Common Packing Mistakes Bloomington, MN Residents Make Before a Move

Four mistakes cause most of the trouble: starting too late, using boxes that are too large, filling them badly, and labeling them in a way that means nothing by the time they come off the truck. None of these are dramatic, which is exactly why they persist. Experienced movers load hundreds of households a year across the Twin Cities, and the same handful of problems arrive in the same order every time. Fix these before the truck shows up and moving day gets shorter, cheaper, and considerably less stressful.

Starting the week of the move

Packing takes longer than anyone estimates, usually by a factor of two, and the last day always produces the worst boxes in the house. Those are the ones filled in a hurry with whatever was left, unlabeled, mixed across rooms, and they are the ones that cause the most frustration at the other end. A kitchen alone can take a full day if it is packed properly.

Work backward from the date instead. Off-season clothing, books, decor, and anything in storage can go weeks ahead, which leaves only genuine daily use items for the final stretch. A realistic sequence is set out in what to handle thirty days out. Starting early also gives you time to get rid of things, and every box you do not pack is one you do not pay to move.

Choosing the wrong box for the contents

Large boxes are for light bulky items, and that is all. Bedding, pillows, lampshades, and winter coats belong in them. Books, tools, canned goods, and anything dense belong in the smallest box you own, because a large box full of books is both unliftable and likely to fail at the seams somewhere between the bedroom and the truck.

Second-hand boxes are a related problem. Cardboard loses strength once it has been used and stored, and a box that has spent two years in a damp garage will not hold what its label claims. Grocery store produce boxes are usually open-topped and cannot be stacked, which makes them close to useless in a truck. Proper cartons are kept on hand for this reason, including specialty ones for dishes and wardrobes, and a moving and packing guide covers which size suits which room.

Leaving air in the box, or forcing the lid shut

Both extremes cause damage. A half-full box collapses when something is stacked on it, and collapsing boxes are what turn a neat load into a leaning one somewhere on the freeway. Fill the void with packing paper, towels, or linens until the box holds its shape under light pressure.

Overfilling is the other failure. A box packed until the flaps bow will not close flat, and it cannot be stacked without the weight going onto whatever is bulging out of the top. Aim for a box that closes level and feels solid when you press the lid. Then lift it. If it is awkward for you, it will be awkward for a mover carrying it down a flight of stairs with another one under the opposite arm.

A quick check before you tape a box shut

• Does it close flat, with no bulge in the lid
• Can you lift it comfortably with two hands
• Does anything rattle or shift when you tilt it
• Is the room and the contents written on two side panels
• Is it marked fragile on the sides if it needs to be

Labeling the top instead of the sides

Once boxes are stacked, the top is the one surface nobody can read. Write on at least two vertical sides, name the room it is going to rather than the room it came from, and add a short contents note. “Kitchen, small appliances” is useful. “Misc” is not, and there is always one box marked misc that ends up containing something needed urgently.

Color coding by room speeds up the unload considerably, since a crew can direct boxes without asking about each one. That saves real time on an hourly job. It also pays off after the crew leaves, which is when labeling stops being about logistics and starts being about your own sanity, a point our guide to unpacking efficiently makes well.

Wrapping fragile items in the wrong material

Newspaper transfers ink onto dishes and glassware, and it offers less cushioning than people assume. Plain packing paper, bubble wrap, or clean linens work better. Plates travel on edge rather than stacked flat, glasses go upright with paper inside them, and every layer in the box gets a cushion above and below it so nothing touches the cardboard directly.

The bigger issue is that a box you packed yourself is a box a mover cannot vouch for internally. If something inside arrives broken, nobody can establish how it was wrapped, which makes a claim much harder to resolve. Photographing the packing before you seal a fragile box takes a minute and is worth doing. Where the contents genuinely matter, having the crew pack them removes that gap entirely.

Packing things that should not go on the truck

Movers cannot transport flammable or pressurized items, and the list is longer than people expect. Propane tanks, gasoline, paint, aerosols, pool chemicals, and most cleaning products all have to be dealt with separately, and finding a half-full can of gas in the garage in the morning is a delay nobody needs. Bloomington, MN residents can drop off household hazardous waste through the county program rather than trying to move it.

Then there is the category you should keep with you rather than load. Passports, jewelry, medication, laptops, keys, and irreplaceable photographs belong in your own vehicle. Set aside a night one box too, holding bedding, toiletries, chargers, a change of clothes, and whatever the household cannot get through an evening without. Load it last so it comes off the truck first.

Related Topics:

• How Do Moving Companies Handle Damage Claims and Disputes?
• How Do Movers Handle Bulky Items That Won’t Fit Through Standard Doorways?