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Couple Smiling in their new home because they had a smooth move

7 Life-Hacks To Make Your Packing Easy

As exciting as it can be to move to a new location, few things can take away the thrill quite like the prospect of packing all your belongings. Unfortunately, your packing duties will remain the same whether it’s a seemingly simple local move or a dramatic cross-country move. Although many people choose to hire professional full service movers to do their packing, you may be one of the many who want to do your own packing. Here are seven hacks (and a few super hacks) to make the whole process go a little more smoothly.

  1. Don't Neglect Your Socks and Shoes
    Keep your shoes inside a plastic bag or shower cap so they don’t get other things dirty. The inside of the shoes provides good storage for socks and smaller items like personal hygiene products or other small incidentals. Pack small breakable items like perfume bottles inside your pairs of socks. The socks protect the bottles from getting broken and take the place of expensive packing materials.
    Super Hack: Pack your perfume inside socks and then stash it inside your shoes.
  2. Pack Your China Cabinet With Your Linen Closet
    Wrap your china and glassware in towels and bedding. This eliminates the need to buy costly bubble wrap or packing materials and it actually works better! The thicker linens provide excellent protection for your dishes and glasses.
  3. Call Your Local Big-Box Store
    Although stores like Lowe's and Home Depot sell boxes, they may give you their used boxes for free. Other places to call or drop by? Local furniture stores, grocery stores, and even office building. The big boxes of paper make great book boxes.
  4. Prepare For Your First Night
    Pack an overnight bag for the actual trip. This is much more convenient than digging through boxes late at night to find your bedtime and personal hygiene items. It also saves you the expense of having to go to the store at night to purchase the items that you can’t seem to find at the time!
  5. Don't Demolish Your Closet
    Keep your clothes on the hangers as much as possible. As long as you have to pack the clothes and the hangers, save space and time by packing them together. If you think about it, you're just taking your clothes off the hanger to put them back on. It will make putting your clothes away much easier once you start unpacking.
    Super Hack: If you keep some clothing items out of the box, consider putting a garbage over the hanger to protect them. Poke a hole in the bottom of the bag and insert the hanger hook through the hole. 
  6. Lunch Supplies Can Do Double Duty
    Use sandwich or Ziploc bags to store hooks and small screws and label the bags. This makes reassembling items like IKEA furniture or hanging things much easier than trying to find those small items and risking them getting lost. 
  7. Don't Skimp on the Organization
    Pack boxes by room and label each box correctly. As tempting as it might be to combine items into as few boxes as possible, it makes unpacking much more confusing and difficult. It’s important to know where the immediate necessities are packed. Few things are more frustrating than digging into your box labeled "Bathroom" for your toothbrush and paste, only to find a bunch of kitchen items.
    Super Hack: Pack boxes you’ll need on the trip or immediately in the new house where they can be easily accessed.