h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

When you're packing, always put a kettle, jar of coffee, teabags, sugar (if you want it), teaspoons, milk, and a couple of mugs in a seperate box. And when you move, take this box with you (and not in the removal van). That way, you can be sure of getting a drink as soon as you get there.

Here's another great packing tip. Repeat after me:

"Liquor stores are my best friend."

I kid you not. When you're packing, you need lots of boxes. Liquor stores throw out boxes daily when unpacking beer and wine. Most are a great size for packing books, movies, CDs, knick-knacks, and so forth.

Packing stores charge outrageous amounts for these boxes, but all you have to do is drive behind your local liquor store to get them for free. And they're typically be quite clean too. After all, the cans and bottles inside were never opened.

For that matter, any retail store will typically have an excess of boxes. So will cafeterias. Even office supplies create needless boxes, especially bulk paper boxes. Think creatively before spending good money on boxes.

Instead, use the money to buy pizza for yourself and anyone who helps you move. You'll be glad you did!

Unpack your bed & a set of linens first. I cannot stress this enough. Because no matter how zealous you are, eventually your unpacking exhaustion will hit you like a ton of bricks, and at that point you have no energy left to set your bed up. Trust me, unless you have a sleeper sofa (and room to unfold it) spending time putting the bed together is preferable to winding up on a pad of towels/clothes/throw pillows.

Re throwing stuff away -- moving is a perfect opportunity to get rid of junk. Especially if you are a pack rat like me, you will find that tonnage can be saved with the one-year rule. Have I worn this in the past year? Have I used this in the past year? Unless it's a monetarily valuable heirloom, give it to charity. No matter how much sentimental value those memorabilia items have, you will *never* fit into that dress again/use those beer steins with the sports logo at home/read those old math textbooks/use Windows 3.1 or the packaging it came in. Your favorite charity can probably sell them to someone who isn't moving.

Also, if friends help you un/pack, do not be stingy with beer & pizza afterwards. No rewards for them & they may not have time for you next move.

Sorry to welcome AuntieDiluvian mid-conversation - but I had too. I am Jeremy, or as I am known here Whoami?. Welcome to h2g2, I hope that you enjoy your time here. I'm an ACE, which is why I welcomed you, and a Guru,so if you have any questions, just drop me a line. TO help you along the way, may I suggest writing a short intro to yourself in your personal space. Bye for now,

Whoami?

Don't forget to pack bog roll as well in the kettle box; you never know when you might need it.

The best boxes for packing books, especially paper backs, are fruit boxes. These are essentially flat, usually with enough height to fit a book om edge, spine pointing skywards. The best thing about them is they stack, allowing easy removal/storage until you have your bookshelves up. When my parents moved we were able to keep the books in these boxes for quite sometime until things were sorted out.

Wick

I like paper boxes for packing books ... the ones that hold about 10 reams of letter-sized paper. Even the largest book will fit into the bottom, and they're just the right size ... easy to carry, and even when full never too heavy to manage.

My tip is...don't throw away all your boxes when you've finished unpacking! I know it is very tempting to get rid of anything that seems superfluous and untidy when you're in your new place, but there will come a time very soon when you'll need to move things around, redecorate or whatever - and where do you put all your little bits and pieces then, eh? Flat pack a few of the boxes that survived the tender care of the removal men, store them in your loft...it saves having to search out new ones all over again.

Choose an easily identified box and designate it the spillover box. When you're filling the "kitchen gadgets" box or the "videotapes" box, there's always one item that doesn't fit. Put it in the spillover box, you don't even have to think about it. When you're unpacking and you desperately need the can opener that's missing from the kitchen gadgets box, you'll know where it is.

I have a metal footlocker I use as my spillover box. Easy to spot, provides excellent protection in case any of the items is fragile.

I cannot stress this strongly enough, for Zarks sake organise all documentation into box files long before the day! This is for 3 reasons:

1) So you actually know what you have lost before the move.

2)So you know what you have lost during the move.

