A dolly. This will help you move your heaviest furniture as well as your boxes. Paper padding, plastic stretch wrap, or furniture pads. This will help keep your furniture free from damage. Packing tape. This will hold the padding over your furniture together. Straps. These will help your furniture stay together and will keep it from shifting. A large tarp or plastic wrap. This should cover the floor of the truck to keep your furniture from getting dirty.
If you or someone who is helping you is also driving a car to your new home, you can also give your fragile items to that person. [2] X Research source Fragile items include valuable plates, anything made of glass, and even light bulbs from disassembled lamps. Your overnight items should include enough for you to live with for a day without having to unpack. This will help you avoid an annoying situation where you’ve packed away your deodorant and have to buy a new one because you can’t find it. Put your computer and small electronic items, or even a television, in the cab, if they will fit. You can add these items later during the packing process.
Remove the cushions from your sofas. Take apart your bed and your bed frames. Tape your bed frames together. Take the bulbs out of your lamps and place them in a separate container or bag. The last thing you want is for glass to get crushed all over your truck. If you have heavy dressers, take the drawers out and carry them to the truck individually. When you load the dresser back into the truck, you can put the drawers back in and even tape them shut. Filing cabinets can be the heaviest item of all. Take out your drawers and carry them to the truck separately before you put them back in. If you remove any screws or hardware from the furniture, put it in a bag and tape it to the furniture, or put a note in the bag that clearly says which piece of furniture it’s from. Take apart your bed rails or table legs, and roll them into large rugs or carpets.
You can get small and odd-sized boxes at local companies that recycle them from industry. All you’ll need is the specific measurements of the shelves you wish to populate The smaller boxes will also help you with the chaos of moving. After packing the boxes, they can be put on the shelves until you move; after you arrive at your new location, they can sit on the shelves until you are ready to pack them.
Only do this if you don’t annoy your neighbors or end up taking up too much space. You can also load right from your house into the truck, but you’ll have to keep out an eye for which items should go in first (heaviest to lightest). Make sure you have a clear path between your home and the truck.
The heaviest items include your appliances, such as the stove, washing machine, fridge, and dishwasher. If you’re packing a fridge, don’t forget to defrost it at least 1 to 2 days before your move. Keep these items in their upright positions and distribute the heavy items along the back wall of the truck. If you have a washer and dryer, position them on the opposite side from the fridge. Next, load large pieces of furniture, such as sofas, living room chairs, and entertainment units. Remember that you’ll be packing from floor to ceiling, with the heaviest items on the bottom. Pack 2–3 foot (0. 6–0. 9 m) tiers of items, and wrap a strap around the items when you’re done with each layer to hold them together.
For extra protection, after you wrap a mirror or painting, you can put it between your mattress and box spring, or surround it by cushions. Wrap up your couch cushions and pillows. Wrap your mattresses. If you plan ahead, you probably have a lot of things that you need to move with you anyway that would make great protective pads in the truck. When packing your house, leave all blankets, sheets, towels and other linens unboxed and use them when packing.
Your sofa, mattress, and box spring will provide cushion for other items. Put dressers and desks against your mattresses so the drawers can have a cushion if they open. Any item with drawers should be facing the truck walls so the drawers can’t open too much.
Make sure you have labeled the boxes to say which room they should go in. Pack a layer of heavy, medium-sized, and light boxes, and repeat the process until the truck is mostly full. Try to create tiers that have a similar height, so you can pack the boxes to create an even surface. Move from the front to the back of the truck. As you go along, place in items that are hard to stack in between crevices to save space. Items like cushions and strollers are great for this.
Try to fit together the remaining parts as if you were working on a jigsaw puzzle. Everything will be able to fit together if you arrange it the right way. Place items that don’t fit anywhere else in the front of the truck, such as grills. If you rent a truck that is larger than you need and you do not fill the truck completely, you can minimize moving and jostling by leaving the empty space at the back of the truck and keeping the height of your packing low and even.
