Label everything very clearly on top and all four sides.

If you have room to stack art flat in your vehicle, put sheets, pillow cases or towels etc, in between each item to stop them rubbing.

I used white packing paper (Home Depot/Lowes) for everything when we moved my mom. ... even her fine china. Nothing broke.

Wrap framed art in old sheets or towels.

Thank you! I've got some old sheets that were destined for the rag bag. I'll use them to wrap my artwork - great idea.

White packing paper, eh? I'll look into that. The bubble wrap must be wrapped AND taped and it's a pain.

We're using boxes that were donated to us by two different friends and they're written on with marker, identifying THEIR things. We'll need to go back and put our own labels on the sides -- we had only labeled the top, which is useless when the boxes are stacked. Ugh. I've made a number of moves in my life - one all the way to Southeast Asia -- so you wouldn't think I'd be feeling like such a novice!

We moved our kids around many times; we have declared ourselves out of the biz now ;) We were able to rent a stack of moving blankets from UHaul for a reasonable price, iirc. I think your art would be okay with a layer of something like that between each one.

DH works in a brewery and they always have a huge supply of boxes; all the same size for easy stacking. Any chance you live near one?

Moving blankets - great idea! And yes! We live about two miles from a brewery! I'll hit those guys up if we run out of boxes.

For artwork/pictures I took a big box and cut the top flaps off; then wrapped pictures in the white packing paper sheets and stood them up one in front of the other (imagine like a file cabinet) and then put the box full of pictures in back my husband's truck to go across town. I stuck paper in the areas so the pics wouldn't move. It's heavy, so it would take a couple of people to put in and take out of truck.

I have also just put them in back of my SUV like you stated above a number of times LOL!

I know I'm overthinking it. It's ONLY 15 miles away. I mean it when I say that the boxes I packed today could be shipped across the country, the contents are wrapped to be bulletproof! ;-)

Don't bother with labrls for boxes. Just use magic markers on all 4 sides.

I have always used white paper, not bubble wrap. And that's what professional packers use too.

Thought we'd use brightly colored labels since we're using previously used boxes that already have marker writing all over them. If we have help unloading and unpacking, I need to ensure that the box labeled ANTIQUE TEA CUPS makes it to the bathroom, as it contains toiletry items. ;-)

That's what we get for taking used boxes off others' hands. ;-)

My dad was a sales rep in the moving industry for 30 years and I always remembered these two tips from him:

this may apply more to a long distance move than you but.....don't spend $500 to ship a $300 sofa. He was amazed how much people spent to ship junk...but I doubt you're in this category. He would say it's one thing if it's sentimental or a family heirloom, but people would ship broken $5 TV trays, 25 year old washing machines, etc.

Also, instead of packing up the clothes in your dresser drawers, just lay a towel in each one covering your clothes and leave them in the dresser.

I don't envy you...moving is such a pain, but good luck with everything!

Aunt Jen, using large round stickers in bright colors on all sides of a box is a VERY good idea if you have movers. We did not realize when we moved once years ago that some of the movers could not read. So I taped a sheet of one color to the door frame of each room and had them match the colors to get our boxes in the right rooms.

Go on freecycle or craigslist looking for moving boxes - people always want to get rid of them. Or go to stores (liquor stores are excellent sources) and get boxes to cut with a utility knife and use as separators between pictures.

The paper you want for packing is newsprint - we got ours at Uline

http://www.uline.com/Grp_290/Newsprint-Paper

Oh, wow - great point about not paying to move junk! We've already decided on which movers to use and have a ballpark idea of what they'll cost. We aren't moving our old washer and dryer (hello, new front loaders), although DH is insistent on taking our old fridge to use in the garage. This makes me want to be more mindful of continuing to pare down. Moving takes time, and time is money ... Or so the movers tell me.

Storage places usually have packing paper too. And in a pinch I have ordered it off amazon--2 day prime shipping at the time.

I don't know about Houzz is to link to a blog that one wrote for, so I'll just post the snips I took from it when I decided I became bored with it.
Not sure these will answer any of your questions, but here it is. I did not add the printables as I knew they wouldn't post the right size here. If you want a link I could get you one via PM.

The movers I've used have been soooo gooood at packing! But, it costs more (and you risk them packing the trash bag you were going to throw out...good thing it wasn't food!) one thing the movers told me was to pack the glasses upright, they are sturdier that way.

