No doubt about it — people in the United States are eager to move, especially Millennials. Collectively, this generation trends toward big-city living, often revitalizing older buildings or relocating to high rise apartments. That’s a whole lot of opportunities for tons of packing, not to mention securing and labeling moving boxes.
And that’s what smart individuals and families do before they leave one home for the next: They add markings to their moving boxes. They don’t always do it in the most efficient way possible.
Planning to relocate soon?
Whether you’re a Millennial, a GenXer, or a Baby Boomer, grab your marker, your labels, and a cup of coffee. This five-minute read will give you the insider tips for labeling moving boxes like the pros.
1. Give All the Rooms in Your New House Names
Sound like it’s too simple to be a good hint for labeling moving boxes? Then consider this scenario:
You’re at your new home, and you realize all the boxes destined for your four-bedroom residence are labeled “bedroom.” What do you do? Probably end up with a hundred moving boxes scattered in the wrong bedrooms.
A better approach is to label the moving boxes something more concrete, such as “Bedroom #1,” “Master Bedroom,” or even “Ethan’s Bedroom.” Then, to help your professional residential moving team, you can post corresponding signs in the doorways to minimize problems.
2. When Labeling Moving Boxes, Use Colors AND Words
In addition to naming each room where moving boxes are distributed, consider giving rooms colors. The living room could be green, the kitchen yellow, the garage orange, etc. Next, tape a piece of colored paper on the door to the corresponding room.
Think you won’t be able to come up with enough colors for your multi-room mansion? Never fear — science says there are about 1,000 shades and tints to choose from.
This technique works because it taps into our visual nature. Plus, if someone who speaks another language, as might happen if you’re moving internationally, he or she will still understand where to place the box.
3. Choose Labels That Will Stick
Now is not the time to pull out those old stickers that have seen better days.
Invest in heavy-duty labels like address labels. Otherwise, all your hard work could end up as a pile of peeled-off stickers in the moving van.
4. Put Faith in Permanent Markers in Dark Colors
Prefer to use your handy-dandy thick Sharpie to label your moving boxes boldly? Great idea!
Just be sure it’s not one of the trendy colors like lime green or light pink.
While it’s fun to have all the colors of the rainbow available when you’re doing projects like do-it-yourself nail art, light-hued markers make it tough to read where moving boxes belong.
5. Label All Boxes in the Same Place for Consistency
Is one box labeled in the left upper corner, another in the right lower, another in the middle?
This is a sure recipe for disaster and inefficiency.
Make your life – and your expert moving team‘s lives — simpler by ensuring everyone in your household sticks to a system of labeling moving boxes consistently.
Get Smarter With Every Move
Now that you know how to label your moving boxes with ease don’t forget that you don’t have to move all those boxes alone.