Waste Not, Want Not With These Space-Saving Loading Tips For Your Moving Truck
Loading up a moving truck on your own can be a hassle, but not because moving heavy stuff sucks. Space is always at a premium and making sure you have enough space to load everything can prove tedious and sometimes frustrating. Fortunately, there are a few great tips you can use to save space and get everything loaded up in one go.
Load Your Largest Items First
Begin by loading your major appliances (such as washers, dryers and refrigerators) and your largest pieces of furniture first. As you load these items, make sure they're located as close to the back wall as possible. By loading your largest items first, you'll have more room to load boxes and other, smaller items.
Loading your largest and heaviest items first not only helps you get the most difficult stuff out of the way, but it also helps weight distribution by keeping most of the weight of the load closer to the front of the truck. Good weight distribution gives you better control of your truck once you get moving.
Keep the Heaviest Items at the Bottom
Your heaviest items should always be at the bottom of the load stack. Just imagine you're building a ziggurat of sorts, with the heaviest items providing a strong foundation for progressively lighter items stacked on top of them. Not only does it help with your truck's weight distribution, but it also keeps your lighter and more fragile items from getting flattened as you load more items.
Store Your Mattresses Along the Sides
If you're bringing your mattresses along with you, it's a good idea to stack them against the wall of the moving truck. You can stack them length-wise or height-wise depending on the height of the truck box, but make sure the mattresses won't fall over as you're driving.
To keep your mattress from flopping about, slide a desk or a dresser against it, with the drawer side facing the mattress. This benefits both your mattress and your desk/dresser at the same time -- the mattress won't go anywhere and your drawers won't slide open during the move.
Keep Your Drawers Full
Speaking of drawers, it's also a good idea to stash the clothes and linens you didn't already box up, as well as your other small belongings, in your dresser drawers. It's the perfect way of putting your drawers to good use if you don't plan on removing them for the move.
Disassemble as Much as Possible
Those tables, chairs and other small furniture items were likely assembled with an assortment of removable fasteners, so it shouldn't be difficult to break this stuff down prior to loading your truck. Taking as much furniture apart as possible can help free up room for other items.
Before you take apart your furniture, you want to make sure you have the assembly instructions available to put it all back together. Don't forget to have zip lock bags and plastic containers on hand to safely store all of the various nuts, bolts and fasteners.
Box Those Books
Instead of leaving your entire book collection on the bookshelf, it's a good idea to pack those books in boxes. After they're all in nice, neat boxes, you can stack those boxes on top of each other. Just make sure to keep the weight of your books under 50 pounds per box and don't forget to relegate your heavier books to the bottom boxes.
Not only does boxing your books keep them from flying everywhere during transit, but it also keeps the covers and spines in good shape. With all of your books boxed up, you can also disassemble your bookshelf and store the broken-down components in their own box.
Don't Forget to Fill In Gaps
No matter how methodically you stack and load your belongings, there's bound to be a few gaps left over. Fortunately, you can make the most of these gaps by filling up a pillowcase or soft bag with a few of your small and soft belongings. Then you can stick these bags inside of any gap you happen to find.
For more information or help packing, contact a household moving company.