You know, you could run a paint roller of light paint, "oops" paint from the store if you don't have any leftover, over the box to create a clean surface for labeling.

Label well! DH wanted to pack the garage. Fine, I said. One rule: there is no such thing as a box labeled "miscellaneous". Well, yes, in fact, there were 4. One contained the garden hoses that I discovered in the basement, a year later, WITH WATER IN THEM. After we bought new hoses because we couldn't find them. Sigh.

Don't let your kids pack alone. Trust me. I unpacked a box with the owl study unit project from school. We'd shipped a poster with actual owl pellets glued to it, literally paid to ship crap.

What is this white paper several of you have mentioned?

Linelle,

It's newspaper without the ink. Like this

If you have a newspaper nearby that prints their own paper they usually have what's called end rolls that they will either sell or give away. You can get a lot of white paper from one end roll very inexpensively. Good luck with the packing. The tips justgottobeme posted above are great.

We went to our local grocery store which has these cardboard boxes for carrying eggs in. They flatten and recycle them so are happy to give them away. They are just a perfect size, very strong, and have finger holes cut in the sides for easy carrying. Maybe they have them in your location.

It's so overwhelming. We moved 4 years ago. I used acres of bubble wrap. I saved boxes after unpacking and actually was able to sell some of the larger ones on Craig's list. Could not bear throwing them away. I say just do the best you can.

We have local Facebook groups for goods and there are always people giving away or selling their moving boxes and packing materials.

We have been fortunate to never need to hire movers. We've always had a truck and the times we've moved, hubby has enlisted a few good friends (TRUSTED LOL) and/or family members to help us move. I agree with others about marking boxes - pack up your home room by room and label your boxes by room and try to keep boxes together by room. You've been given some good suggestions about bubble wrap, wrapping paper, etc. For large pictures, we moved those in the car or truck wrapped in blankets. Somewhere over the years, we got a couple of those blankets movers use and have kept those on hand. I belong to a community group on facebook and there are often people within the group who have boxes to give away. I like to pack a box with sheets for our bed and other necessary items for our bedroom/bath and first thing upon getting to the new place is making of our bed and have our necessary items, a couple of towels, washcloths, etc. on hand immediately. When moving items like china/crystal, delicate and/or sentimental items, I have purchased the dish boxes at the local Uhaul. Actually, I probably have some of those in our attic! LOL

If you are able to move a few things at a time or a few things ahead of time, that is a great help. For instance, you could have your bedroom set up - or since you are using movers, at least your bathroom items, etc. already in place before the big move. This has come in handy for us if you are moving/unpacking late into the day/night and are so tired all you can do is fall into bed. Clothes (especially from closets) are something else you can take ahead of the "big move" and have in place. Lay a blanket in your trunk and just stack the clothes (still on hangers). We've also moved dresser drawers this way, just be sure to have something underneath and between the drawers - saves emptying the drawers (unless you want to go through and get rid of some items) and refilling the drawers at the new place.

Use your towels, sheets & blankets as padding for everything - why pack them separately? To move your closet clothes, what has worked for me is to lay the clothes (still on the hangers) onto the quilt on your bed. Wrap it all up like a burrito and two people carry the bundle to the car or truck like a dead body. Then at the new house, carry the quilt burrito to your new bedroom, unwrap it and hang up your clothes.

I found that when I recently moved, a shrink wrap roll was easier to use with bubble wrap than tape. Much easier when unpacking!

My advice is to cut your fingernails short before you break and tear them while packing and moving. And yes, the shrink wrap roll is great. It's like a 5 inch wide roll of cling wrap on a stick that sticks to itself when you wrap it around something.
stretch wrap film - home depot

Kitchenwitch, I have old, etc. blankets and things to use. I choose to pack the towels/sheets/blankets that we actually use because I do not want to have to wash all this upon arrival at the new place. We keep old blankets, towels and sheets. I have a box of such in the attic. So many uses for those things.

we have always had a company move us, so haven't had to deal with packing, etc... but, what I find helpful (tho it's not my hub's preferred way!) is to unpack somewhat slowly so that things can be put right away... i can't stand it when too much crap is all unpacked and sitting around everywhere- very overwhelming!! (yes, we have moved tons of junk over the years- easier to do when the co is picking up the bill... :(

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! Such wonderful tips you've shared, and now I'm feeling a bit more confident about the whole thing! I work best when I have an organized process going on. It's when things become jumbled and chaotic that I tend to feel like I'm going to lose it. And speaking of losing it - yesterday, DH and I were working together and found that we kept moving things. The scissors - which were JUST RIGHT HERE not five minutes ago, had somehow taken flight and flown two rooms away. The packing tape ... where'd the flippin' packing tape run off to? It went on like that for quite some time, until we determined it would work best if DH would go out and mow the lawn and leave me to the packing on my own. Sometimes having a helper isn't much ... help.

