Packing Tips: Dos and Don’ts for Long Distance Moves

When planning a long-distance move, you’ll need a good strategy for packing your belongings. This post can help, sharing important things to include in your strategy as well as things to avoid.

Do: Take Advantage of Resources

This may be your first long distance move—or your first one in a while. Fortunately, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel thanks to experienced long distance movers offering helpful resources such as our Home Moving Checklist.

Do: Declutter

As soon as you know you’re moving, sort your possessions into categories, including what you will:

Keep
Sell
Donate
Toss

By throwing out what’s not usable and giving away what you don’t want to keep, this will help you to effectively downsize. Then, you can hold a rummage sale or otherwise sell relevant belongings. By following these steps, you’ve pared household items down to what you plan to take with you.

Do: Gather Packing Supplies

If you’ll do your own packing, get the necessary supplies together about six weeks before the relocation date. Supplies include:

Boxes
Packing tape and dispensers
Labels
Permanent markers
Bubble wrap (or another form of packing material)
Dolly

You can use towels and linens to pad boxes. To stay as efficient as possible, use kitchen towels to wrap dishes and bathroom towels to protect items that will go into the bathroom. Typically, you are able to purchase packing items from your moving company to make it easier.

Do: Pack Rarely Used Items Ahead of Time

From holiday decorations to off-season clothing, you’ll have belongings that you won’t need until in your new residence. So, about three weeks before your move, pack those items. They can include books you won’t read in the next month, photos, purely decorative items, puzzles, board games, and so forth.

Label those boxes with the rooms where they should go and then organize your packed boxes in a way that takes up the minimal amount of space required.

Do: Pack Room by Room

A couple of weeks before your move, pack everything that isn’t a necessity, room by room. In the kitchen, you may just keep a pot, a skillet, and a saucepan, packing your cooking sheets, broiler pans, and so forth.

Put those essentials in a box that you label with the room (kitchen) and the words “Open me first.” Use them during the last couple of weeks in your current home or apartment; then, right before moving day, close up that box.

Keep clothing in dresser drawers. Moving companies expect you to, and it’s quite convenient.

Just make sure you don’t make boxes too heavy – you don’t want boxes to break, or items in them to be crushed.

Do: Pack Bags to Take with You

You’ll take these smaller bags with you, and the bags may contain medications, toiletries, important documents, pet supplies, and favorite toys for your children. Anything that you’re going to need immediately, or for the first couple of weeks, pack in those bags. Even if you’re just moving locally, you want to make sure important items don’t get lost in boxes if you need them.

Do: Reach Out for Help

Ask friends and family members for help when you can use extra pairs of hands to pack or otherwise help with your move.

Don’t: Wait Too Long to Pack

It can be too easy to underestimate the amount of time it takes to pack belongings. Make sure you plan at least a month ahead of time to pack you can avoid the stress that comes with rushing. Plus, when you have a need for speed, you might forget to save time for packing belongings in an attic, garage, or storage unit.

This is especially likely if they contain items you don’t use often (which is typically the case). So, use our checklist to plan your timing—and, if need be, start a bit earlier than the typical timeline. That can help to eliminate stress related to packing, and also allow you time to do things like hold a garage sale or sell items on an online marketplace.

Don’t: Forget to Be Clear About What Needs to Be Moved

As you pack boxes, most of them may be going to your new place, but a couple of them might be headed to friends or family members who can use items you don’t need. Or a few could be going to a thrift store. No matter what your specific situation is, be ultra-clear with your cross country movers about what they will transport.

Don’t: Pack Perishables

Nobody wants to waste food. That said, much of it won’t necessarily transport well. Some won’t stay fresh while some jars can break. So, as part of your moving timeline, use up the food in your pantry, cupboards, and refrigerator, which can include having a get together with friends and family members who live nearby.

When moving day looms, you could donate boxes and cans of food to local pantries and, if there are foods you’d like to take with you, place them in a cooler and transport them in your own vehicle.

Don’t: Pack Hazardous Materials

Long distance moving companies won’t transport flammable or otherwise hazardous materials. You can ask your cross-country movers for specifics; the list will contain things like gasoline, lighter fluid, paint thinner, pool chemicals, ammunition, and so forth. Household cleaners also often contain materials that could trigger a fire or give off dangerous fumes—such as ones containing bleach or ammonia.

Dos and Don’ts When Comparing Long Distance Moving Companies

Although it’s important to select and hire cross country movers in a timely way, you don’t want to simply pick the first one you find. It’s important to have the right long-distance movers, ones that provide quality service at a reasonable price, ones that take excellent care of your belongings.

Sticking with the theme, if you want help with packing, make sure that the long-distance movers provide the level of service you want, packing services that fit within your budget.

Choose Suddath as Your Long Distance Movers

As trusted long distance movers for more than a century, we’re the experienced choice. As far as packing and unpacking services, we offer a range so you can pick what fits your needs and budget.

With full-service packing, we’ll take the work and stress off of your hands, using the best materials and techniques to quickly and carefully pack your belongings. We also offer partial services where you pick what to pack as well as offering pro tips for DIY packers.