Relocating and Packing Hacks That Save You Time and Money

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Relocating and packing hacks that save you money

Relocating can be tedious, expensive and time-consuming but there are ways to bypass spending so much money or time on what could actually be a pleasant experience. It’s important to plan for it especially if you don’t want to end up with an epic relocation fail.

Statistics have shown that relocating can be one of the most stressful experiences in your life but you can change that if you understand how to move smartly.

Choose the Right Day to Relocate

Your ability to choose the right day to relocate can make or mar the entire experience. It matters much more than you think. Friday remains the busiest day to relocate. Most people moving prefer to do so on Friday because it gives them the entire weekend to unpack and get ready for another week at work.

The best days to relocate are between Mondays and Thursdays. Reason? Most people are at work and it is relatively cheaper and less stressful to move your things especially during the early hours of the day. It might not be a convenient day of the week to relocate especially if you work 9-5 but the middle of the week are the best days to relocate.

As you might have guessed, weekends are the worst days to move because a majority of people who plan to relocate want to do so over the weekend when they are not at work. Avoid this as much as you possibly can.

Use Magazines or Clothing to Wrap Breakables

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Your breakable items include glass cups and some of your dishes. Consider wrapping them with thick pages from copies of your old magazines you still have at home. This will prevent them from crashing and breaking during relocation.

You should also consider wrapping some of your breakables in clothing and linen to keep them safe.

Create Handles For Your Boxes

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Boxes would easily slip out of your hands when carrying them. You can avoid this by cutting out handles in all your boxes. To do this, cut out upside down triangles 3 inches from the top of your boxes.

Arrange Your Plates Vertically in Boxes

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When arranging your breakable plates in a box, consider placing them against one another vertically to prevent them from breaking.

Use a Laundry Basket

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There are some items that you’ll need immediately you arrive in your new home. These should not be boxed. Rather, arrange them in a laundry basket for ease of access.

Wrap Cutlery in Plastic

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Keep your cutlery intact by wrapping the cutlery tray in a plastic wrap. This will hold them together and prevent them from spilling all over other things you’re packing and hold them in one place.

Use the trash bags For Your Clothes

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If you have clean clothes that you want to keep away from dust and dirt, you can cut a little hole in the bottom of your trash bags and slip your hangers through them.

Seal Opened Bottles and tubes

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If you use a number of bottles and tubes especially for your toothpaste, you can open the caps and put a plastic wrap over the lids before closing them.

Take Pictures of Devices Connected to Multiple Wires

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Electronic devices and wirings like HDMI, auxiliary cables, home theatre, woofers, DVD players, gaming consoles and flat-screen TVs usually require what could easily become a complexity of wiring to work correctly. If you are familiar with how to connect them yourself, then it’s okay to just unplug and pack. If, however, you needed help to set them up, then consider taking pictures of how they are connected before disconnecting them for packing.

Label Your Boxes Appropriately

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Relocating means you’ll be packing a lot of boxes. You can save yourself a lot of time by labelling them with bright coloured duct tapes to make it easy to identify where they go. For instance, one box can be labelled ‘Bathroom.’ Another can be labelled ‘Kitchen’ or ‘Bedroom.’

It’s okay to have more than one box with the same label. For instance, no one would expect you to pack your entire kitchen into a small brown box.

Pack Electric Cables in Empty Tissue Paper Rolls

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Packing wires and cables could be messy if there are packed properly. One way out is to pack them in empty tissue paper rolls and then pack the rolls into a box.

Relocation tips save you a world of trouble especially here in Nigeria where a lot of things are not always predictable. Do you have a relocation experience you want to share with us? Kindly do so in the comment box below.

Samod Biobaku
A Nigeria-based writer and blogger who has written and edited for top brands including The SUN, Punch, Newswatch, Pulse.ng, Bigsam Media, Nigerian Bulletin, Swish Interativ, Hello Nigeria, National LIFE, iCampus, Jobberman and Cheki.