Our boxes are all broken down into flat pieces at this point, and DH is going to "make" two or three of them that I can work on each evening. I think that methodically working my way through the breakables and getting them all boxed up will be a big load off my mind. I know this will all come together and we'll get it done. I appreciate the encouragement and the info shared here -- definitely ideas we will be putting to use as we get further along in this.

Regarding art work..we used collapsed cardboard boxes with the art slipped inside. Use boxes that match the size of the art. Some packages can hold 3 or 4 pictures with paper between. We used shrink wrap on the open end to secure the flap ends of the flattened box. Wide packing tape also works well. If you have a heavy duty stapler that would work even better/

Jen, use blankets, comforters, sheets, towels, rugs...anything large enought to wrap around a piece of artwork to give it cushioning. I packed every breakable(and then some!)when moving to Tx, and not a thing was broken~wish I could say the same for furniture, and the insurance didb't even come close. So much for professional movers. Since you're not going a great distance, you may not have any issues.

I was able to get used mirror/picture boxes from the moving company and packed all those items also, using towels to wrap them first, laying one at the bottom of the box to protect frames.

The best of luck with your packing, Jen! It's such a headache.

I don't have anything to add to the great tips already given, but I wanted to wish you well on your move.

We moved about an hour away. All the fragile stuff we moved ourselves. The first box I wrapped meticulously in bubble wrap, etc. Then I stopped. It was us and only us touching these boxes; only us packing these particular boxes, moving them, and unpacking them. That makes a huge difference.

So I took, for example, a whole stack of my Wedgwood plates, placed them in a plastic box, and stuffed clean dish towels in the corners. I marked boxes that I packed this way "Ridiculously fragile". They went in the back of our SUV, not stacked obviously. We handled them every step of the way and it was so much easier on both ends! It took 2 seconds to unpack the stuff, and I also didn't generate a mound trash; i just reused the plastic box and towels.

I say, take advantage of the fact that is it a short move and you are doing some of it yourself. Don't pack things as if Mayflower was tossing into an 18-wheeler and driving it across unpaved roads of Tanzania.

Pack boxes by which room in the new house they will be going to. That way the boxes can get put into the correct room and you'll have some idea of what's in there.

Get printable labels and make a bunch for each room with a line for any special comments about the contents. The same for any other special category of stuff. That way you can just slap them on when the box is full. Put a label on the top and at least 2 sides of each box. Something like:

MASTER BEDROOM

________________

Use blankets/towels for between pieces of artwork.

Being a seasoned, last minute, staying up all night the night before, unorganized mover, the best advice I can give you is if it is in the budget, just pay the movers extra to do all the packing. I did it the last 2 times and it was the most WONDERFUL experience. They were the utmost professionals and had all the needed supplies which included special boxes for everything: clothes hanging in the box, boxes for large artwork, boxes for my plants with holes, etc. No stress moving.

If that is not in the works:

1. During your decluttering, use the clothes/sheets/towels scheduled for Goodwill as tissue/packing paper for fragile items. When you get to the new place, unwrap the item and simply put them back in the bag for donation.

2. Make us of the contractor plastic bags from the warehouse stores (Sams/Costco, etc.). They are especially helpful for sheets, towels and clothes in the drawers. Just throw them in. Also, since they tend to be heavy duty, just throw them on the back or stuff between other items on the truck. You can apply color paper with tape to indicate the room it should go in.

When finished, simply fold and reuse as trash bags. No loss of money like boxes and tape.

I haven't had time to read the whole thread and I will soon, I am preparing for a corporate move so it will be packed for me ( I am very grateful) but what I'm doing till then is grouping same things together, books, candles, stationery, etc... so that it's packed in the same boxes, this makes it easier at the other end . I am also decluttering like crazy, I had a few bins of old paperwork shredded. I also use a lot of large ziplock bags to group cosmetics and other odds and ends, easier to deal with at your own pace when you need them at the other end.

Good luck with your move Auntjen, I can empathize since I've done it so many times in 41 years of mariage !!