The Tricks You Should Know When Labeling Your Moving Boxes

By Guest Writer Ella Andrews

If you do everything by yourself including the packing and labeling of your possessions, and not with a professional team that makes the inventory and the labeling with encoding - then, check out the following tips and tricks you should know when labeling the removal boxes. There are plenty of advantages when everything is strictly organized and labeled. For example, when it's time for heavy lifting and loading the boxes in the moving van - you may not know how heavy the box is by just looking at it. You may also not remember what's inside the box and thus the risk from bent and broken items is quite an issue. Labeling the boxes becomes very handy. It gives you a perfect orientation even if all the boxes look just about the same.

• Choose how to organize the moving checklist in advance, like a month or two before the moving day. This is one of the first and most important things to do, as it will help with everything else from the sorting and de-cluttering of your items, to the loading and unloading of the moving van. The organization of the checklist depends on a number of factors and that's why there are plenty of checklist templates. Maybe an organization by size is the best choice - just put the heaviest and biggest objects on top of the list, by numbering them, and on the bottom - put the lightest and smallest objects. Another great choice for compiling a checklist is by rooms - something like a multitude of sub-checklists, each with the unique objects and furnishings only from the specific room. Or otherwise, make a column only for the different labels of the boxes, then another column only for the name of the room that corresponds to the items in it, and a third column for mentioning the items themselves. Always a great tip is to add an extra column for notes or something important that you could mention for orientation in the last moment, for highlighting the condition of the object, or for just in case.
  

• Once you decide the template of the checklist - choose the order of the numbering of the items. There are three main types. The first one is to begin with the smallest and end with the biggest objects or vice-versa. The second typical choice is by alphabetical order, and the third one - by the size of the boxes.
  

• Try to check out the most famous programs and all-purpose templates for inventory and labeling. Pick one which suites your needs. Thus, if you give the checklist to professional house movers - they can easily and quickly orient themselves among the numerous boxes and labels because the movers should know the different programs and templates.
• Use bright colorful labels with big letters. This is a recommended tip if you want to avoid using QR codes and electronic devices on the moving day. The big labels will help read everything only with a blink of the eye, while the bright color will help find the label easily. Short labels are easy to remember and therefore easy to find out what's inside the box.
• Always using different sizes of boxes and never using the same two boxes can help you avoid the labels at all during a relocation if you only have a handful of boxes.  Labeling what’s inside the box is still recommended. 
• Make special labels, such as "heavy", "always on top", "fragile", etc. Use different colors for these special labels. This is one of the best ways to be more careful when handling a box with mirrors and porcelain, which may look just the same as the box with textile items.