O.K. let’s just come out and say it. Moving isn’t cheap! Nowadays every one of us is watching out for every cent and who doesn’t want to save money when they can? This is why moving companies offer the public all kinds of different moving services so that you can pick and choose the type of moving service that’s right for you!
Almost all moving companies will help you to save a lot of money and allow you to pack your own moving boxes and prepare most of your belongings for your move. When you are preparing your belongings for the move, you will need lots of packing materials and most important of all is moving boxes. Except for your major or large furniture and pieces, you will be packing all of your belongings into moving boxes.
Buying brand new moving boxes is a huge expense and not necessary! There are plenty of sources for great, free moving boxes. Specialized moving boxes such as wardrobe boxes or china boxes (dish packs) really are a waste of money. Since most of our clothing is permanent press and wrinkle free, why not just fold it up and put it into regular boxes and save all that money? There are also lots of other options for you to pack your breakables and fragile belongings besides special china and dish boxes. They are expensive and after your have unpacked everything, there is nothing to do with them!
I bet by now you’re asking yourself where I can look for really good free boxes for my move. What should I be looking out for? How do I know if a box is a good box to use for my move?
Let me give you some really good tips and advice about moving boxes. There are plenty of places where you can find good moving boxes for free. The first thing I always suggest is to start looking for boxes as early as you can so you can collect only the boxes that are in the best condition. You want to be sure that the boxes are in mint condition, strong and clean. The boxes must have all four flaps on the top and on the bottom. Without all of the flaps you can’t seal the box properly and it will not be strong. You want to be sure that they we folded along the seams and not crushed. A crushed box will not be strong. You want to be sure that the boxes are dry, since moving boxes that were wet will easily fall apart. I know that this will sound a little funny, but make sure the boxes don’t have a bad smell!
The best place to look for boxes is any of the big shopping centers in your area. Try to hit them a couple of times a week until you have enough used moving boxes (and believe me there is no such thing as enough boxes). Go around the dumpsters and look for the boxes that are in the best condition. The best boxes for moving will not be in supermarkets or liquor stores. Most of the used boxes in supermarkets will be dirty and probably smell from whatever was in them and are almost always torn or cut. Liquor stores cut the tops of boxes so customers can easily pull out the bottles so you won’t be able to seal them. I always recommend going to good book stores! Since you can’t put dirty and torn books on the shelf in a book store, the boxes have to be strong and clean. Most of the time boxes in book stores are also laminated so when you seal the box, it’s going to be waterproof and will protect you belongings and help keep them dry. Another great place to look for free moving boxes is at department stores. Since a department store can’t sell damaged merchandise the boxes will be clean and strong. Take the boxes home and store them in a good dry place until you are ready to start packing.
You will need a couple of different sized moving boxes for different items. The 2 most used size of boxes is what I call small and medium. A small box is about the size of an average sized microwave oven and a medium sized box is about the size of a dormitory fridge like college kids have in their rooms. You want to use the small moving boxes for any of your breakables and dishes and medium size moving boxes for anything else. You might also want to have a few larger boxes around to cut up and use for packing some larger things you might have (like big pictures).
Also a lot of the other packing materials you need are things you already have around the house and are readily usable! One good example is old newspapers. Why spend money on special paper or stuffing for boxes when you already have old newspapers around that will do the job! Newspaper can be used for wrapping and stuffing. Wrap it around anything. Stuff it into glasses and cups. Crumple it up and push it into the corners of the box. You can use old newspaper for anything.
Another type of packing material you will have around the house is old blankets, sheets, linens and towels. Don’t throw them out just yet! Save them as a packing material. Here is one example of how you can use them for packing your belongings. Let’s say you want to pack a table lamp into a box, you can wrap it in a towel or blanket or old sheet before you box it, the lamp will be well protected inside the moving box for your move!
Making use of free moving boxes and readily available packing materials you have around the house is the easiest way to keep a lot of money in your pocket and save you a fortune for you move. Everything we talked about here is relevant to both local moves and long distance moves.
One other thing I wanted to mention. All of the materials we talked about are used and recyclable materials. By using environmentally friendly and recyclable materials for moving, you are helping to protect our environment. Packing your belongings into used moving boxes helps protect our forests and helps to control litter. By using newspaper and fabrics such as old blankets, linens, sheets and towels you are using biodegradable materials that are easily recycled later.
