Moving is a big deal. There are a lot moving parts. If this is your first time, you’ll learn a lot from this experience. Hiring a professional moving company might not be the way you want to go, and that’s okay. We’ll give you some moving hacks to get the job done.
Kitchen Hacks
Packing Flatware
You’ll be tempted to pack your dinner plates in a big stack, this might not be the best way. Instead, stand them upright, making sure to place a sheet of bubble wrap or a dishtowel in between each one. Find a box that is narrow enough to hold all the plates but doesn’t allow for too much wiggle room. If there is some excess space, fill it in with the rest of your dish towels, potholders, or anything else soft.
Drinking Glasses
Newspaper is always a classic. But most people don’t have stacks of newspapers laying around anymore. Instead, try putting your drinking glasses and wine glasses inside of your socks. For some added protection, go to a liquor store or grocery store and pick up some boxes and dividers. Wine and liquor bottles are sometimes shipped in cardboard boxes with dividers that create compartments for each bottle. This is the perfect solution for your drinking glasses, and the stores are usually more than happy to give them up.
Other Kitchen Supplies
Some of your larger items like stockpots, water pitchers, or big mixing bowls take up a lot of space on their own. If you have sets that nest inside of one another, for instance, a set of mixing bowls, then pack them nested to save space. Otherwise, put some of your smaller items inside the larger ones: wrap your silverware up and put them in the water pitcher or put all of your spices inside of the stock pot.
Organizing Hacks
Set yourself up for success and use these tips to tackle some of the more tedious tasks of moving.
Seal Up Your Jewelry
If you have a lot of jewelry – necklaces, bracelets, rings – you probably don’t want them rolling around freely in a big box altogether. And even if you have a jewelry case, some of those items can shake loose while in transit. So, what’s the solution?
There are two pretty good solutions to the same effect. The first is using Press-N-Seal.
- Lay one piece of Press-N-Seal big enough to hold a few items on a flat surface
- Lay your jewelry down on the open faced peace of Press-N-Seal
- Put another piece of Press-N-Seal on top
- Using your finger, trace an outline around all of your pieces of jewelry
The second method is using a vacuum sealer or food saver machine to the same effect. Just place your jewelry in a vacuum seal bag and let the machine do its thing. This is also a great way to store your jewelry when you won’t be wearing it for a while. It greatly reduces its exposure to oxygen, slowing down oxidization and tarnishing.
Doing either of these will essentially lock your jewelry in place, preventing it from being tossed around or tangled during your move.
Photograph Your Electronic Hookups
If you are like most of us, it’s probably been a long time since you hooked up your TV. Maybe you have a DVD player, a couple gaming consoles, maybe even in VCR. Getting all this hooked up in the right order so that they all function was probably not the most fun thing in the world for you. You might not even know how you did it, you just know that it works now.
So, to prevent that from happening again, make sure you take a picture of the back of your electronics. You can paint a bit of the cord on each end to color code them so that it’s easier to follow in the picture. Alternatively, hook some bread ties around the ends of your chords and label them according to which piece of electronics they go to. This will come in handy, too, when having to plug and unplug things. You won’t have to follow the cord from the outlet all the way up to the device just to find out what it goes to.
Of course, there are probably thousands of moving hacks out there. These are just a few, but we feel like they are solid. After being in the moving industry as long as we have, we’ve developed our own efficient way of doing things. So, if you’re not ready to handle the move on your own, make sure you give On the Move a call. We’ll get you set up with a consultation in no time.
