How to Pack a Proper Essentials Box

At the end of your moving day, you are likely to be completely drained. It’s finally time to take a load off and enjoy your new space. You look over at the sea of boxes in front of you and think, “where do I start?” That can be a stressful sight.

Minimize any effort when you arrive by packing an essentials box. Packing an essentials box can improve the process of your move, especially once you arrive to your new home.

The essentials box is the most important box you can pack. While the essentials box is designed to keep you comfortable on your first night, it can also come in handy if your moving truck arrives late.

What Is An Essentials Box?

An essentials box, sometimes called a “survival box” or “open-first box”, consists of the (you guessed it) “essentials” that you will need once you arrive to your new home. An essentials box will contain a variety of items big and small. While there are some standard items that should make it to everyone’s essentials box -- toothbrush and cell phone chargers -- there are some items that are specifically necessary for you.

Your essentials box contains everything you need to have a comfortable first night in your new home. You can enjoy a home-cooked meal, make your bed, and get clean and dressed the next morning.

Your essentials box will travel with you rather than on the moving truck.

How to Pack an Essentials Box

When we say “box”, understand that everything you need on your first few nights will probably not  fit into one box. Use a color coding system to label boxes as “essentials” so you open those first.  

Consider Your Daily Routine

There is nothing that breaks in a home and gets you comfortable like a hot shower and a cozy place to lay your head at night. When packing your essentials box, think about the items you use at home on a daily basis. This will help you get an idea of what is essential and what can wait.  

• Start with cooking supplies - This may include pots and pans, utensils and plates. You may also want to include a coffee maker, bottle opener, can opener, cups, and a toaster.
• The bedroom - You will need linens, blankets, towels, and pajamas.  
• The bathroom - Think about your hygiene routine. You will need toothbrush, toothpaste, face wash, shampoo, hair dryer, hair brush, hair accessories, shower curtain, and bath mat.

Pack Essentials For The Kids

Essentials means something very different for your kids. While you have certainly had a physically and emotionally draining experience, so have your kids. They will want access to the items that make them happy. In order to make their experience comfortable, you will want to be certain you have all their essentials ready to go on night one. These essentials may include:

• Stuffed animals 
• Games
• Coloring books
• Certain snacks 
• Books 
• Favorite pajamas
• Favorite outfit.  

Ready to Get Moving?

Moving Forward professional Redwood City movers have the experience and the expertise to help you move forward confidence. Call us today for your free quote.

How to Have an Eco-Friendly Move

Moving can create lots of waste. Even when we consider ourselves environmentally-friendly, there’s something about moving that causes us to throw our rule book out the window for the sake of convenience. But with our landfills piling up and 14% of the population moving every year, a “just this once” attitude is turning into a problem for our planet.

Our professional Sunnyvale moving company often sees more waste than is necessary during a move. While we do what we can to reduce waste, a huge part of moving with green intentions starts with the homeowner (that’s where all the waste starts, after all). If you’re moving this year and want to do it responsibly, use these tips to have an Eco-friendly move. 

Cook Your Way Through Your Pantry

The move can come up fast, and during this hectic time it’s tempting to order plenty of takeout. While Thai food and burritos do the trick during crunch time, this can become a problem for the environment as well as your wallet. First, takeout is often packaged in non-recyclable materials, so you are creating more waste this way.

Also, when you order takeout you aren’t making a dent in the food that’s already in your pantry. About a month before you move, start cooking with items in the freezer and the pantry. You may have to get creative, but it’s better to eat the products you bought than toss them the week of the move. This can prevent extra waste and save you money.

Donate Items

Purging before packing is an excellent way to reassess what matters to you and get a head start on your clean slate. Donating items like clothes, furniture, electronics, rugs, and appliances will not only minimize waste, but will also offer up perfectly good items for people that may need them.

You can also hold a garage sale if you want to make a nice chunk of change to add to your moving budget. Either solution is better than the dumpster.

Recycle

For the items you do toss, organize them into recycling, compost, and garbage. Recycling keeps perfectly good materials in the cycle for use later. When recycling, be sure to abide by recycling rules. These include:

• Wash your recycled items before disposing of them
• Separate recyclables by material (plastic, cardboard, glasses, etc.)
• Break down boxes before disposing of them

Collect Used Boxes

There’s no need to buy new boxes with so many disposed boxes sitting in the back room of department stores. Take a trip to your local shopping outlets: the grocery store, office supply store, electronics store, department store, wholesale store, outdoor recreation outlet, and liquor store and ask to take their used boxes off their hands. Pro tip: Take a look around your house to see what size boxes you need most. This will help you keep an eye out for the best boxes for your needs.

