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Hire A Box to Help Your Next Move

Welcome to my final post about moving house.

It is nearly the end of the year and for some this means a new start; A new or bigger home, or maybe a move interstate.  End of year also means that many with be on holidays and so will the kids, perfect time to focus on what needs to be packed and moved to your new house.

It does not matter where you are moving to, you will need some great quality boxes to help you pack up all your treasures and items for the big day.

So how can Hire A Box help you?

Hire A Box has two great options. You can hire the boxes or you can purchase new/used ones.

  • Hiring boxes – This is a great idea. Once you are finished with them they can be returned and someone else can use them. (3 months is the maximum hire period). There is no delivery fee if you hire $65 or more worth of boxes. I like the idea of being able to hire the boxes. As someone that has moved so many times that I have lost count it would be good to just get rid of the boxes and have someone come and sort it all out for you. Plus, it is good for the environment, you are recycling the items for more than one use.
  • Buying boxes – If you wish to have the boxes for more than three months then this would be a better option for you. You also get free delivery if your order is over $99
Different types of boxes from Hire A Box
Different types of boxes from Hire A Box

 

Check out my 7 Packing Tips to Move House With Ease

All the boxes ready to be packed.
All the boxes ready to be packed.

Tips for packing boxes:

  1. Get good quality boxes first. Good boxes that are sturdy to hold books and heavy items. You don’t want to have flimsy boxes that will break as soon as you put anything with weight into them.
  2. Make sure to pack heavy items in smaller boxes. This way they will not be too heavy to lift and don’t make them too heavy.When I was little my mum packed a whole lot of her books in a tea chest (a real tea chest, not a cardboard box). When we got to our new house my dad could not lift it due to how heavy it was. He of course was very annoyed and upset about it all. So, avoid upset and hurting yourself and don’t pack all your books together. Make sure that you have boxes that can be lifted easily.
  3. Put lighter things in bigger boxes – Pillows, files, teddies, keep sakes and glassware.
  4. It is a good idea to reinforce the bottom of the box with tape. If the box has been used before this is essential as the box will stay together and be stronger for your current move.
  5. Don’t have items poking out the top of the box, always make sure you can seal the box. This will make sure that your items stay secure.
  6. Make sure that all boxes are labelled so that you can see easily what is in them. If they are not labelled you will have to open them all to find what you are looking for.

If you do decide to purchase boxes some are great to store your Christmas decorations, files, and the winter woollies. It is always great to have some good quality boxes that will allow you to pack much loved items away for future use.

So now that you have your boxes regardless of whether you have hired them or purchased, you now need to get packing. I know this is one job that I really don’t enjoy and if I could have someone do it for me I would.

The lovely team at Hire A Packer packing up a bedroom.
The lovely team at Hire A Packer packing up a bedroom.

Did you know?

You can hire the lovely team at Hire A Packer to do all your packing for you. Everything done and a no stress way to pack your house.

If you loved the idea of not doing it yourself, you could also hire the team at Hire A Mover to move all your prepacked boxes to your new place.  This is the way to go, not lifting a finger and moving house. Ideal if you ask me.

This post was written in conjunction with Hire A Mover, a Sydney Removal company.

Thanks for following my series about Moving House. I hope that you got some great tips out of my posts. If you have a great tip that can help others please feel free to email me.

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Top 10 Tips for Moving House

Are you planning on moving house?  Need some help? Well if I was moving I would want someone to do it all for me. It is a pity that there is no house moving fairy that can wave her magic wand and have it all just happen. I wish this might happen in other areas of life too, like the housework.

I really hate sorting, organising, packing and everything that goes with moving house. It is hard, stressful and just a big job. I have moved too many times and when we move next time it will hopefully be the second last move before we have our new house built.

So how do you make this moving business easier on you and the family? Having a checklist on what to do is a great idea. Sounds terribly organised but it helps.

Hire a Packer can get the kitchen all organised, packed and sorted in no time.
Hire a Packer can get the kitchen all organised, packed and sorted in no time.

Here are my top 10 tips for moving house:

Tip 1

Don’t pack junk. Firstly look at all the things that you currently have in the house. Do you want to take everything with you? Why not use this as an opportunity to get rid of things that you don’t use any more. These are the things that are broken, you are not using or have out grown. You can make three piles of stuff; One pile for rubbish, one pile for charity and maybe one pile to sell or giveaway, it could be for charity as well but if you can make a few dollars it might help with the move, or maybe help you with some pocket money. Once you have determined what items are going to your new home, then you can pack these and only take what is important. You don’t want to spend money and energy moving something to chuck it out when you get to your new place. I have done this and it is very annoying.

Tip 2

Are you going to use a home packing service? Services like these help you pack efficiently, the highly trained staff work quickly to pack time-consuming rooms and manage to do this by ensuring your breakables are all snug so that they will not break on the move to your new abode. If I was moving again I would pay for them to make it all easier (Maybe they are like magical moving fairies, as they help you get it all done and with less stress). They will pack the boxes with the heavier items on the bottom and to also ensure that any breakables are wrapped up well to make sure they are protected.

Tip 3

Don’t wait until the last minute to pack for your move. Once you know you are moving start right away. I know moving is stressful and annoying but not doing it does not change the fact that you will still have to move. Doing a little bit here and there will help you get it all done.

Tip 4

If you are packing your own boxes make sure to label the boxes. Also don’t be tempted to just throw items in any boxes. Make sure you put like items with like. If it is the kitchen put all kitchen items in the box for the kitchen, don’t suddenly put clothes in the box as well. You will never find things or if you do it will take you much longer.

Tip 5

Label all boxes and also make sure that fragile boxes are marked as well. You don’t want to have someone smash a box down and it be your wine glasses and they all break. One other thing is if a box has to sit a certain way put the arrow that that the box needs to be kept upright in that direction. If you don’t inform people they won’t know.

