If you’re going to be moving, whether across town or across the country, there are a few things that you need to know about packing your household goods that are vitally important. The fact is, short or long distance if your things aren’t packed correctly you’re going to arrive at your new home with a lot of broken items and face a lot of costs to replace them.

One of the best Tips in the world is simply this; let your moving company pack all of your things. The reasons are several. First, if the movers pack all of your items in boxes will be insured for breakage. If you pack yourself they are not, except if the box is lost completely. (Even then it’s a hassle because the movers don’t know exactly what was in any particular box.) Second, it’s much easier and you can leave the packing until the last days because professional packers can pack a house in 1 day or less. Lastly the packers have the experience and the tools to pack even really fragile items correctly.

If you decide to pack yourself you’re going to need a few items and a good bit of time, so you should definitely start a few weeks ahead of the date that you and the movers have decided on.

The items and tools you will need include boxes of different sizes, a razor knife for cutting some of them when necessary, packing paper, moving tape & a tape gun and permanent marking pens. You can usually buy these items from your moving company.
Different types of items will need different types of boxes. For example, you will want to pack books and heavy, non-fragile items in smaller boxes but you will want to pack linens, pillows and light items in very large boxes. There are also specialized boxes for hanging clothes, mirrors and fragile items and you should have an assortment of these on hand before you start.
Come back for Part 2 and we’ll explain how to pack fragile items and things that shouldn’t be packed.