Moving Tips from a Professional Organizer

Five people in my life, including myself, have moved in the past month! Moving is a natural time to declutter. When faced with the reality of packing, loading, hauling, unloading and finding a new home for every item you own, there’s a strong incentive to get rid of stuff you don’t absolutely love. What a great come to Jesus about what you actually want to own! Here are my moving tips for taking advantage of this fresh start feeling.

Pack by category, not location

If you have many things of the same type all over the place (ie: clothes in the bedroom, hall closet, and garage. Books in the living room, office, and bedroom) pack them all together. One of the first guidelines of KonMari is to declutter by category, not location, and the same applies to packing. If you gather items by category, you get a more complete picture of how much you own, and a deeper impact on how you really feel about this category of item. All sorts of breakthroughs are available when you face things in full instead of just taking them as they come. For items that we over buy or are our go-to feel better purchases, there’s always a little self therapy nugget to be found when seeing it all en masse. 

Packing paper vs. bubble wrap

For my money, I’ll take packing paper all day long. It’s recyclable, more flexible to pad smaller items and forms a better cushion. I only prefer bubble wrap for large breakables that might not fit into a standard shaped box, such as wrapping a large vase, TV or framed work of art. For those large items that are going into their own boxes, I bubble, but for everything else I use paper. 

Pro Tip: How to use packing paper

Start with an empty box. Form a base cushion on the bottom with the packing paper. That means crumple it up loosely into long cylinders (don’t ball it up) and lay it along the bottom until it’s covered. For small boxes (book box, bankers box) you will need 3 pieces of paper, for a medium sized box, you will need 5. Next, roll your breakable/scratchable/delicate items in paper to protect them. 

Always pack items standing up on their smallest edge and never stacked! 

This goes for plates, books, glasses, everything! If we pack things in a stack, or laying down, they are much more likely to break/get crushed than if they are standing up. If you can’t picture it, think about if you were going to break a plate over your knee. How would you hold it? Flat, right? If you held it on it’s edge you’d break your knee and not the plate, so that’s the strongest position to pack it in! Use the How-Would-I-Break-This-Over-My-Knee? Test to know which way to position an item when packing. (I’m still work-shopping the name.)

Graph Out Your Floor Plan

Oh how I love thee, graph paper. Precise, yet creative, I always use this handy tool to play with floor plan layouts before I move. It’s like high-stakes paper dolls because it’s gonna be real life! Before moving day, I measure out my new space and all of my major furniture pieces. I pick a scale (usually 2 graph squares per foot, meaning a 2x2 of squares equals one square foot). I draw out the floor plan, and draw and cut out my furniture pieces to scale. I also like to shade the furniture with colored pencils for extra visual fun. Then I move the furniture around the floor plan to play with layouts. I’ve found this especially helpful in smaller spaces that need to function as many things. Take for example my one bedroom apartment. I wanted the main living space to have an office nook, library, TV watching zone and a place to eat. This means I had to bring items into the room at unique angles to get what I wanted, not just the put-everything-along-the-walls method so many people go to. The layout I came up with would have never been possible if I was just shoving my furniture around the room trying to figure out how to make it all fit! Doing the graph paper method before you move-in gives you a bird’s eye view of your space, making it easier to visualize than when you’re standing in it, and saves you time and backache testing things out on the fly.

Pro Tip: How to fold a box correctly

Did you know that there are little tabs to hold down the top flaps while you pack it?  

Tabs!

Fold down the top flaps first, so that when you pull it out into a box shape the top flaps are pinned to the sides using the tabs. Next flip it upside down to tape the bottom. 3 strips of tape for small boxes, 5 for medium and large. Now you’re ready to pack it! When it’s full, slice the tabs with a box cutter to release the top flaps (or strong arm it like a beast if you don’t mind little jagged flap edges) and tape the top shut. Label the box with a sharpie. You’ve packed a box!

Pack before you pack

There’s always that moment during moving where you go, ‘I should pack up my bathroom now, but I need to use my bathroom... And I should really pack my closet but what am I going to wear for the next three days while I move?’ And then your brain short circuits and you watch Netflix instead of packing anything and then on moving day you run around like a chicken with your head cut off. Not a fun look. So pack before you pack! As a general rule, I pack a suitcase like I’m going on vacation in my town for a week. Toiletries, comfy shoes, phone charger, PJs, everything I’m going to need. Once I have this bag packed, my mind is at ease and I can get to packing everything else!

Moving is inherently challenging. It can feel like putting your life in a spin cycle, then trying to pull it out and put it back together. I hope with a little thought and preparation, this inevitability of life can serve to benefit us and teach us more about ourselves and be an opportunity for more conscious choices. May your move be smooth and your new home be full of love!

-Raleigh