The Fine Art of Unpacking 101
You did it – the move is over. The Denver moving companies were narrowed down and the chosen residential moving company has unloaded all of your boxes. Hopefully, you properly labeled all of your boxes so they ended up in the proper place!
Window CC Photo Courtesy of Szapucki
Did you remember to take an inventory of all of your boxes and items? Did you take it one step further, numbering boxes so that you know exactly what is inside each box? Nothing is worse than wanting to cook a meal in your new home and having to go through a zillion boxes just to find the dishes to eat off of!
While the packing process can be just as undesirable as going through the list of Denver moving companies in the hopes of selecting the perfect one for your needs, the unpacking process is typically something people enjoy. However, this doesn’t apply to everyone. If you’re one of those people that detests unpacking, someone who wishes there were a magic wand you could wave and everything would magically be in the place it belongs, here’s a handy guide to making the unpacking process as painless as possible.
It All Starts Before You Pack!
As mentioned above, the key to pain-free unpacking is to better organize everything and document it prior to having the moving company in Denver load your boxes onto the moving truck. It requires a bit more during the packing process, but you’ll be glad that you did it when you are unpacking!
Start by taking an inventory of the contents of the boxes. Sure, you could mark the boxes intended for the kitchen with a “K,” but when you have a pile of twenty boxes in the kitchen of the new home, how do you know what’s inside those boxes? You can more quickly fill those cabinets when you take a systematic approach to packing.
For example, everyone has an order to their cabinets. In my home, dishware is placed in one cabinet, glassware and anything you can drink out of in another. If you inventory the boxes, you can make quick work of filling that dishware cabinet, armed with a list of what is inside each and every box. No more jumping from cabinet to cabinet as you unpack, or making piles of stuff on the counters.
This also highlights the need to pack in an organized fashion. Don’t mix your pantry goods with your dishware or anything like that. Try to keep things together that belong together in the cabinets and drawers, and the unpacking process is made much more simple!
One very important thing to remember is packing a box labeled “Essentials.” This box should contain anything and everything you might need on your first night in the new place. This is especially helpful if you happen to be arriving at night, or if you have children. In this way, you aren’t scrambling from box to box looking for pajamas, toothbrushes, and counter top cleaner, or whatever else you might need immediately.
Start With One Room And Go From There
Before you delegate assignments to the members of your family, you should be sure that all of the furniture is where you want it. You don’t want the kids to fill their bureaus just to wind up moving that bureau later on.
If you have children, send them off to start unpacking their own rooms and choose just one room to get started on. Many prefer the kitchen, while others choose the living room. Be sure you follow suit. This offers your family a place to rest, grab a snack, or meet up at the end of the day that isn’t full of unpacked boxes. It will allow everyone to de-stress, and they’ll appreciate that! Most people choose the kitchen, and this is a great place to start – the sooner the kitchen is in order, the sooner you can start preparing real meals instead of relying on take out!
The bathroom is a logical second choice, mainly because people will want to shower, wash up, and everything else one does in the bathroom. While you had your medications, toothbrushes, etc in your Essentials box, you’ll need to unpack towels, the shower curtain, and other items so that people can clean up in the shower after a long, sweaty day of unpacking.
Don’t Stress
Moving is stressful in and of itself – selecting moving companies in Denver, choosing what to part with, packing, closing on a new home – don’t make it worse by insisting all boxes must be unpacked as quickly as possible. Take your time, it is not a race! As long as the essentials are taken care of, that is all that you need.
In your Denver moving companies search, you’ll find that Exodus Moving & Storage can make the actual move simple and stress-free. Give us a call today!