Posts Tagged ‘tips for packing to move abroad’

Welcome back, Weekend Warriors!  How’s that packing for your international move going?  We’ve been focusing so far on what to pack as well as not to pack, and today I’d like to address what not to pack yet.  That is, the things to leave out until the movers have taken everything else and you’re ready to pack up what’s going with you on that airplane to England.

Two years and about a month ago, my husband and I first moved to London.  And two years ago, just three days before today we first moved into our flat. It would be yet another month before we were to receive all the belongings we’d so lovingly packed up the summer before.

In the instance that you will not be moving directly into your home when you first fly over, you’ll want to pack your carry-on and checked baggage for the flight carefully.  Your carry-on should include the sentimental somethings that you treasure and wouldn’t want to leave at the mercy of movers, and your clothing should be season-appropriate, which is especially challenging if you’re moving between seasons as we did.  Even a Chicago autumn is much warmer than a London one, so the summery clothes I’d packed in August were hard-pressed to keep me warm in October when the flat-search took two weeks, moving-in another week, and then that extra month of waiting for our stuff to arrive once  we could finally notify the movers and have to wait on their schedule (isn’t it so wonderful, then, that London Relocation Ltd. condenses the flat-search to one day and can get you moved in within three? *End Shameless Plug Here*).  You will definitely want to pack a lot of layers in preparation for the rare warmth of sunshine and varying cold of grey, rain, and wind. And if you’re moving with a job and have to start work right away, you’ll need to bring your professional attire.

You will also want items that you’ll want to use on a daily basis—a computer, for example.  Also, make sure to keep important documents and means of identification.  Otherwise, think about how you pack for vacation and what is enough for you to make due for a while in that case.  Aside from important items particular to you, you have the same peace of mind as you would on vacation that if you forgot something like shampoo or, egad, even underwear, there are stores all over where you can pick up a replacement.  It’s all about survival mode until the rest of your possessions arise; you don’t need all the comforts of home, but you just might want some.

Welcome to yet another lovely weekend of packing for your move to London!  Hopefully, the packing tips for moving house are proving helpful so far.  Last Saturday, I covered useful ways of labeling the outside of your boxes so you can make sense of the towers of cargo that will swallow your wee London flat once the movers have brought everything in.  Today, I’d like to offer another suggestion on how to pack what goes inside those boxes.

Certain items are going to require dismantling due to their size and/or fragility.  Light bulbs and shades should be removed from lamps, for example, and pieces of furniture that you may have had to assemble upon purchase may now need to be disassembled if parts can be unscrewed with ease (like a bar stool, floor lamp, bookshelf, or bed frame).  Breaking these pieces down to their smaller parts will not only make them easier to pack inside boxes (and thereby condensing the square-footage of your load, which matters for moving charges), it will protect them from damage.

With regard to the bits and pieces which may now be roaming loose, be sure to keep it all together.  This can apply to any type of related items—such as keeping bookends with books—yet is particularly key with parts of the same whole.  Pack items like light bulbs and shades in the same box as the lamp shade so you have everything you need for reassembly right there and don’t have to rummage box-to-box.  If you remove any screws, hooks, nuts, washers, nails, etc., gather them in a plastic baggie, and tape this baggie to the item they go with (e.g., picture frames, bookshelves)—do the same for any detached cords, keeping them with the respective appliance.  All else fails, at the very least keep all these little parts together with each other in the same small box and label it accordingly to you can find it right away.