How to Load a Moving Container

Once you’ve packed all of your boxes, from the kitchen to the family room and the dining room, it’s time to load everything into a moving container. Make sure you’ve organized everything with your moving partner, so that the moving container is where you need it to be on moving day. There are certain times of year that are extremely busy for movers. If you’ll be moving during one of these periods, then you’ll want to arrange everything well in advance.

It’s easy to rush into loading the moving container in an attempt to expedite the process and get everything out of your old home. But it’s important to consider when to load items and where to place them in the container, so that you can fit as many items as possible into the container, maintain safe weight distribution and not have to re-pack the container because of a mistake.

Packing Supplies for Loading a Moving Container

Now that you have packed everything, you will need a few different supplies for loading your moving container.

• Stretch wrap to protect furniture from damage while it’s being moved out of your home and during transit.
• Paper pads
• Furniture pads
• Dollies
• Loading straps to secure items for transit. (Remember: Be careful tightening the loading straps because excessive force can cause damage to your items.)

How Should I Load Items?

As you consider how you want to load and position items on the moving container, keep these general principles in mind. Before you start moving things, protect items with paper and furniture pads to prevent scratches and other damage during transit. If you have upholstered furniture, use stretch wrap to protect from dirt as well as damage. Appliances, furniture and other heavy items should be on the floor, so there’s a stable foundation. If there are any open spaces, you can fill those with smaller moving cartons

If you’re unfamiliar with how to load a moving container, allowing professional movers to load, place and stack items can be the best decision. If you’re loading your own moving container, keep in mind that weight needs to be evenly distributed throughout the container. When you place a heavy couch on one end, there should be a similarly-sized appliance available to place on the other end of the container.

What If I’m Storing My Moving Container?

Properly packing and loading items is even more important if you’ll be storing your moving container. Many of the precautions that you should take while loading your container to protect items during transit will also keep your items safe in storage. But, if you’ll be storing items for an extended period of time, you should cover the items towards the top of the container to reduce exposure to light.

When you’re done loading the moving container, you’ll be one step closer to being finished. If you need help with anything or everything, from packing to moving to loading your moving container, Lint Van Lines has a full staff of professional movers who can make light work of it. We serve the Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Coralville and Des Moines areas for local, regional and international household moves.

How to Pack Your Dining Room

You will have to exercise additional caution while packing your dining room, but overall, the process shouldn’t be as overwhelming as packing your kitchen or family room because it doesn’t require as much preparation. Since the dining room is a non-essential room, you’re also able to pack at your convenience and it’s always nice to finish what you can before the last minute.

Once the furniture is accounted for, silverware, dishes and other fragile items will remain. You should pack these items individually to ensure that they arrive at your new home in one piece, which can be time consuming, but it’s a straightforward process if you use good packing practices.

Packing Supplies for Your Dining Room

You will need most of the same packing supplies for your dining room as the other rooms in your house, with some extra bubble wrap on-hand for fragile items.

• Sturdy Cartons
• Packing Paper
• Bubble Wrap
• Packing Tape
• Felt-tip Markers

General Packing Technique for Your Dining Room

Before you start to pack individual items in the dining room, pad the bottom of your cartons with crushed packing paper. Always pack the heaviest items first, with the lightest items towards the top of the carton, and separate each layer with more crushed packing paper. Items should be packed snugly to reduce movement during transit, but not forced to the point of overcrowding.

Packing Dishes

If you’re packing fine china, make sure the packing paper is clean and use multiple layers at once. Start from the corner and wrap diagonally, tucking in the overlapping edges. Then, wrap the dish as second time with the same technique for additional peace of mind. Take the same approach to securely pack bowls and other breakable dishes in the dining room.

Once you’ve wrapped the dishes, place them into cartons on their ends. This is much safer than packing dishes flat for transit.

Packing Stemware

Start by rolling a piece of packing paper and wrap that around the stem of the glass. Stuff the inside of the glass with packing paper, too, to prevent breakage from the outside. Finally, wrap each remaining section of the glass individually to ensure there is plenty of cushioning before snugly placing the wrapped stemware into a carton.

Packing Silverware

You can either wrap silverware in sets, or individually. Wrapping silverware individually will be safer, but also more time consuming. If there is a container that houses a set of silverware, you’ll either want to fill the spaces in the container with packing paper or wrap the silverware and its container separately.

