Moving presents a lot of situations where you will really be stressed out. One of the worries that you may experience is that some of your precious stuff will get lost in transit.
Don’t Let This Experience Be Yours
It is truly a heart-rending experience that at the moment you are already in your new home, you realized that one of your precious objects is not included in the boxes. That will keep you worried whether it got lost on the way, or if you just simply forgot to put it in the box.
The Unsavory Consequences of Not Taking an Inventory
Unpacking your things at your new location will be much more pleasant if you have made adequate preparations. If you have not made a plan and just stuff your household belongings wherever you want to, you will find that you’ll waste a lot of time searching which item is where.
And the worst is: there is a high risk of losing some of your most important and expensive items. Then you’ll wonder: did it get lost, or did someone from the moving crew steal it?
A Packaging Plan is Necessary
Before you put an item on the box, be sure to take some time in creating a plan of how you will be able to find anything once you unpack them in your new location. Moving companies like U-Haul and Budget recommend that you organize your work because it will save countless hours and avoid a lot of stress when you begin unpacking the boxes.
How to Pack your Things
Here are some suggestions on how you can organize the packing of your belongings – from your hair-pins to your most expensive trinkets.
1. Discard anything that you don’t need.
This is the first thing you need to do when it is time to pack your things before a move. All things that you don’t need will just be a white elephant in your new location.
So, instead of shipping them, it is better to leave them where you are now, and you won’t spend anything for their shipment. The best way is to collect all these items and give them away. If you don’t want that, you can sell them in your garage sale.
2. Put in paper, picture or video all the things that you are going to ship.
Before stuffing anything into the boxes, you need to document what you are shipping. This documentation can be in the form of a video, picture or simply just writing them down.
Get the serial numbers of your most important or expensive items, or any identifying details in video or in picture. As a matter of fact, homeowners should be doing this in their precious heirlooms even if they are not moving, as a precautionary measure against theft.
Print a copy of this document and store a copy outside of your home, say a cloud-based storage service.
3. Set up an inventory system.
Keeping your things organized will go a long way. So, the first thing you must do is to create a list of what you have to transport. The list form is not as important as the need to list everything.
You can do a spreadsheet on your computer and print it out so that you have a hard copy that you can take with you. Store your list on your computer or on a USB flash drive.
As you start to pack, identify each box with a large number. On your list, put all the box numbers and the things that will go into each box. You need to put in as many details as you can to avoid confusion.
For precious items, it would be good if you could also indicate their value or prices. This will help the insurance company determine the amount of your compensation if they happen to get lost or damaged during the transition.
4. Set up a color coding system.
Assigning a specific color for each section or room in your new house will help you to organize the unpacking of the items once you get there. Label each box according to their specific locations.
With each box sporting a different color and a specific name, you can easily spot them and get them to where they need to be in your new house.
Assign a special color to the box that contains your most precious items. You need to easily spot it so that you can open it first before the other boxes when you arrive at your new location.
5. Check the boxes as they arrive
Use your check list to check off the boxes as they arrive. Examine each box for any unauthorized opening to ensure that nothing is stolen or lost. You will know if a box is missing if there is no check mark on your list. If that happens, you have some proof of the loss, which should be the responsibility of the mover.
