You’ve got the new lease signed and the old lease is winding down. Now comes one of the hardest parts of moving to a new place: packing up the old one. Here are some suggestions to make your packing and moving go as painlessly as possible.
Don’t move what you don’t need
First, if you have something you don’t want to pack or haven’t used in a while, now is an excellent time to get rid of it. (Also, if it’s been broken for a while, you are probably not going to fix it in the new house.) Now is the time to haul things to Goodwill or a similar charity, hold a yard sale, or join Freecycle or Free Mesa to find people who will take your unwanted stuff.
If you use one of the giving-free services, or post an ad for pickup on your local version of Craigslist, you may feel safer notifying the person doing pickup that you’ll leave the item outside, so they don’t have to come into the house. Goodwill may also be able to arrange for furniture pickups, though that will vary by location.
Getting supplies
Once you’ve recycled, given away, or thrown away those items you don’t want to move, there will still be quite a bit left over. You’ll need some moving boxes and some packing supplies. Moving or storage companies will sell you either. Small boxes can often be obtained for free from local book stores, liquor stores or grocery stores. You’ll want to protect breakable items with bubble wrap (not free, but fun to play with afterwards), newspaper, or old towels. You might even make a run down to your local thrift store for towels and blankets which can be used to wrap larger items you don’t want scratched.
Packing tips
The cleaning advice site FlyLady has lots of valuable tips for packing. One strategy is to number your boxes as you pack them. Less essential items will get packed first, so when you arrive at your new place, you’ll know that the higher the number on the box, the more often you used the items inside.
Write the room name on all four sides and the top of the box. If you really want to be organized, when you’ve finished packing a box, make a quick list on a piece of paper of all the contents and make that piece of paper the last item you add to the box. That way when you’re searching in particular, you can open a box and read the list of contents, rather than having to slug through all the way down to the bottom of the box.
Finally, there are a few things you won’t want to pack. Keep a couple changes of clothes, a change of bed-sheets, and your toiletries in a suitcase. And it can be a good strategy to have one box of easily prepared foods — say, bread and peanut butter — and a couple light bulbs in a box that rides with you, instead of in the moving truck.