Packing Glassware

Vases, decorations and other breakable items in the dining room should be generously packed with bubble wrap. Once secured in bubble wrap, use packing paper to wrap the fragile items with the same technique as the other items from your dining room.

After you have snugly packed a carton, seal it with packing tape and then label it depending on the contents. If it contains fragile items, make sure you label it accordingly, with an arrow indicating the right side up.

After all, it does not take much to scratch, crack or break dining room dishes, so if you don’t have time to pack, Lint United Van Lines has a full staff of professional movers who can make light work of it. We serve the Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Coralville and Des Moines areas for local, regional and international household moves.

How to Pack Your Family Room

Your family room is likely the place where you spend most of your time, watching television, chatting with friends and even working on the computer. Make sure you pack your family room so all of your belongings still look great in your new home.

Start by gathering all of the moving supplies you will need. This includes:

• Sturdy Moving Boxes
• Packing Paper or Bubble Wrap
• Paper Pads
• Tissue Paper for Breakables
• Packing Tape
• Felt-tip Markers

Packing Lamps

You will want to disassemble the lamp and pack the base and the shade separately. Pack the shade into a packing carton 2 inches larger than the shade and fill with packing paper. Do not pack any other objects with the shade.

When packing the base of the lamp, wrap the base carefully with paper pads and line the box with packing paper.

Packing Mirrors and Glass

Mirrors and glass are especially fragile. When you are packing mirrors you may want to ask your Lint United Van Lines representative about boxes that are specifically made to move these items. Wrap the mirror or picture in paper and put it in the carton. Tape the box all the way around.

Moving Electronics, Computers and Televisions

If you have the original boxes for these items, it is best to use them when you are packing. If not, ask your representative at Lint United Van Lines to supply proper moving cartons. A flat screen TV is especially tricky to pack securely. Use a foam screen protector and always keep the TV upright. Some flat screen televisions should not be set with the front or back down.

Regardless of what you are moving, always remember to wrap your belongings in paper to keep them in one piece.

It does not take much to scratch, crack or dent family room furniture and décor, so if you don’t have time to pack well, Lint United Van Lines has a full staff of professional movers who can make light work of it. We serve the Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Coralville and Des Moines for local, regional and international household moves.

What Should You Take on an International Move?

Preparing for an international move is a stressful and exciting time. You are nervous about adapting to your new surroundings, but packing your belongings and getting your house ready for sale puts more pressing demands on you.

You may need to think through how much of your household you want to move and which items are easier to replace or too expensive to move.

There are certainly some considerations when preparing for an international move.

Are you planning to return to your current home in 2 to 5 years?

If you are planning to return in a couple of years, it may be worth storing larger household items and even some treasures from the past or home décor that you really like. In the right climate controlled storage unit, furniture and boxes of household necessities will likely be in the same condition when you get back as when you left.

Does shipping or storage cost more than the item is worth?

If you know that shipping or renting a storage unit is going to cost more than your belongings are worth by the time you get back, selling might be the easiest option. You just have to look at your belongings and decide which ones are worth shipping because you love them, which you would rather replace anyway, and if selling or storing are the best options. Also, storage units that are different sizes, or climate controlled cost more money, so how much you want to spend per month on storage may play a role in how many of your belongings you part with.

Can you buy replacements cheaper overseas?

You may be heading to a country where the cost of living is cheaper, or where you will be making a much larger salary. If you can buy cheaper or will have more expendable income, you may want a new start with new home furnishings and décor.

Which clothing will be necessary in your new location?

If you are heading for warmer climates, your winter clothes may be unnecessary, so you can pack a little lighter. By the time you come back to the U.S., your wardrobe will likely be outdated.

If the climates are similar to that of Iowa, you may want to take enough clothes with you to get by for the entire year.

Fashion trends in your future home may not look like those of the Midwest. If you can decide before you leave if you wish to follow the trends or stick with your style, you might be able to pack a little lighter.

Which items will depreciate in value over time?

If shipping your car is too much of a hassle, and you plan to be gone for more than one year, it might be worth your time to clean it up and sell it. Do your research to find out how much you can replace your car for in your new country. Find out if public transportation is a faster and more cost effective way to get from your new home to work and you may not even need a car in your new location. In many cities around the world the average family does not own a car, because public transportation is so efficient.