3) To stop alot of shouting and screaming about who put it away, and where on Earth they put it.

This is based upon years of experience of seeing people move, and just dump a load of unsorted papers into a box marked "Important!" when they move. And then still arguing 3 years later when they can't find a manual for their overcomplex hi-fi, or the guarentee for their PC, or whatever.

People, it's just not worth the human cost.

Researcher PSG

Just to reiterate Frag's point: start collecting boxes as soon as you have any inclings about moving. We went through nightmares trying to find boxes to move my grandmother's stuff, and I can garuntee you that all the supermarkets, off licences and everyone will have no boxes if you look at the last minute.

Another thing to horde is newspapers. Don't recycle them. You need tonnes to pack crockery properly. If you don't get any free papers but travel by train, try to go for the train early (works best if its a train people can commute on. I tried this between London and Brighton), and walk through it collecting old newspapers. Then make sure you're the last person to get off from your compartment (if you get off where the train terminates), and collect all the papers generated by your fellow passengers.

Even better than collecting newspapers is to stop by your local newspaper's printer! The newsprint paper comes on very large rolls, and are removed from the press before they are completely empty. Usually this is sent back to the paper distributor for recycling, but if you ask nicely, maybe they'll give you one of the short rolls. Using unprinted newsprint is much better at wrapping fragile objects than printed newsprint. No messy ink to clean off after the move!

Good point, Joanna. A couple of weeks before I start packing, I'll stop throwing my newspapers away. Again, newspaper is much cheaper to pack with than anything you'd pay for. I especially recommend the Sunday paper.

I recommend the Sunday Times, we managed to pack all our crockery with 1 issue.

Researcher PSG

Kitchen rolls between plates and then tape the plates together. One sheet of kitchen paper round each glass,cup etc. Teacloths (if you use them) round kitchen utensils. This keeps things clean, so that you don't have to start washing up the other end.Newsprint is dirty, especially if it gets damp on a sea voyage. (if you can get the unused stuff, as above, then of course this doesn't apply.
Newspaper is particularly lethal to old books

When we moved while I was a kid, my mum always wrote down on a 3x5 card what major items were in each box and coded them with a letter for the room they were for (LR for living room, K for kitchen) and a number. That way, we knew which box went where and approximately where things we might need were.

Now if only I can remember this the next time we move.

G7

That ties in with my documents comment, to move effectively, and lose as few things as possible you have to be unimaginably organised.

Researcher PSG

Moved house four times in the last acouple of years. And can safely say my one bit of advice is buy proper boxes! My first move I went down the route of supermarket boxes and even asking our local electrical shop for boxes however what a nightmare! On the day I hired a van and roped some friends into helping out, however three of the boxes gave way and one of my friends broke an well loved (not expensive) ornament. One of my friends then suggested a site that he had bought boxes from. Advice not well received when you have just moved!!!

However on my second move I decided to do some research on buying boxes online. I went with my friends suggestion in the end www.helpineedboxes.co.uk but there really is sites that you can choose to suit your box needs. Boxes designed to hold different household items i.e. book boxes, clothes, kitchen stuff you can even get tape, paper,labels etc. The boxes were delivered the next day and were really sturdy and strong.

I went for three different type of boxes and when stacked were all modular in size (apparently for easy stacking in the van) I also found mattress covers a really good idea as they meant my mattress didn't get dirty in the van plus it was raining. There are loads of other things you can buy but if you want to keep costs down then newspaper is brilliant for packing (apart from the ink) and paper shredding was also great for really delicate items.

Put your duvets in black bins liners as theses also make good protectors for things in the van. If you buy good quality boxes you can use them again and again. I have just moved again (my forth) and the boxes are still going strong. Just take off the tape and flat pack them again. However I didnt use the contents panels on the boxes to avoid confusion for my next move, I just attached an A4 sheet of paper on each box but you could also write on the tape.

Hope this helps new movers and don't forget the bottle of wine for your new house. I also always leave a bottle for the new occupants and I am sure it puts a smile on there faces xxxxx