The best way to pack a house for moving is backwards: start with the things you will not miss and finish with the kettle. That sounds obvious and almost nobody does it, which is why so many moves end with three rooms packed beautifully and the kitchen going into bin bags at midnight. My crew and I unload the results of this every week, so here is the order that works.
The best way to pack a house for moving, in order
Loft, garage and shed first, four to six weeks out. Then spare rooms, then books, pictures and anything decorative. Then the rooms you use daily, in the last week. Kitchen and bathroom on the final day or two. Bedding on the morning.
The loft is first for two reasons. It is the room you will not miss, and it is the room that turns out to hold twice what you thought, which is information you want six weeks out rather than six days. It is also the single most common cause of a move running over, and it is the first thing I ask about on a survey. The moving checklist sets out the wider timeline this fits into.
Boxes, and getting the weight right
Small boxes for heavy things, large boxes for light things. That one rule prevents most of what goes wrong. A large box filled with books cannot be carried safely, will burst at the bottom, and cannot be stacked, so it costs time at both ends.
Use proper double walled cartons rather than supermarket boxes. Supermarket boxes have been designed to hold one type of thing once, they do not stack squarely, and a load that does not stack squarely moves in transit. Tape the bottom of every box across the seam and then across it again at right angles. Fill the gaps so nothing shifts, and do not overfill past the flaps, because a box that will not close flat cannot be stacked either.
Keep boxes to something one person can lift comfortably. If you are moving yourself with a smaller van, that matters even more, and it is worth reading where the line falls between a man with a van and a full crew before you commit to either.
The kitchen, which takes longest
Every kitchen takes about twice as long as people allow. Plates go on their edge, not stacked flat, because on edge they support each other and flat they do not. Glasses get wrapped individually and go near the top. Pans nest with paper between them.
Run the food down for a fortnight before rather than moving it. Anything open, anything frozen and anything past its date is not worth the box it would take. If you pay for one room to be packed professionally, make it this one: it is the slowest, the most fragile and the most annoying to do at the end of a long day.
Bedrooms and wardrobes
Hanging clothes go into wardrobe cartons on the rail and come out on the rail at the other end. Everything else can stay in the drawers if the unit is sound and the drawers are taped or strapped shut, which saves a surprising amount of time. Ask first, because whether that works depends on the furniture and on the stairs.
Beds are the thing to have dismantled and reassembled by whoever is moving you, and the fittings should go in a labelled bag taped to the frame. A bed that cannot be rebuilt on the first night is the difference between a tiring day and a bad one. Access at the far end decides how easy that is, which is why it comes up so often on moves around St Albans and Hitchin, where the stairs are older and narrower than the furniture assumes.
Labelling that earns its keep
Label the side, not the top, because the top is what another box is sitting on. Write the destination room rather than the origin room: the crew is reading it at the new house, not the old one. Add one line about what is inside, and mark fragile boxes on every visible face.
Number the boxes and keep a list on your phone. It takes ten minutes and it is the only way to know at the far end that everything arrived. It also settles any question about what went where without opening six boxes.
The box that travels with you
One box, clearly marked, in your car and not on the van. Kettle, mugs, tea, phone chargers, toilet roll, hand soap, a towel each, medication, documents, basic tools, and whatever the children or the animals need. Bin bags and a first aid kit if there is room.
That box is the difference between arriving and settling in. My crew and I cover moves across Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, and I have never once seen anyone regret packing it.
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