Ideally, when you’re moving, you’d know your moving date a few weeks beforehand, giving you ample time to plan, pack, and prepare. But unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Sometimes factors outside of your control dictate that you’ll have to pack up your entire life and move out of your current home with only a few days notice. If you’ve found yourself in this difficult situation, don’t panic. Take a deep breath, and read on for 7 tips for fast and easy packing for a move.
Fast and Easy Packing for a Move: 7 Key Tips
1. Gather Your Supplies
If the goal is to pack as quickly as possible, the last thing you want to do is to run out of packing supplies part of the way through. Purchase all the necessary supplies before you even get started. Average rooms contain about 6-10 boxes worth of items, but if you know a certain room is particularly full, overestimate a little bit. And if you’re still not sure how many boxes or rolls of tape to estimate, purchase a few more thank you think you’ll need and save the receipt. You can always return whatever you don’t end up using. It’s much better to have extra and return things later rather than having to put a hold on packing for an hour while you pick up more supplies.
2. Stay Organized as You Go
Designate a packing station and store your supplies there. This station can move from room to room with you to make packing easier. But what’s important is keeping your supplies together so you know where to find them. Have you ever searched all over your house for a sharpie or a pair of scissors in a panic? If you’re lucky enough to have avoided that experience, you can keep it that way by stashing your supplies in one area.
When you’ve amassed a few packed boxes, pick another area of your home for all the boxes that are ready to go. As soon as you have a box taped up, get it out of the way and put it with the other packed boxes. This will keep you from tripping over packed boxes as you continue packing. And physically separating the packed boxes from the partially packed creates less visual stress helps you see your progress as you go.
3. Don’t Worry about Sorting
If you only have a few days moving notice, now is not the time to worry about sorting your boxes into “like” items. Pack things where they’ll fit, even if that means some kitchen plates end up with t-shirts or there are action figures in your socks box. You need to focus on packing as quickly as possible right now. You can worry about sorting everything out after you’ve already moved.
4. Use What You Have as Padding
If you’re forgoing bubble wrap or have run out halfway through packing, don’t worry! Grab some socks or tea towels and start wrapping with those. As long as you’re not moving long distance and use plenty of padding, these will work perfectly fine.
5. Take Time With Fragile Items
Even though you’re already short on time, you still need to take your time when packing fragile items. These are not things you can just rush through. If you do, pieces will break and, you may as well have not wasted time packing them at all. If you’re wondering how you should pack your fragile belongings, check out our post with 7 helpful fragile packing tips.
6. Pack Clothing as It Is
If your clothing is hanging in a closet, you have two easy fast packing options.
1. Use wardrobe boxes. They are a bit pricy, but they’re easy to set up and you can move clothing without having to remove hangers.
2. Use garbage bags. Open the garbage bag. Section off a portion of clothing that will fit in the bag. While the clothes are hanging on the rod, put the bottom of the clothing in the bag and pull the bag up to the top. Tie the garbage bag handles around the hangers and lift it off the rail.
If you have clothing in dresser drawers, packing is even easier. Pick up the already folded clothing and place it in a suitcase or box.
7. Ask for Help
Moving is no easy task when you have plenty of time to plan and prepare. When you’re under a time crunch, it’s even worse. Don’t be afraid to reach out to friends or family members and ask for their help. Having assistance will keep you on track and moving along much faster than if you were packing everything up yourself. And you can always show your appreciation for them and their help with some takeout for lunch or dinner.
If you’re looking for advice for fast and easy packing for a move, chances are, you’re trying to move as quickly as possible. The best way to do that is by hiring a local moving company to handle the loading and unloading of your belongings. We at Moving U & Junk U believe we’re the best moving company for you. We are licensed and insured, and you can find and read our many five star reviews on Yelp, Google, and Facebook. Our movers are professionally trained to safely move your belongings from point A to point B. Whether you’re looking for assistance with moving, packing, junk removal, or a little of each, you can sit back, relax, and trust us to take care of all the heavy lifting for you.
When you’re ready to get a quote for your move, give us a call or text at 484-301-2442 or email us at info@movingujunku.com
