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Moving Tips and Tricks from Our Texas Moving Professionals – How to Prepare and Pack for Your Move

Moving to a new home can be a daunting task. It takes a lot of planning, preparation, time, and of course, effort. With the help of qualified and experienced professional movers, your moving experience won’t be as stressful. They’ll do the heavy lifting for you and if you hire full-service movers, they’ll even pack your things. Before your movers arrive at your front doorstep, you must prepare your home. At AB Moving & Storage, our Texas moving professionals have compiled a list of helpful packing and moving tips for a fast and hassle-free move.

Getting Ready for Your Move – What to Do Before Your Professional Movers Arrive

  1. Plan Ahead: The earlier you start planning and organizing for your move, the better. This is especially true if you’re planning a long-distance move to another state. Give yourself up to 4 months, or at least 2 weeks in advance. Create a moving calendar and fill it up with essential tasks you must complete before your moving day. Organize tasks by their priority and due dates. Spend the rest of your time finding the professional local movers or long-distance movers right for you!
  2. Create a Moving Budget: This should be the first thing you do after creating your moving calendar. Make a realistic budget and don’t forget to include expenses aside from your moving costs, expenses that may be less obvious like packing charges, temporary storage, and fuel costs for your family vehicle. If you’re moving out of state, you might take a plane to your new home while your stuff is transported by road. If that’s the case, don’t forget to account for travel and flight expenses in your moving budget. At AB Moving & Storage, we offer the lowest, most affordable flat-rate and hourly rates to best suit your moving budget!
  3. Take an Inventory of Your Home: The weeks or days before your move is a great time to get rid of some of your stuff, the things you no longer use or want. Go room to room and decide which items are you going to keep, donate, or discard. Get rid of the items in the latter two categories before your movers arrive. A decluttered home is an easier and cheaper one to move out of!
  4. Take Measurements of Furniture and Doorways: Weeks in advance of your moving date, either take or get measurements of your new place, particularly its hallways and doorways. Then, measure all the large furniture pieces you currently have including your bed, couch, dining table, etc. Any piece of furniture that won’t fit through the halls, doors, and rooms of your new home must go. By doing this before your movers arrive, you’ll have saved them the time and money it would take to transport this oversized furniture only to have to throw them away once you arrive at your destination.
  5. Packing by Yourself? Here’s Our Step-by-Step Packing Guide!
    • Boxed Items
      • Carefully protect all items inside boxes by individually wrapping them with wrapping paper, newspaper, or bubble wrap.
      • Use boxes whenever possible for all items. This not only provides additional protection but loading the moving truck will be much easier and keep your costs down.
      • Use plenty of tape and wrapping paper – this is far cheaper than losing items to damage.
      • Clearly mark “Fragile” on each box that has breakable items in it, so they can easily be identified for loading on the top of heavier boxes or items.
      • Mark the room and contents of each box to help your organization and unpacking at your new home.
    • Kitchen and Dining Room
      • Wrap each item individually and pack “snuggly” into sturdy boxes. Use plenty of paper and fill extra spaces with additional paper. “Dish-pack” boxes designed specifically for kitchen items can be purchased at a packaging or rental store and will provide the best overall protection.
      • Use towels or bubble wrap for small kitchen appliances before they are loaded into boxes.
      • Put heavier items on the bottom of all boxes.
    • Refrigerators, Stoves, and Washing Machines
      • Refrigerators should be empty of all contents, defrosted, and taped shut.
      • All appliance hoses and cords should be taped or secured to the side or top of the appliance.
      • The washing machine “tub” should be secured so it does not rock back and forth during transit.
    • TV, Stereo, VCR, Computer and other Electronics
      • Box all these items whenever possible. TVs or other items too large for a box should be wrapped in blankets or moving pads.
      • Original manufacturer boxes are best.
    • Household Decor
      • Lamps should be disassembled and boxed whenever possible.
      • Pictures and wall hangings should be individually wrapped and boxed in groups of two or three.
      • Items should be individually wrapped and packed “snuggly” into sturdy boxes. Use plenty of paper and fill extra spaces with additional paper. “Dish-pack” boxes provide the best overall protection and should be used if available. They can be purchased at most packaging or rental stores.
    • Garage, Storage, and Garden Items
      • All power and gas equipment (lawnmower, weed eater, chain saw, chipper, tiller, etc.) must have the oil and gasoline drained.
      • Propane tanks (barbeque) must be empty.
      • Garden tools can be strapped together in a bundle.
      • Use smaller sturdy boxes for heavy hand tools and use plenty of paper.
      • Disassemble all items that you can. This will take up less space and will make it easier to load and pack.