1. Place heavier furnishings and appliances in the truck first, preferably against the front wall adjacent to the cab. This helps keep the weight centered along the entirety of the truck and decreases the chance of something heavy falling. Make sure that you balance the load in the truck. For example, if the washing machine is on the right side then place the dyer on the left. This will help keep the rig controllable while driving.
2. Long items are next to be loaded. These could include sofas, mattresses, and headboards among other items. They should be pushed up against the outer walls (or side walls) to best make use of the space and to better secure them with tie downs if necessary.
3. Lighter boxes or objects should be place on top of the heavier objects particularly if they’re not fragile.
4. Fragile items need to be packed with a certain care. It doesn’t matter so much if they’re packed high or low as long as they are secured and cannot move or fall. This is why in the case of dinner and glassware I suggest putting these items in a separate car if possible.
5. Anything that you don’t want scratched up needs to be covered with a blanket or surrounded by soft stuff. Things that could require covering may tables, night stands or any furnishing made of wood or stainless steel.
6. Flat breakable items, such as mirrors or portraits, should be fitted between two soft, flat objects. Generally, the best thing that fits this requirement would be your mattress and box spring.
7. Soft items, such as pillows, are great as fillers. Use these items to fill the gaps between items to ensure they don’t bounce around or fall.
8. Fill the space under tables, chairs or any other furnishings that create gaps. This will help stabilize the objects and be the most effective use of space that you can achieve.

I suggest, before even renting out the truck, that you plan ahead of time using these tips as guidance. It will make packing the truck easier and you won’t waste valuable moving time that could cost you in the end. Getting your belongings from point A to point B is important for your own mental well being and your pocket book, so make sure to load everything up the right way before leaving your old home behind.

Plates: Don’t stack plates like you would in a cabinet. The top and bottom surface of a plate is actually its weakest point which means if you place them in a box this way they’re less likely to make it the whole trip. To avoid this problem, it’s best to pack plates on their side instead of on top of each other. It sounds counter-intuitive but it’s the geometry of a plate that allows this to work.

Bowls: Because the walls of a bowl are rounded, they’re better off stacked on top of each other. In other words, pack them the same way you would stack them in the cabinet and opposite of how you should pack your plates.

Knives: If stored in a wooden block, it’s best to keep them in said block. This prevents them from stabbing other items or you when unpacking. If you don’t have a block set, then wrap each knife individually in paper and then bound all the knives together so they cannot cause unnecessary damage.

Pots and Pans: These aren’t likely to break but can be a pain to pack nice and neatly because of handles and lids. Flipping lid, so that the handle on top are inside the pot, can make it easier to pack them. If you have a set, it may be wise to stack the pots inside each other as best possible instead of flipping their lids.

Glasses: Using a cardboard cell divider, the same kind of thing that the glassware originally came in, is a great way to keep everything from bouncing off each other. Fill in any extra space with paper or packing peanuts; this will keep your glassware from bouncing around inside their cells. If you cannot find a cell divider then do you’re best to use paper to keep the glasses from shifting around in the box.

Stemware: Like packing glasses, stemware will benefit from a cardboard divider and paper. They do have one extra weak point though and that is the actual stem. Wrap an inflated tube, bubble wrap, or other supporting objects around the stem  to better brace the it.

These tips should improve the odds of your dinnerware and glassware surviving the move in one piece. There is still no guarantee, sometimes stuff breaks no matter how protected a piece may be. If you’re driving to your new home, I suggest taking the boxes of fragile items with you as they’re less likely to bounce around inside your own vehicle. Here’s to not opening a box of glass or ceramic shards the next time you move!

1. Make a Budget: This is so often overlooked. You need to know where your income is coming from and how much it is as this will influence the kind of places that you can afford and the furnishing they can be filled with. Also, budget out all your costs: how much it costs to eat, drive to work, bills, etc. All vital are areas that will take a chunk of your income and must be considered.

2. Choosing the Apartment: Research all the apartment rental companies in the area as they will have a variety of properties to choose. Quality is going to be huge so if you can get a nice apartment for cheap by being first to the door, all the better. Placement of the apartment is also critical. Does it have a good proximity to where you work, shop, buy groceries, etc? This decision can cost you in the long run with gas or transportation and is trumped only by the overall rent of the apartment.

3. Initial Things You Need: It’s easy to overlook things when living with other’s support. Cookware is needed to be purchased in order to cook food as well as plates and other items to eat off. You can get these kinds of items somewhere online or at thrift stores. Initial furniture is also a major need. These too can be found for sale online or in thrift stores. Filling the cabinets with food initially will also take a decent investment. Luckily, stuff like pasta, flour, cereals, etc last awhile so the initial costs will even out over the long run.

4. Get All Bills in Order: If you haven’t lived on your own then you probably haven’t considered many of these bills, however, there can potentially be a number of them. Some include electricity, WSG (water, sewage, and garbage), renter’s insurance, and other insurances (like health, car, etc.). These too need to be included in your budget that was mentioned before and some care needs to be taken to keep these costs in check.

This is far from an all inclusive list. Check with the rental property managers for a complete list of everything that needs to be covered or changed into your name. Certain areas will have special insurance needs depending on flood plains and other problems. However, this checklist should cover some of the major issues that you’re going to face when moving in to a new place.

1. Arrange your move out date: This is important to create a timeline for yourself helping you schedule other things around it. Besides, if you have all the business side of things taken care of, and you’ve dealt your moving service, then you will have less to worry about in the short term.

2. Cancel Bills and Change Addresses: You need to inform all services and business that mail you bills or products of your change of address. In the case of telephone service, cancel as you won’t live there anymore, while a service like Netflix needs the new address to continue service.

3. Get Things Packed Ahead of Time: By packing the non-essentials will cut a number of hours that will needed near the crunch time of moving. It’s also one less thing to do in the near future.

4. Moving Day: Hopefully, relax. If you have children you’ll probably need a babysitter. Same thing for animals. All the arrangements done in advance it should be just a matter of moving everything onto a moving truck and leaving. Now you can stress about the new home or apartment!

Have other tips for moving out? Please leave a comment and tell us…