Planning Your Packing

Packing your possessions in a specific order is important. But ordering your packing is easy you just need a simple chronological guide and a few important tips:

First: Decide what you like the most. Based on the size of your new home, you may have to choose what will stay and what will go. Payne says that a typical American household uses less than 20% of what they own. This 20% should be the focus of what you pack first. To determine your 20%:
- A few months before moving day, purchase a pack of small sticker dots and mark an item with a dot whenever you use it. When you move, only pack the clothes with dots.
- In your closet, tie a piece of ribbon or string around the top of a clothes hanger. When you wear an article of clothing, put it back in the closet on the empty side of the marked hanger. After a few months, you'll know what you wear and what just takes up closet space.
- For your garage or basement, try purchasing different colored storage bins and putting items into them as you use them.

Next: Pack like you do at the store: heavier things first and lighter items on top.
Empty space can mean disaster. Large pieces of furniture – such as drawers and shelves --can be packed with smaller, odd-shaped items after they're loaded into the van. It's a resourceful way to protect breakable items.

Last: Keep your TV close by to entertain the kids!
As a rule, pack last whatever you need to access quickly during your last days at the house, your stay at a hotel, or during travel, such as children's activities (which serve as welcome diversions on the road), items for your pet, and your camera.

Never Part With
Important paperwork like car titles, insurance policies and marriage certificates are the most difficult items to replace but somehow always the easiest to lose. Never pack them -- but do make copies of them on a portable hard drive. Payne also recommends hand-carrying valuable jewelry and other items of high sentimental or monetary value.

Some Final Tips
Empty all trash cans. Don't be the person that packs full garbage cans into the van -- not a pleasant welcome gift at your new home. Keep your luggage away from the house until you need it; it has the tendency to get packed away as well. Throughout your packing, says Sandy, remember, "Once the van is packed there is no turning back."