Before the truck arrives,moving boxes should be stacked in a way that makes them easily accessible. This might mean near the front door, or perhaps lined up in the garage. Moving boxes can be organized according to room, but set the fragile cardboard boxes aside. Boxes for moving that may be particularly fragile may even be set apart to be ride in the car instead of being jolted around with the heavy boxes and furniture. Picture frames and large decorative items such as vases can be added to the fragile list for the car and wrapped with protective moving supplies such as bubble wrap and stretch wrap.

When the truck arrives, the packing boxes should be lined up along the inside wall. They can be loaded from floor to ceiling in as many rows as is needed. The tighter they are packed the better, because this can help to prevent them from falling or sliding. Once all the boxes are secure, furniture and equipment can be loaded up. It is important to have moving blankets or a type of plastic wrap to protect the furniture. Call and talk to the moving company about the specific furniture that will be moved. They can help to suggest what types of packaging or moving accessories will be helpful for protecting the furniture that is being moved. Whoever is loading the truck should also be made aware if anything is antique or heirloom. Over protecting the things that are costly or sentimentally valuable is worth the effort. Getting everything moved successfully will be a great feeling.

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Renting a moving truck is moving made simple. Even for a local move, it is much easier to take one, or at most two big trips, rather than running back and forth across town all day long for a few days in a row. It’s also great to skip out on begging friends to use their pickup trucks. Just because people own a pickup doesn’t mean they want to help everyone they know move by hauling there moving boxes!

When there is a question of what size to get, all depends on what the moving situation looks like. For starters, call the company and talk to them about what types of large furniture and equipment is being moved. The company may also ask questions about how big of a house is being moved to, and if anything is being picked up from storage. The company should be able to help with estimates of the size of truck that will be needed. If the movers are hired and will be charging by the hour, then plan on getting a truck that is the right size, but error towards it being a bit too big. This is a good plan to go with if moving across country as well, since multiple trips is probably not an option. If friends and family are stepping in as the moving help, and multiple trips are an option, get a truck that is approximately right, but error towards it being a bit small. There is no point in spending extra money on space that isn’t needed.

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If you belong to a free-cycle group online, or if you have been wanting to join one, this is a great first post. Most free-cycle groups require that the first post a person makes is an “OFFER”. Heavy duty, boxes for moving that have only been used once will get snatched up quickly. Especially for a new home owner who may be wanting to put up a few “WANTED” posts, this will get you started off on the right foot.

For those who have no interest in such groups, a status update on their social networking site of choice can quickly find someone who is happy to take the moving boxes off their hands. In fact, people who plan ahead well could even go together with someone else who will be wanting cheap moving boxes. This way the two parties can split the cost. For those who didn’t think of this early enough, simply offering the boxes as “hand-me-downs” can feel rewarding since others are being blessed by great and cheap moving boxes.

If giving the packing boxes away as hand-me-downs seems too complicated, a few calls to local department stores should determine a place where people can drop off cardboard boxes to be recycled. In towns where recycling is encouraged the boxes can be put in the recycling bin. If a town encourages recycling but doesn’t provide people with bins, the boxes can be used each week to hold all their other recyclables. Otherwise, for the person wanting to just get ride of them, they can simply be put out next to the recyclables.

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Once all the moving is done, and all the moving boxes are unpacked, what is a person to do will all those cardboard boxes? First, some of the packing boxes won’t necessarily be unpacked. Some of the moving boxes will no doubt go straight to the new basement or garage with items that aren’t used often. Those boxes will simply double as storage containers.

The rest of the moving-boxes will obviously be torn down, and can be stacked together until all of the boxes needing to be unpacked are finished. Once a person has all of the boxes unpacked and torn down, it’s time to figure out what to do with them. If the family might be moving again in the next year or two, (for instance military families or people renting,) then this isn’t really isn’t a debate of what to do. If there is any extra room at all to store boxes then it just makes sense to keep them. But for families not planning to move anytime soon, or for those who just don’t have any room to spare, something has to be done with the moving boxes. Even if people don’t plan to keep their cheap moving boxes, its not a bad idea to store two or three next to the washing machine or behind the fridge. That way if one is needed for storing or shipping something, there is no scramble to find a box.

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