Moving to a new area, whether it’s down the road or across the country, means that at some stage you’re going to need to pack all of your belongings into boxes. Whether you have plenty of weeks to pack or only a few days, packing to move can be a stressful time. You’ll probably end up packing something and not remembering quite where it is!
To make things easier, we’ve got a simple but effective tip to help you when packing to move; box indexing.
Instead of simply writing what’s inside of each box on the outside, label your boxes with a code that corresponds to an index. All you have to do is give each box a defining letter (eg: K=kitchen, L=living room, B=bathroom etc), along with a number that goes up every time you fill up a box (e.g. for the Kitchen K01, K02, K03 etc.).
As you are doing so, take simple notes of what you have packed. This doesn’t need to be an exhaustive list, just something that you will be able to refer to. Add this list to an index that can be easily accessed at whatever stage of your move. For this, we would recommend something that you can easily search/filter. There are a number of great spreadsheet apps available on all platforms and devices.
Following this method will help you avoid the inevitable panic of ‘oh no, where’s the pizza cutter?!’ when you want to tuck into a post-move meal! All you would need to do is search the ‘K’ boxes for the word ‘pizza’ or ‘cutter’ and voila. This method may seem like a lot of work to start with, but you’ll save yourself a lot time in the long run and take away some of the stress to allow to you settle in your new home.
Here’s an example:
| Room | Box | Item |
| Kitchen | K01 | Pizza Cutter |
| Kitchen | K01 | Knives |
| Kitchen | K01 | Chopping Boards |
| Kitchen | K02 | Pots & Pans |
| Kitchen | K02 | Tea Towels |
| Master Bedroom | Mb01 | Winter Jumpers |
| Master Bedroom | Mb01 | Work Clothes |
