10 Tips for Labeling Your Moving Boxes

By Scott Boone

Image courtesy of flickr.com

One of the biggest problems with moving is the mountain of boxes that suddenly inundates your home. Like some kind of Tetris Game come to life, the battle of the boxes becomes all the more difficult to win once the move is complete and you try to make sense of where all your stuff has gone.  In order to make your move a little less stressful, I thought I’d give you 10 ways to sort your move out. 

Tip #1: It starts before it starts

Most people make the mistake of using a big black magic marker to label all their boxes.  The problem with this approach is that with the exception of size, all your boxes tend to look alike.  The way around this conundrum is to purchase a set of permanent, waterproof magic markers with at least 6 different colors.  In the next section I will show you how to color code all your boxes so that sorting them out after the fact will be child’s play.

You also need to buy or print labels that have the name of each room at the top of each label.  If you use inkjet labels like those available at any stationary store, make sure they are at least 3inches tall by 4 inches wide. I prefer to use the kind that have 2 labels set one above the other.  The next best choice is 4 labels per page. (The reason for this will become clear later in this blog.)

Tip #2: Color-Coding to the Rescue

Image courtesy of wikimedia

First you need to assign a color to each room.  For instance, Red could be designated as the living room, blue for the bedroom, green for the garage, pink for the bathroom, orange for the kitchen and purple for the dining room. If you have more rooms to pack, add another color. (Avoid yellow since it’s hard to read on a white label.) 

Since you will undoubtedly start packing boxes long before the move takes place, this color-coding system will make perfect sense, particularly if you pile many different kinds of boxes in your garage.  (Make sure you explain the color-coding to your moving crew so they will know where to put each box in your new home.)  I also recommend you number and inventory each box that you pack from the get go.  This way you won’t wind up hunting aimlessly for an important item you have misplaced.

Tip #3: What’s Right to Write?

While it’s perfectly alright to simply mark a pink box “Towels”, if that’s all it contains, when it comes to kitchen and garage boxes, each box can contain a number of different items.  This means you need to list them on the label.  For instance, an orange kitchen box might look like this: Coffee Maker, Coffee Filters, Blender, Measuring Cups, Napkin Holder, Sink Racks.  If you run out of room on a label before you have finished packing a box, simply slap on another label.

Tip#4:  Handle with Care

Image courtesy of Pixabay

One of the things that troubles homeowners the most is avoiding breakage.  The best way to keep from having anything fragile being damaged or destroyed (other than providing plenty of padding), is to slap on a great big “Fragile” sticker, as well as using colored packing tape to designate these boxes to your crew at a glance. (I prefer to use red tape for this task.)  Remember, if you are paying your crew by the hour, you want them to move as swiftly as safety will allow.  That being said, you also want to make sure that your glasses, china and all other breakables don’t get buried at the bottom of the pile.  The best way to do this is to make sure these boxes can be spotted at a glance.

Tip #5: Make an Inventory List

While I touched briefly on this topic in my second tip, I thought it best to more fully describe how an inventory list works.  Some people simply put a number on each box and then write the total number of boxes on their inventory sheet.  While this will help make sure every box that was packed makes it to their final destination, this approach won’t make it any easier to determine what’s what once the move is complete.

What I recommend you do is take a clipboard and a pad of yellow lined paper.  As you pack and label boxes, write down the number of the box just packed.  Then write down the list of items on the label next to this number.  While it might take a little longer to do this, you will thank me later when you are trying to figure out which blue bedroom box contains your shoes, or what has become of the ironing board.

Tip #6: Prepare an Open Me First Box

Since the unpacking process can take days, weeks or even months, depending upon the size of your house, you need a shortcut to find to the stuff you will need to get through the first few days after the move is complete.  While your inventory system will give you a leg up on this process, I find it helpful to go one extra step to make finding these boxes a breeze.  What I do is purchase a package of big gold stars or some other hard to miss brightly colored stickers that I will apply to the front, top and side of any box I need to open in the first few days following a move.

Tip #7: Create a Packing Calendar

Image courtesy of 123freevectors

Another way to get a jump on the packing process is to create a calendar that designates when to pack what first.  Obviously, anything that has been hiding in the garage or attic for a year or more is a good place to start.  After that will be the items in your china cabinet, followed by anything in the backyard that you don’t intend to use until after the move is finished.  By creating and sticking to a calendar, you will find that the packing process can be broken down into a series of steps, as opposed to being one big hassle.

Tip #8: Need a little Inspiration?

Since a picture is worth 1,000 words, I thought I would include a link to a page on Pinterest where you can see many of these concepts right before your very eyes.  Scan this page to get a little inspiration on the kinds of labels and stickers to use to help turn your mountain of boxes into a molehill. 

https://www.pinterest.com/explore/moving-labels/?lp=true

Tip #9: Keep it Simple

Since no battle plan survives contact with the enemy, it is vital that you keep your coding system simple if you want it to work well.  Make it too complicated and you will wind up right back where you started, with a mountain of boxes that seem to take forever to sort out and unpack.

Tip #10: The Best Box of All

Image courtesy of Pixabay

Even if you hire a moving crew, you will undoubtedly want to be present while your belongings are packed into the truck.  This means you will spend the better part of your day trying to organize the chaos of a move.  This also means you may or may not have a chance to take a lunch break.  Therefore, you need to pack a box of goodies that you (and perhaps your crew) can dip into whenever the need arises.  While most people know to pack a cooler with beverages, many homeowners forget to back a goodie box much to their chagrin.  Munchies help make a move go faster when your belly isn’t growling louder than the truck.

With over 4,000 moves, Scott's Discount Movers  has handled moves of all sizes, including local and cross country. If you are looking to move your home or office, you can depend on Scott's Discount Movers to provide a stress-free relocation.