Moving On: Five Packing Tips for A Stress-free Move

“There is always a sadness about packing. I guess you wonder if where you are going is as good as where you have been.” -Richard Proenneke


Moving is considered to be one of the most stressful events one would go through in life. More often than not, you would have to find prospective buyers for the home you are putting sale, and on top of that, you have to pack a significant number of years' belongings. Indeed, when you add this all up, packing to move can be an incredibly overwhelming experience—so much so that you would often feel burned out and anxious. However, this does not have to be the case as there are techniques and tips you can undertake to ensure that on the day of your move, you would not be too stressed. After all, there are a lot of things involved when it comes to moving houses and not just packing alone, so you could at least do with the least amount of anxiety on moving day. So, before you move into that condo in Manila or elsewhere, here are some tips you should keep in mind:

1.) Declutter

One of the initial steps you should take when packing is to declutter. You cannot expect to take every single item with you into your new home as there are things you would not necessarily need anymore. Once you have collected all the things you do not need, decide whether you want to sell or donate them. Alternatively, you can also throw them away. By decluttering, you are also providing yourself an avenue for the organization of your things, and in this way, you can pack easier and much smoother.

2.) Plan what will go where

As said above, decluttering is an opportunity for organizing stuff as well. Organizing your things is imperative when it comes to packing because it would make sorting them out into which rooms they will go much easier. By now, you should have a rough idea of how you want your new house to look like—especially since to how your furniture and other personal elements will be positioned. An excellent tip for this is to have a copy of a plan of your old house and a plan of your new ones and designate your belongings as to where you want to position them.

3.) Color code the plan

Seeing as you already have a rough idea of where you want your things to be moved during your move-in day, the next step is to do some color coding. On the floor plan of your new house, use sticky dots and assign each room a color. After which, you can go around the house and start attaching color coded stickers on various items. On the moving day itself, all you would need to do is follow the color-coded plan which would remarkably speed up the process.

4.) Elevate your labeling game

By now, you should already know that labeling your moving boxes is an integral part of packing. However, do not simply smack them with labels that designate each room. Instead, label it in a way that you would be able to identify which boxes contain valuable items and would need to be opened straight away and those that can wait until you have everything unpacked. To do this, each room should have a designated “essentials” box which must be unpacked immediately. It could be labeled with a star sticker or a red marker or anything that would make it easily identifiable as an “essentials” box.

5.) Essentials

One of the dreaded things on moving day is not being able to have access to the things you need when you need it. After all, there is nothing more frustrating than having to use the toilet without any tissue paper or trying to find your pillows after a long and stressful move. With this in mind, pack essential items such as paperwork, valuables, kitchen essentials, toiletries, spare clothes, etc. in your own car. It should be with you at all times as you would not want to run the risk of having the movers lose them.

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