The cost of moving can add up quickly. When I sat down to put pen to paper and created a budget for moving, packing supplies ranked up there as a huge expense. So I decided to look at ways to pack smart, help the environment and save a few dollars.
So where do you even start? Overwhelmed by my full closets and the thought of having to wrap every little decor item by hand I knew the first thing I needed to do was get organized. Before packing all of my possessions into dozens of little boxes, I needed to determine what I was actually going to take with me and I did this in three easy steps. I put together three moving boxes and labeled them:
- Giveaway
- Donate
- Sell
Although moving can be a pain in the you know what, it is also a great time to reconsider some really really bad purchases along the way. By creating these three boxes to have on hand during the packing process, it gave me a place to throw items that I wanted to give away to friends, donate to a local nonprofit and sell online for a little extra cash to add to the moving budget.
Moving on a budget can be a challenge, but one of the big items I immediately took off the list was moving boxes. This one was hard for me, I’ve always bought new boxes from moving companies and later recycled them, but that can add up quickly. For this move I sent out a plea to all of my Facebook friends and was pleasantly surprised that they too were on the move and were happy to share left over boxes. Within a few hours I was set to pack my entire apartment. If you want to forgo the social media route you can always visit local retailers such as Tractor Supply, Starbucks, Ulta (these were a few suggestions I received from friends) for empty boxes.
Ok serious voice here… buy high quality tape. Don’t cheap out on this item because after the one thousandth time the tape splits in half or gets tangled on the tape gun you could reach a breaking point. Save your stress for another time, and buy good tape.
Most people who know me, know that I love organizing things and creating new organization systems… you know, completely normal type behavior. So naturally I created a label packing system. I purchased colored paper, just sticking with your primary colors. Each color represents a room in my new house… so yellow = kitchen, green = living room, red = master bedroom…. you get the point.
On the colored paper I printed (you can also hand write with a sharpie) the room that the box needs to go to and taped it to the side of the box. Quick tip: It’s important that the label goes on the side of the box because once the boxes are stacked it will be hard for the movers to know what boxes they are picking up.
The highlight of my last move was when the moving company complemented me on my box organization. Life made. I know everyone doesn’t get as excited as I do about moving, but I can tell you two things… 1. it doesn’t have to break the bank and 2. it doesn’t have to be stressful.
Here is a complete list of supplies to make your moving headache free:
- Moving Boxes – ask a friend, ask a neighbor, ask a retailer – save your money and and the planet.
- Packing Tape
- Tape Gun
- Wrapping Paper – I bought this at U-haul – I priced checked other retailers and U-haul just has the best paper.
- Black Sharpies
- Colored Paper
xx-Jennifer
