If there’s one thing we know at Sunbound, it’s just how time and labor consuming organizing a move can be (heck, we started a whole company just to help solve that problem). While we’ve covered some great high-level principles to keep in mind when you’re getting ready for a move in another blog post, we wanted to take this opportunity to give you some more concrete guidance on how best to get packed up and prepared for your move. 

Of course, the easiest way to handle this is to hire a professional organizer or let Sunbound handle the process entirely, but if you want to do it yourself these tips and tricks that we’ve picked up from professional organizers should give you a great outline on getting ready for a move.

Pre-Packing Preparation

Like with so many other things in life, the key to a successful move is to first get organized. Not only does this help make sure that the packing itself goes smoothly because everything is ready to go into its pre-arranged place, but also helps make sure that you are correctly prioritizing all the things you actually want to bring with you.

A good first step is to go through your house room by room, breaking down your possessions into piles of things you want to keep, things you want to get rid of but not throw away (such as things you want to donate to charity or sell), and those things that you want to throw away. For things that you can’t easily put into piles (like big pieces of furniture), a helpful tactic can be to use different colored sticky tags on each object to mark what category it goes in. While you’re of course free to use your own colors, we like using green for things that are going to the new home, yellow for things that are being sold or donated, and red for things going into the trash. Once you’ve done this exercise, to the extent possible, start organizing all the things that you want to bring so that you can start to get a good sense of exactly how much stuff you need to move to your new home. This information is vital because every moving company will need this information in order to give you an accurate moving quote. And even if you plan on renting a moving truck and driving your belongings yourself, it will be important to make sure that you rent a truck that can comfortably fit everything you are bringing. 

A second benefit to organizing your things before calling any moving companies or van rental companies is that it gives you an opportunity to take a second chance and really consider whether you actually want to bring all the possessions you’ve set out. As we’ve covered before, the easiest way to save money on your move is to simply bring less with you, as most moving companies will charge you based on not only the weight of your things, but also by the amount of square footage that your possessions take up. 

Accordingly, many moving companies will be able to give you a rough breakdown on how costly it is per square foot of space in their trucks to move your possessions. By measuring the rough dimensions of the furniture you plan to put in the moving truck, as well as of the boxes you plan to take, you can get a rough sense of how many boxes or pieces of furniture represents the limit you’re willing to spend on your move. This not only helps your movers get an accurate quote, but for many people, knowing the finite amount of space that they have helps them efficiently make choices about what they truly want to bring. Nothing makes you realize you really don’t need to bring those old tennis rackets you never use to your new home quite like realizing how much it will cost for those rackets to take the ride south. 

Keeping Track of the Boxes

Once you’ve got a good grasp on what you’re bringing with you and what you’re leaving behind, it’s time to start packing up your possessions. Once again we suggest going room by room, packing up all your possessions into boxes and setting aside the furniture in a clearly marked way so that it is easy for the movers to locate. As you go room by room it often makes sense to put like items together as you are packing. This not only makes it easier to track your progress, it also makes things easier on the other end when you’re unpacking. And should you ever need to open a box to get something you didn’t mean to pack, you’ll want to be able to identify the box containing the lost item as accurately as possible so that you open as few boxes as possible while looking. Finally, this also makes things easier on the other end as you can easily unpack each room by only unpacking boxes of things intended for that room. 

As you pack each box, make sure to number each box and then keep a short list of all the things that are inside that box (for example, “Box 1: cutlery, pots and pans, kettle”). A great way to make this list is by using a microsoft excel spreadsheet on a tablet or laptop as you can write a lot of information without it getting too cluttered, but in lieu of that good old fashioned pen and paper also works wonders. Many people also choose to then write the names of what’s in the boxes on the outside of the box. While this is a smart tactic, one good trick is to make sure to write the information on the side of the box, as well as the top and bottom, so that you can read what each box has even when they’re stacked on top of one another. Another good trick to mark your boxes is to use color coding for each room that things will be going to in your new home. 

While moving can be a costly and time consuming process, there are tried and true ways to make your move as efficient and cost-effective as possible by being careful and organized and following a plan.

Sunbound is the best way to pay for senior living. If you want to learn more about how Sunbound can help make senior living more affordable for residents and easier to manage for communities, email us at info@sunboundhomes.com or request a demo here. Sunbound is on a mission to make senior living more affordable for everyone.