Moving home? Remember these packing tips

There are several things you can do to make a move less stressful for everyone involved. These tips can also be applied when moving your own things:

• Disassemble your flat-pack furniture. “Your flat-pack furniture isn’t built to last — or be moved. It can fall apart at the slightest provocation. Don’t take the risks. Packing it down will hugely increase the odds of being able to use it again.
• Empty your drawers. “Empty your stuff — carrying a chest full of drawers that wasn’t even made to be moved empty is dangerous.”
• Don’t water your pot plants the day before moving. “Plants are really heavy when they’re full of water.”
• Tape your boxes on both sides. “When you’re trying to stack stuff in the truck, it helps.”
• Use similar sized boxes where you can. It makes stacking easier.
• Don’t recycle boxes that are too worn. “Sometimes you’ll be on a move carrying someone’s china in a shoebox and it just disintegrates in your hand.”
• If you don’t opt for a packing service — have everything packed. “If you rock up to someone’s house and they haven’t packed their stuff, and they expect you to, we are going to be there for double the time and we’re going to charge you for that.”
• Be nice. “The worst times aren’t a matter of lifting something terrible, but instead lifting something terrible for a terrible person.”