Movers in Indianapolis are busy this time of year. It is important that you make the mover’s day easier by ensuring your items are securely packaged. Some moving companies in Indianapolis also offer professional packing services to assist with customer.
Here are nine tips to make sure your valuables come out of their boxes and into their new home in good shape.
Use the correct size boxes.
Put heavy items, like books, in small boxes; light items, like linens and pillows, in bigger ones. (Large boxes packed with very heavy items are a common complaint of professional movers. This is because it not only make the job harder but items also have a better chance of breaking.)
Heavier items should be on the bottoms of boxes and lighter items on top.
If you’re loading the truck yourself, make sure to pack heavier boxes first, toward the front of the truck, for balance. This also pertains to heavier furniture items.
Try not to leave empty spaces in the boxes.
Fill in any gaps with clothing, towels, or packing paper. Movers are often reluctant to move boxes that feel loosely packed or unbalanced.
If at all possible, avoid mixing items from different rooms in the same box.
This will make your packing quicker and your unpacking a lot easier, too.
Make sure to label each box with it’s new home destination and a description of its contents.
This will help you and your movers know where every box belongs in your new place. Numbering each box and keeping an inventory list in a small notebook is a good way to keep track of what you’ve packed―and to make sure you still have everything when you unpack.
Tape boxes very well, don’t be afraid of using too much tape.
Use a couple of pieces of tape to close the bottom and top seams, then use one of the movers’ techniques―making a couple of wraps all the way around the box’s top and bottom edges, where stress is concentrated.
If you need to move expensive art, make sure your mover can accommodate any requests.
Never wrap oil paintings in regular paper; it will stick. For pictures framed behind glass, make an X with masking tape across the glass to strengthen it and to hold it together if it shatters. Then wrap the pictures in paper or bubble wrap and put them in a frame box, with a piece of cardboard between each framed piece for protection.
Always bundle breakables together.
As you pack your dishware, place packing paper around each item, then wrap the bundles of five or six together with more packing paper. Pack dishes on their sides, never flat. And use plenty of crumbled-up paper as padding above and below the dishware. Cups and bowls can sometimes be placed inside one another, with paper in between, and wrapped three to five to a bundle. Be sure to pack in specified dish boxes (come with a layer of padding).
Consider items that might need special treatment.
Movers treat TVs like any other piece of furniture, wrapping them in quilted furniture pads. At Norm’s we plastic wrap and double-sometimes triple furniture blankets around the entire piece for maximum coverage. Plasma TVs sometimes require special wooden crates for shipping. If you don’t have the original box, make sure your movers know they need to double-box with ample padding.