Moving to a new city can be both exciting and stressful. Whether you have just found a new job or relocating your business to another site, you require planning, budgeting, and careful packaging for a seamless move.
Moving to a new country or another state is not the same as moving to a local neighborhood. A long-distance move is a unique experience, but it could be a disaster if you don’t plan it wisely. There’s much to plan and prepare before a long-distance move, including choosing the suitable packing material. You need to think smart and pack wisely.
Scroll down to discover everything you need to know about planning a long-distance move and the necessary packing materials.
Preparing for a Long-Distance Move
Moving from one place to another within or outside the city can be challenging in terms of relocating your things and the associated expenses. Preparing yourself for long-distance moves involves some critical steps. Let’s discuss each of them separately:
Create a Plan
Once you know where and when you’re moving, it’s time to draw a comprehensive plan. It includes planning the items to move and making reservations with a removal service. Reservations offer numerous benefits. You can easily book your moving dates to ensure the household items and vehicles are delivered on time.
Professional removalists like Optimove offer a comprehensive move plan that includes disassembling, packing, storing, lifting, and moving all household items and vehicles. Professional movers can also help you with packing and organizing packing materials. To learn more about the Optimove removal service, click here: https://www.optimove.com.au/removalists-brisbane/.
Create a Moving Timeline
Create a complete timeline to prepare, transit, and settle down at the new place. Prepare a moving checklist to see how many items you need to relocate. Create a to-do list for moving the items and relocating pets, cars, and other necessary equipment. Talk to your partner about how you’ll arrange the basic needs during the transit period and where you’ll most likely stay.
Declutter and Purge
Relocating is a perfect time to let go of all the unnecessary stuff. Declutter your home or donate the items that may not fit inside the new place. Use the one-year rule to determine what’s important and which items you need to discard. Additionally, you can hire professional removalists to get rid of the extra stuff you’ve been holding onto for years.
Packing Materials for a Long-Distance Move
A move is more than just packing boxes and transporting items. An essential part of moving is packing and transporting valuable and large items to prevent them from being damaged during the long-distance move. Here are common packing materials used in long-distance moves:
Cardboard Boxes
Heavy-duty boxes’ hard and durable material can carry all household equipment and appliances. Cardboard boxes are the most commonly used packing materials across the globe. Cardboard boxes are available in a variety of sizes and sheet types. Use small to medium-sized boxes for small and heavy items like stationary, books, kitchenware, and decorative items.
You can fit a variety of lighter objects inside a single large box. Always pack your fragile items in separate boxes to ensure their safety. Remembering what’s inside each box is almost impossible, so label all your boxes. Write ‘fragile’ clearly on boxes with delicate items. This way, it will be easier for the movers to handle your fragile items with extreme care.
Bubble Wraps
Bubble wraps are essential for wrapping fragile items. The air trapped inside the bubbles creates a cushioning effect and absorbs shocks. Use bubble wraps to cover all your fragile items completely, and ensure there are no uncovered edges or exposed areas.
Packing Tape
Packing Tape is essential during packing. Premium-quality packing tapes are good at providing adhesive support to the base of boxes with heavy items inside. With packing tape, you can seal boxes and plastic bags and tighten up your bubble wrap covering. Make sure you purchase a good amount of packing tapes because you’ll use them generously to pack things up for a long-distance move.
Foam Wrap Sheets
Foam wrap sheets are thin sheets made out of foam to cushion the surroundings of fragile items and appliances. If you have a wooden bed with a sizeable wooden headrest, you may require a sheet of foam wrap to cover it up. Foam and other soft materials have a higher capacity to absorb shock and prevent the transmission of vibrations to the packed items. Foam wrap sheets are the best packing materials to protect the edges and corners of furniture, appliances, and large, fragile items.
Packing Peanuts
Every home and office has decorative fragile items and kitchenware that need extra care during transportation. Packing peanuts are designed to protect such items from damage during a long-distance move. They provide extra padding to your delicate items. Packing peanuts form a layer at the base of the box to protect a fragile thing from damage due to shocks.
Styrofoam Balls and Sheets
Styrofoam balls and sheets are specifically used for delicate padding inside a box. Styrofoam sheets are used alongside oversized, fragile items like appliances and furniture. Styrofoam balls serve the same purpose as packing peanuts, except that Styrofoam balls are much smaller in size. Styrofoam is a synthetic material that is not eco-friendly. There are many eco-friendly DIY packing options that you can use as an alternative.
Green Move – The Revolution in Packing Materials
While moving is not among the more eco-friendly activities in general, you can make certain choices to decrease your carbon footprint and make your move greener and more sustainable by utilizing your existing resources. Paper and cardboard are among the primary packaging material amounting to an average of over 82 million tons of municipal solid waste each year. You can pack your fragile items in your chest of drawers, desks, and cabinets. You can also store and reuse original packaging for your appliances, kitchen equipment, etc.
Final Thoughts
Packing and moving to a new city is a challenging task. Planning your move and being aware of various packing materials can help you plan your long-distance move more effectively. Since climate change has become a challenge for the planet, it’s best to use eco-friendly packing materials and play your part in creating favorable living conditions for future generations.
