How to Label Your Removals Boxes

To badly misquote the great Robert Burns, “The best removals plans of mice and men often go awry”. One easy slip up is labelling your boxes badly so they all end up in the wrong rooms. Doh!

Here are the do’s and don’t’s of labelling boxes for a faff-free move.

Get Tooled Up

You can keep it simple with a big black marker pen or if you want to be uber organised, use different coloured markers or labels to colour code each room. Don’t forget to mark the corresponding doors in your new home, you might know which room is which but your movers won’t.

V.I.B.s

Every move has it’s  V.I.B.s (Very Important Boxes), these contain the first/most needed items at the new property, curtains to cover kids bedrooms, bedding, tea bags, mugs, kettle, loo roll, etc. Add a big ‘X’ and mark all these boxes to go to the same room, so they’ll be easy to find when you need them.

Both Sides Now

Don’t just mark you box on one side, when your boxes are stacked some labels will inevitably end up facing the wrong way and you won’t know what box has what. Label each side and the top of every box.

Keep It Simple

Yes, you’re the world’s most organised person, you’re a spreadsheet wizard, master-planner extraordinaire, but keep it simple. Find a plan that works and make sure everyone helping knows what your plan is or can follow your clear clues (like labelling each door at the new property).

Write On

The most important and therefore largest information to go on each box is which room it has to go to, that’ll help your movers. Then in smaller writing, add what’s inside the box, that’ll help when you unpack.

Fragile Items

Make sure fragile items are clearly labelled. Any reputable removal company will take the utmost care of your possessions, but labelling boxes with delicate pieces, will help ensure heavy boxes aren’t dumped on top, and your glassware arrives in the same number of pieces as when it set off.

Declutter

One of the best things you can do is reduce the number of boxes, if you don’t want/need it, why pay to take it with you? Have a clear out before you move and you’ll have less boxes to label. Read our easy decluttering tips.

Happy labelling!