Pack Wisely

Not everything has to be packed in a cardboard box. Take stock of items in your house that can hold other items: luggage, furniture drawers, and crates. Packing with non-packing materials can reduce waste while also reducing the load in the moving truck.

Use Environmentally Friendly Packing Materials

Bubble wrap and those little Styrofoam peanuts are terrible for the environment, but the good news is they aren’t necessary. Purchase biodegradable bubble wrap to protect your fragile items.

As for other packing materials, take a look around the house to see what you can find. Old newspapers, towels, linens, magazines, and junk mail go a long way in protecting your belongings. Start by collecting loose papers and spare materials about a month before the move. You will be surprised at how quickly your stockpile adds up!

Forward Your Mail Electronically

Use your move as an opportunity to finally go paperless with your billing. When changing your address and forwarding your mail, request digital mail wherever possible.

Use Eco-Friendly Cleaning Supplies

A clean house is a welcoming house, and while it’s common practice to clean your home before you leave, stay away from harsh chemicals. Many standard cleaning supplies contain phosphates which are known to damage marine life. Use Eco-friendly cleaning supplies to reduce environmental toxins in the house. Natural cleaning solutions like vinegar, lemon and peppermint are excellent additions to a ‘green’ cleaning mission.  

Ready? Let’s Move

If you’re looking for a professional moving company who cares about your needs and can work efficiently, Moving Forward can help. Our professional Sunnyvale movers are known for their efficient work and excellent customer service. Call Moving Forward for your free quote today. 

New Year’s Resolutions To Improve Your Moving Experience

The New Year is full of optimism and opportunity. This is the time where we reflect on our success and shortcomings in the last year and create new guidelines for a successful year ahead. For many, part of heir fresh start includes moving into a new home. A move can be chaotic, which makes it a perfect excuse to give up on those New Year resolutions like eating healthy, exercising, or staying organized. If you’re planning to move in the New Year, use these tips to make sure your resolutions don’t get left behind during the move.

Set Goals

Your moving for a reason, whether that be a new job, a fresh start, or a new addition to the family. As you prepare to move it will be helpful to set some clear goals to keep your move on track and in line with other New Year’s resolutions you may have.

Moving goals help you move better, so if you ever move again in the future -- or if someone asks for advice about moving -- you have worthwhile experience in that area. Moving goals can include creating (and sticking to) a budget, creating a task calendar, how to divvy up tasks between your household and your professional movers, etc.

When setting goals, it is helpful to also set deadlines for these goals. Personal accountability can be difficult, and setting deadlines will help prevent procrastination and stress.

Manage Pre-Moving Stress

A move doesn’t happen overnight (unless you’re in a rare and unfortunate situation). Prevent the pre-moving stress and anxiety by spacing out the task list over a couple months. When you tackle moving tasks little by little, by moving day you can rest easy and leave the final steps to your professional movers.

Moving is an emotional process as well as a physically demanding one, so schedule some self-care time on your moving calendar too. Visit with friends, schedule a massage, or simply take a day off work to relax and do some packing in your own time.

Get Organized

Moving is much easier when you have a system. Stick to your list of goals and keep all your belongings and packing materials organized. When everything has its place and you know exactly what needs done next, you can save some brainpower for tackling bigger issues like your family’s well-being during this transition.

 

Have A Green Move

It’s easy to throw your green resolutions out the window during a move, but it’s actually easier to have a green move than you think.

Moving results in a lot of waste -- from old belongings and junk drawers to moving boxes and packing materials -- but you can minimize some of this waste with a green plan.

Organize your waste into 5 bins labeled recycling, compost, trash, donate, and sell. It doesn’t take much effort and it can direct certain products to be recycled or repurposed. Keep these bins in your garage and be discerning when purging your home.

If recycling is new to you, consider your move as an opportunity to make a change in your life and the environment this year. Organizing your disposed items could be a new habit that you can continue at your new home.


Eat Healthy During the Move

Through all the packing, coordinating, and cleaning, takeout can become a regular habit at this time. But all those pizzas and trips to the corner thai restaurant can add up. Eating takeout too often can also be bad for your health. Save some cash and keep your energy high with regular healthy meals.