Packing Tips for Moving House (From a Bournemouth Removals Crew)

Packing is where you save money

We charge by the hour. That means the state of your packing on the morning of the move is the biggest single variable in your bill, and it is entirely in your hands. A house that is fully boxed, labelled and stacked by the front door can be loaded in a fraction of the time of one where the crew is waiting while someone empties a wardrobe.

If you would rather not do it, we do offer packing as an add-on — but understand that it is time, and time is what you pay for. Either is fine. What costs the most is being half done when the van arrives.

Start three weeks out, in the right order

Pack the rooms you barely use first: the loft, the garage, the spare room, the shed. These are also the places that turn out to hold twice what you remembered, which is exactly why you want to find that out three weeks early rather than the night before.

Leave the kitchen and the main bedroom until the last 48 hours. You need to keep living in the house, and there is no sense boxing the plates on a Tuesday when you move on a Saturday.

Do the decluttering as you pack, not as a separate job. Every box you do not fill is a box we do not carry and you do not pay to move. If a run to the tip is the outcome, we are a licensed waste carrier and can take it — see waste removal or garage clearance.

Box rules that actually matter

• Heavy things go in small boxes. Books, tools, tins, records. A large box of books is somewhere near 30kg and will either hurt someone or burst through the bottom. Cap a small box at about 15kg — if you can lift it comfortably to waist height, it is right.
• Light and bulky goes in large boxes. Bedding, cushions, coats, towels. These fill volume without adding weight and they are what stops a van rattling.
• Fill every box to the top. A half-full box collapses when something is stacked on it. Pad the gap with towels rather than leaving air.
• Tape the bottom properly. Two strips along the seam and one across each end. Most box failures are bottom failures.

Plates go on their edges

Stack plates vertically, like records in a rack, with a sheet of paper between each one. On their edges they are structurally strong; stacked flat they crack under their own weight the first time the van goes over a speed bump on Castle Lane.

Glasses and mugs get wrapped individually and go near the top. Never stack anything heavy on a box of glassware, however well it is packed.

Free fragile kit you already own

Bubble wrap is fine, but you are already surrounded by better padding. Tea towels, bath towels, jumpers, duvets and socks all work, cost nothing, and have to be moved anyway. Socks are the correct size for glasses. A duvet wrapped round a mirror is better protection than three layers of bubble wrap.

Mark fragile boxes on the top face only — if you mark all four sides, the label loses its meaning and gets ignored.

Label by room and by priority

Write two things on every box: the room it is going to, and when you will want it. Something like *Kitchen — open first*, *Bedroom — week one*, *Loft — storage*.

Put it on the top and on one side. Boxes get stacked, and a label you can only read from above is a label you cannot read.

The room label is not for you, it is for us. If a box says Kitchen it goes in the kitchen, and that saves you shifting it yourself the following weekend.

The things that should never go in the van

• Cleaning products, bleach, paint, anything liquid. A leak in a van full of soft furnishings is a genuinely expensive afternoon. Take them in your own car or dispose of them.
• Documents, jewellery, keys, medication, laptops. Keep these with you. Not because anything will happen, but because you will want them within five minutes of arriving and you will not want to be opening boxes.
• Petrol, gas bottles, fireworks. These are not insurable in transit and we cannot carry them.
• The kettle, mugs, teabags and loo roll. Last thing packed, first thing out, and preferably in the car.

The open-first box

Pack one box that goes in your car, not the van: kettle, mugs, teabags, milk, phone chargers, a basic tool kit, bin bags, loo roll, hand soap, a towel each and a change of clothes. Bedding too, if you can.

It is the difference between a first night that is fine and one spent unstacking boxes at eleven o'clock looking for a duvet cover.

We do house removals and man and van jobs across Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch. If you want a hand with the packing as well as the carrying, say so when you ring 07879 168 829 and we will build it into the quote properly rather than discovering it on the day.

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