Our essential, stress-reducing tips for packing to move house

There’s no getting around it, packing to move house can feel stressful and chaotic at times. Below, the Your Nest team share their essential, and in some cases ingenious tips for making packing and moving home easier.

Choose boxes with handles for easy carrying

As you’re likely to be doing a lot of lifting and carrying on moving day, and in the weeks and days leading up to it, it really helps to choose boxes that have handles. This makes carrying them easier but is also safer for the belongings inside, as you’re less likely to accidentally drop them.

Label - and re-label - your boxes

When each box is packed, clearly label the outside of each box with the room that it needs to go into in your new home, and a brief description of its contents – including any key items that you might need to find fairly soon after moving. And if for any reason your box gets re-packed, make sure your labels are updated too.

Photograph the contents of your boxes

As well as labelling your boxes, quickly snap a photo of each filled box on your phone before sealing it up. This is a helpful visual aid for you to remember the exact contents of each box, without having to frantically dig through each one to find a specific item.

Consider where the items will be going in your new home

Rather than packing your belongings in accordance with where they were located in your current home, think about where they will be going in your new home instead. So if you’re moving from a home with one bathroom to two bathrooms, or with an extra room such as a utility space or dining room, it helps to pack with this in mind so the boxes can be placed in their correct rooms straight away.

Pack fragile items with soft items to avoid breakages

Putting any fragile or valuable items into a box with soft items, such as blankets, towels or bedding, will help to minimise breakages or damage without adding lots of extra packing materials.

Create a ‘moving day’ box

To make moving day easier, pack into one or two boxes all of the essential items that you’ll need on the day, and straight away when arriving at your new home.

These might include:

• Snacks and refreshments – biscuits and cereal bars, bottled water, tea, instant coffee and milk, plus your kettle, mugs and a teaspoon
• Basic kitchen equipment – a plate, fork and knife per person, wooden spoon, saucepan, oven gloves
• Cleaning and hygiene products – anti-bacterial wipes, bin bags, washing-up liquid and sponge, kitchen roll, toilet roll, handwash and hand towel, first-aid kit and painkillers
• Tools and equipment – a mini toolkit, scissors, torch, sticky tape, utility knife, pencil and paper
• Personal items for each household member – daily toiletries and medication, toothbrushes and toothpaste, a change of clothes, pyjamas, bath towel and bedding
• Entertainment – a radio or speaker for music, phone chargers, games for keeping the kids occupied
• Pet essentials – pet food, bowls, beds and blankets, medication, leads and harnesses (and why not also take a look at our tips for making moving house easier on your pets)
• Important documents that you don’t want to lose – passports, birth and marriage certificates, driving licences
• Not forgetting a bottle of fizz and glasses to have a toast to your new home!

Most importantly, make sure that your ‘moving day’ box is kept to one side so they aren’t packed with your other boxes, and they travel with you on the day so you always have access to the contents.