Tip 6

Did you know that you can get a huge range of boxing and packaging materials? You can even hire the moving boxes online, and get them delivered the next day. Make sure you have wrapping paper and tape to help with the packing. Renting the boxes is ideal as then you can give them all back and not have boxes everywhere months after the move.

Tip 7

Oh and on the packaging materials, why not use towels or your linen to help protect your valuables. This will make sure that you are protecting your artwork or vases and your sheets are helping you keep the cost down on the materials.

Tip 8

Did you know that when you are packing books you should lay them flat? This ensures that the spines of the book are not damaged. Make sure you pack smaller boxes with books as these get heavy so if you have larger boxes you will tend to fill them up with more books. Book carton boxes are ideal for this and are small enough that the boxes will not get terribly heavy for you to lift them.

Tip 9

Make sure you keep an essentials bag or box handy. This will have towels, clothes and anything that you need to get at all the time when you move to the new house. You don’t want to be trying to find your toothbrush or say your favourite PJ’s or some towels to take a shower after you have spent hours moving. Keep it easy and have it near you. Why not pack this item in your car and not in the moving van. This way you will know where it is and can find it quickly.

Tip 10

Make sure that you choose a professional removal company. A trusted professional moving company has reviews, many years’ experience, are less likely to damage your goods, and will be able to look after the whole move from packing to moving.

Get the house packed and moved by Hire A Packer and Hire A Mover. Less stress and more time for you and the family.
Get the house packed and moved by Hire A Packer and Hire A Mover. Less stress and more time for you and the family.

 

I hope these tips help you when you have to move house. It is a big job and a stressful time. Making things easier when you have been organising  and busy with so many other things can be so helpful.

Having professionals that help you pack and move really does make the world of difference. You will have less arguments with your partner, you will feel less stressed, and it will make the whole process so much easier. I wish we moved this way all the time.

 

Do you have a fab tip that helped you move house? What was it?

 

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5 years and beyond

Part 1: Kids Bedroom Makeover

Today we ventured to IKEA. It was so busy, noisy and people were just everywhere. I suppose you should expect this on a public holiday and with school going back next week.

Telling the kids that the warehouse at IKEA is huge!
Telling the kids that the warehouse at IKEA is huge!

So why were we at IKEA?

The twins are growing length wise so that means that we need bigger beds. They have also ruined a set of drawers and that is not helpful when I have school uniforms and clothes to put away, furniture that is failing is of course not helpful!

Kids loved the bed and were super happy with our surprise. They had no idea we were doing this.
Kids loved the bed and were super happy with our surprise. They had no idea we were doing this.

One other reason for getting the kids new furniture is that we need to maximize room in their bedroom and having a bunk bed, a reasonably sized wardrobe and drawers is going to help maximize space and help with storage options.

I wanted to do the revamp of the girls room before they start school to get things organized. It is a new year, new school and a fresh start for them. It is a big thing, and a nice new room with more grown up furniture will be a help. I cannot wait to get it all put together.

Here are some steps to make your trip to IKEA easier

  1. Check the IKEA website for exactly what product/s you are after. Take note of the codes, colours and style. We measured to make sure our choices would fit and sorted where they would be placed. As we are dealing with a small room making sure things fit and of course allow for more room for the kids is essential.
  2. You can either write them out, print it out or save it as a PDF to your iPad/Tablet or Smart Phone.
  3. When you get to the store go to the area that you would find your products in, for example, we were after a bunk bed and that was in kid’s bedrooms.
  4. When you are in the right section for the product you wish to buy there is some important info to get. The numbers for where the product is on the shelves in the warehouse. You need to have this info so that you can go and collect it, pay for it and take it home.  There will be 2 numbers that you need: the first is an aisle number and the second is the article number. Copy this down and it will help you find the product/s
  5. We took pictures of it all on the iPad and used this to help us get to the products in the warehouse quickly. Don’t worry there is a computer if you are in doubt or things have been moved. You can enter the product into the computer and get the correct place for where it lives in the warehouse.
The iPad was a great tool to help us navigate through IKEA
The iPad was a great tool to help us navigate through IKEA

Have you struggled with furnishing a small space? How did you manage it? What were your tricks that you used to make it look bigger?

I am wanting to free up floor space to allow the twins to play more games in their room. The bunk bed will hopefully allow for this and give the kids more freedom to do more in their room.

The dolls that I bought the girls
The dolls that I bought the girls

The only other issue we have with a bunk bed is who is going to sleep up top?

This has been fixed by telling the girls that they will have a weekly roster. One kid gets to be up top for a week and the other on the bottom bed. Then after a week is over the kid who was on the bottom goes to the top bunk for the next week, and so on.

Now we have the flat packs on the spare bed in the study. Hubby goes back to work so the putting together of it all needs to wait till Saturday. I am not looking forward to putting it all together, but keen on the finished product. Cannot wait to see how it will look.

One kid in seat, the other with cushions in trolley holding the iPad for daddy.
One kid in seat, the other with cushions in trolley holding the iPad for daddy.

You have seen the bunk bed that we have purchased. Here is the wardrobe that we have got as well. However the draws are going to be different colours, although the top part will be pink. I will leave the rest as a surprise for the next post.

IKEA: stuva-storage-combination-w-doors-drawers
IKEA: stuva-storage-combination-w-doors-drawers

Stay tuned for the second part of my post about the updated twins bedroom.

Note: This post is not in any way affiliated with IKEA. I did get the urge to call them and ask if something can be organized as a new kitchen is just what we need. This post is just from a mummy that thinks that the stuff is cool and wanted to showcase how we are changing around a small room.