When planning your move there are a number of things to consider prior to the removal date.
- How will we do our move? Ourselves or through professional house removals?
- Will we need packing assistance from friends/family? It is usually when friends/family hear the words “furniture removal” that they suddenly become extremely busy or ill or both.
- What is our preferred timeframe to complete the whole process? That is, from when we commence packing until we are in our new residence.
- What are the pitfalls we should be looking out for?
There are probably another hundred questions to be answered, however, like building a house, if you do the foundations correctly, everything which follows has a good chance of success.
With furniture removal, the foundation is the packing cartons. If these are genuine removalist cartons, properly packed and labeled you have now built a solid foundation on which to build your removal.
The comment is often made that, packing a removal truck is like playing a game of Tetris. Good removalists will ensure that the load is built on a square base, and that all possible spaces are filled.
The same applies to packing cartons.
Imagine trying to pack a truck full and tightly when the cartons have come from the back of the local deli and are all sorts of shapes and sizes. The removalists are immediately on the back foot as they will probably need to stack these cartons about two to three metres high.
If this is done with proper cartons, that is simply a matter of putting three or four on top of each other. If this is done with deli cartons they will probably use eight to ten, each of which is a different height, width and depth. This has the immediate effect of putting the load out of square as well as allowing movement during transport due to the gaps which occur.
Having said that, on an average household move, ten to fifteen smaller cartons, suitcases or similar can be handy to fill “that gap”.
When packing a household into cartons here are a few tips for moving.
- Always leave the tupperware cupboard and linen closet to last. Tupperware is handy when you need to keep a carton light, linen is handy to protect that “fragile” piece.
- Butchers paper is best used when packing breakables. Newspaper is OK, however, is will leave a black stain from the print.
- When taping a carton, fold the flaps flat and place one tape directly along the join. Follow this with two further tapes, one on either side. These two tapes should lie alongside and touching each other.
- When packing a carton, start with the largest & heaviest items first. Sometimes, especially in the case of electrical items in the kitchen, these may need to be spread over several cartons.
- Most times, the items being packed are not square and therefore leave gaps in the carton. Fill all of these gaps either with other items or “scrunched up” paper. This has the effect of stopping movement within the carton, therefore, minimizing damage.
- Fill the carton to the top, trying at all times to have items of the correct size to fill that last gap and have the carton filled to capacity. If you find you have a gap at the top and nothing to fill that gap use either “scrunched up” paper or linen.
- Ensure at all times that cartons do not become too heavy. Remember that the removalists (who are only human) may need to lift these above their head when packing into the truck. A simple test is to lift the carton yourself.
- Sometimes keeping cartons light becomes a problem. This is especially true when packing crockery or the pantry. In the case of crockery, simply mix in some tupperware. In the pantry, it is usually the canned goods which become heavy. Place a couple of rows of these in the bottom of the carton and then fill with lighter, boxed items.
- When packing crockery never wrap the paper tightly around the item. Allow the paper to wrap loosely, therefore creating its own “cushioning” effect. This is especially true when packing glassware.
- Make sure that you pack, and label clearly, that final carton from the kitchen which will carry the tea, coffee, sugar, electric kettle and sufficient cups.
- Finally, ensure that you label all cartons clearly, especially with the name of the room from where they came. This can avoid severe confusion at the delivery.
Planning on moving soon? Contact South West Removals to move houses from Perth to Bunbury, the South West, greater Western Australia and also interstate. Contact us or call (08) 9725 4766 to speak to a house removalist today.
