Packing Tips
When the time comes and the moving company sends its crew in to pack your house, you had better be ready for it!
- When people come to pack your house, be there to supervise them (in the experience of Paguro staff, a shipping company would have forgotten to pack half of the clothes if the error hadn’t been pointed, where in another occasion some bookshelves where left behind by mistake). Also, they are strangers in your home and in some cases temptation is great and items can be stolen. Expect packing to take from 1 to 3 days (depending on the size of your shipment and the difficulty of the packing, like piano, antique furniture or painting require special handling), and leave some lee-way in case they pack slower than expected.
- Take the kids to the neighbors and keep them out of the way, you will be stressed enough with the move without needing to entertain your children or stopping their fights with the moving crew (He has taken "my" toys!!). If this option is not available to you keep a room for them where few toys and activities like colouring, play dough or the like are available to them and they can play undisturbed (the kitchen might be the best place).
- Normally the crew will take a lunch break, if you are staying in the house have a book handy and take the time to relax and take a pause as well.
Make sure all your clothes and linens are clean and dry so they do not mold on the trip over. The movers should put silica gel packets in each box to help prevent molding. If something could leak during the shipment, don’t take it. Do not bring food so that bugs and vermin will stay out of your shipment. - Leave the kitchen packing for last. Also make sure that in the packing frenzy it does not happen to have your garbage can (or trash can or dustbin) packed with all the trash as it has happened (you do not wish to imagine what was on the receiving endafter a month and a half of shipping time!).
- It is very important that all screws, small parts etc. be put into a separate strong plastic bag and than taped onto the item it came from, as well as including the mounting instractions with the screws (we have witnessed too many "creative re-assembling" of furniture on the other end not to mention it!)
- Another good thing in case you have company furniture that are not to be packed or have rented a semi-furnished home is to put big colourful labels which are very good to identify, saying:
SEA (for shipping)
STAYS (for leaving behind) - It makes a lot of difference if you place a colored sticker on each item supposed to be left behind (for example green to go, red to stay).
Do not write the instructions, since in some places the crew might not know how to read them.
For your peace of mind, ask the moving company to have someone in the crew that speaks a language you are familiar with (the elected language is usually english), or make sure you have someone around that can help you with translation. - Also, if you can, ask a friend if he/she can be around, since the crew works in more than one room at a time. This makes it difficult for you to make sure everything is going according to your request.
- Check every once in a while that breakable items are packed well. It happened one too many times that your good china arrives with a couple items chipped or broken due to uncareful wrapping.
- If you own antique furniture, have them check for woodworms prior packing (do not put any furniture oil on them prior shipping, as it may soften the wood and be marked by the wrapping) and have them treated if you find any, as this kind of damage might not be covered by your shipment insurance. Also make sure no tape is directly sticked on any furniture surface and the right paper is used to protect the furniture from the corrugated cardboard.