There is a lot of thought and time that goes into the moving process that takes up a lot of your energy. You’ve made it into your new home with all your belongings and feel ready to call it a day. But wait, you still need to unpack your new home! Sometimes, the last thing you want to worry about after a successful move is unpacking. In today’s blog, we thought it would be helpful to give you some of our best unpacking tips to help make your move as smooth as possible.
Sell and/or Donate Before Packing
Most of the steps to successful unpacking actually begin when you start packing up your belongings. Do your future self a favour and avoid moving stress by packing properly, being mindful of the fact that how you pack now will impact how successful your unpacking is later. The first step is to only pack items you actually need or want to keep for your new home. It is always helpful to divide all your items into three categories: keep and bring to your new space, sell or donate, and throw away. Take this as your chance to declutter before starting afresh in a new home. This process dwindles down the number of items you actually need to pack, also impacting how many items you will need to unpack once moved in. Selling or donating your unwanted items, especially larger ones like furniture, is a great way to free up that much-needed space and make a little extra money at the same time. We recommend holding a garage sale and/or avoiding the stress of online classified by consigning your unwanted furniture with Next Time Around so your pieces get larger exposure without as much effort on your end.
Pack an Essentials Bag
Once you’ve decided which items are coming with you to your new home, remember to also pack a separate essentials bag. Prepare for the first few days or weeks in your new space by creating a bag for each family member that includes their essential items. These bags should include things like everyday toiletries, snacks, any medication, and extra clothing. Without this bag, each family member would be constantly digging through boxes to find important items that need to be used regularly. Essentially, anything you do not want to have to dig for later should be put in one of these bags. Try to limit these essential items to things you will be using on a daily basis so that you don’t start adding less useful things. Limiting it to one bag per family member helps fine-tune items because the more you include, the harder it will be to search through. Remember to take all your essential bags with you in your car instead of the moving truck so you know exactly where they are once moved in.
Label Your Boxes
All other small items not included in your essential bags should be packed in labelled boxes. When packing, try picturing where every item should or could be placed in your new home. For example, you know what room all your coffee mugs will go in so you should pack them with other kitchen items. Labelling this box “kitchen” will make sure it gets placed in the right room when unloading the moving truck, van, or other vehicles. Doing this for every room in your new home will save you and your moving company time because there will be no questions about what box should be put where. It is even a good idea to label what you pack inside each box, so you know what boxes to start with when unpacking. Labelling boxes will also help you with any moving checklists you want to create and will generally help you stay more organized during and after your move.
Create an Unpacking Schedule
While it is very helpful to create a packing schedule, it is equally important to also have an unpacking schedule at the ready. Often people forget to create some sort of unpacking schedule which leaves them unorganized and less efficient once moved into their new home. An unpacking schedule will help you divide all your unpacking tasks to make them feel more manageable. You can create a list of what needs to be unpacked and assign tasks to family members or helpful friends. We recommend always unpacking the belongings you need to use first to make sure your home is livable as soon as possible. To protect your floors and walls, you should also try to situate any furniture and larger items first so that you don’t have to keep moving them around as you unpack. Then, because you’ve labelled your boxes by room, you can start unpacking room to room according to a realistic schedule.
Let Us Do the Unpacking for You
After a full day or more of moving, you may not feel you have the strength, time, energy, or desire to deal with unpacking all the boxes and re-arranging everything. Hiring our team at Deluxe Moving & Storage is the most important step you can take to successfully unpack your new home. Let our trustworthy and professional team handle the unpacking for you to ensure a smooth and efficient transition. Along with our full packing service, we also offer a full unpacking service for homeowners that need their furniture and other items safely unpacked. We have years of experience in getting organized to ensure that you walk into your new space with all your belongings already arranged to your satisfaction.
Learn more about our packing and unpacking services, as well as all our other moving services, that will give you peace of mind when moving. To start your stress-free moving process, give us a call at 519-212-3023, shoot us a message at rick@deluxemoving.ca, or fill out our FREE, no-obligation quote form. We can help make your move easier, leave the work to us!