting stuff put in boxes and smothered in bubble wrap. If you’re going to be a savvy mover, pack your items carefully so that they are not at any risk of being smashed when knocked during the van ride. You do not need the added stresses of worrying about your items while you are also worrying about a whole host of other things, like traffic, parking permits, looking after the kids, providing food and drink for the removals team, so pack cleverly, and you will be able to put any extra worries to bed.Start by being prepared, as one of the main things that will see you packing improperly is running out of materials and making do because you can’t be bothered to go out and get more stuff! Getting enough of everything is a hard balancing act because you obviously do not want to buy too much, as it is a waste of money. However, extra unused boxes can be used later, or sold on, and packing tape is always handy to have around the house, and will probably be useful during the move itself, after the packing is done. Have a good amount of recycled newspaper, as this is a great and sustainable replacement for bubble wrap, which can be used between items to prevent them marking each other, without taking up too much space. You should also have some bubble wrap for really fragile items, like glassware, as well as spare cardboard for the edges of pictures, mirrors and large pieces of furniture, that may mark floors, or get damaged edges. There are certain items that you may not consider at first, like scissors and craft knives that are great for cutting things up in order to get them to fit their uses, especially if you are cutting cardboard so that it will be nicely shaped round corners; ripping it will likely go very wrong! Another tool that some people neglect to think about is the humble tape dispenser. A packing tape dispenser will make your life a lot easier if you are having to load a lot of boxes, or use a lot of tape for wrapping. It will evenly distribute tape and cut it for you, meaning no more fumbling around with the roll, trying to find the end of the tape, nor having to bite the end to cut it, so no more hurting teeth! You should use new boxes if possible, as despite the potential saving, reused boxes will often have lost their shape, which can mean that they will not stack safely, as their straight edges will crumple, and the stacks of boxes will fall easily when the van is moving. Wrap up each delicate or markable item, so that things do not scrape against each other inside the boxes, and fill out spaces so that there is no room for things to move around too much and smash on each other. Use bubble wrap sparingly, as it can take up a lot of room, meaning that you are wasting money on extra boxes!