Moving Tips For Renters

If you’ve found the perfect house to rent (or apartment to rent), it’s time to pack. It’s a big job and doing it right can save you a lot of time, effort and stress. So here are some tips for moving to hopefully make the process easier for you.

You have more stuff than you think. When it’s all put away in your house, it looks manageable, but once you start hauling all your belongings out, the stuff all adds up. Get lots of boxes – more than you think you’ll need. More on boxes a few paragraphs down.

Tidy up first. I don’t mean completely clean your house – you’ll have to do that once everything’s packed anyway. But for example, packing up your clothes is easier if they’re all in your bedroom, rather than spread out over the laundry room, hanging on dining room chairs and tossed on the livingroom floor. Same goes for things like books, music and decorations. Having them bundled together before you start will make it easier to unpack when you arrive in your new home.

If you’re taking your furniture with you, save time and space by leaving your clothes in the dresser. But be careful: this will make your dresser heavier!

Pack stuff you won’t need right away first. It’s probably going to take more than a day to pack up your whole life into boxes and you’ll need to use some of your belongings, such as kitchen tools, in the meantime. On that note, I recommend packing your kitchen last.

Here’s a great tip I came across about boxes. Lots of people use apple boxes from the grocery store, but in my experience, they’re not always easy to get your hands on. Instead, try the hospital. In my old town, I approached the shipping/receiving dock at the hospital and asked if they had any spare boxes. Not only did they have WAY more than I ever could have gotten from the grocery store, but they were cleaner, sturdier and had a bigger variety of shapes and sizes to fit all the different stuff I had to pack up.

Oh and here’s a really important one that you cannot forget. After a hard day of packing and unpacking, loading and unloading, sweat and tears and hopefully not too much blood, you’ll want to hit the hay … easily. I ALWAYS pack an overnight-style bag for myself with a change of clothes, pyjamas and toiletries to at least make going to bed an uncomplicated task. Make sure you put your cell phone and charger in there too for easy access.