No matter how much you are planning to ship overseas for your move, Lint United Van Lines can help with seamless and trustworthy international moving services. Contact us today if you are moving overseas from Iowa City, Cedar Rapids or Des Moines!

Tips for Taking Inventory Before Your Move

If you’ll be relocating in the near future, it’s a wise idea to take inventory of your belongings before you move – especially items that have monetary or sentimental value. Whether you plan to hire a moving company for packing, or you’re just trying to be organized before you begin packing, it will help to have a list or photos of your belongings and the condition they are in.

If your items come up missing during a move, or get damaged, the process of proving the value of your loss will be easier if you can prove its existence and condition. Something to keep in mind is that a moving company is more likely to replace damaged goods if its trained staff did the packing.

When to Take Inventory

Start taking inventory of your belongings as soon as you decide you’re moving. This will cut down on the stress of last minute tasks. The items that are not used regularly can be packed during the inventory process, so you won’t have to touch them twice.

Go through your house room by room, packing and labeling boxes appropriately based on the room they need to go to in the new home. Take photos or video of the electronics, furniture and other important items in the room and pack the smaller items that are not used regularly. This will make it easier to find the photos on a disc or camera, as they will be grouped with other belongings that were in same room.

Photos or Videos Are Great Ways to Inventory Your Belongings

A picture is worth a thousand words, so having a disc full of photos or a video that shows your actual television set or gold necklace can help you get the actual value or an exact replacement item. There are some household items that are easily or frequently replaced anyway, so decide as you go which things are important enough to include.

What Should You Photograph?

You might drive yourself crazy trying to keep track of all the specifics about one item, but taking a photos or video is a great way to inventory your belongings and the condition they are in quickly.

1. Take a photo of the brand logo, serial number and model number. There is no question about the age of the item and current pricing when you have these details.
2. Photograph any unique features, custom add-ons or upgrades to your belongings. These things increase the value, so if there is loss or damage, it’s great to have proof that you spent the extra money on upgrades.
3. Family heirlooms and jewelry should be photographed, but you may want to take special care in getting a value assessment as well. Antique furniture, jewelry and collectibles often increase in value over time, so ask an expert for valuation information. You can even photograph paper copies of the assessment, or save digital copies along with the rest of the photos.
4. Table tops and other wood furniture are prone to scratches, so a clear picture of the areas that may get noticeably damaged can help prove its prior condition.
5. If you have shelves of collectibles, you may be able to take shelf by shelf photos of the collection to save you from having so many pictures to go through. Make sure there is enough space between items and they can all be seen clearly.

Organization of Your Inventory

Save your inventory photos to a couple of CDs. You will not want to label each photo separately, but saving them in folders based on the room they were in will help you find the photos easily if you need them later.

Put one CD in a safe deposit box or have a trusted family member hang onto it, and keep the other one. This is a cheap way to make sure that if one gets lost or damaged, you still have the information you need. Most videos can be shot and stored on cards now so they’re easy to store, but also easy to lose, so keep the cards with the CDs.

How to Prepare For a Cross Country Move

Your cross country move is a big deal. It may be scary and labor intensive, and you may not be sure where to start. There are some simple things you can do so that your move has a smoother transition.

Whether you are downsizing or up-sizing, your move across the U.S. is a new start.

Clean – “Spring Cleaning” Can Be Done Any Time!

If you are the “average American,” you have been too busy to deep clean your house or apartment over the past few years. Now that you’re moving, it’s time to go through every room and clean, whether you are selling it, or just moving out and letting a property manager deal with the rest.

Wipe down the furniture with furniture cleaner to get the majority of the dust off, clean the mirrors and get all of the change, pens and other small items out of the couch. This will make it easier for your moving company to leave you with less work once the house is empty, and will allow you to have everything placed in your new home without dragging in extra dirt and dust.

Purge Your Unwanted Items

No matter how organized you are, there are always items that you keep just in case you need them, like fitting into them again someday or wanting to pick up that hobby again someday.
fit into them again someday, or want to pick up that hobby again someday. If you haven’t touched it in a year, you can probably get rid of it without missing it.

Go through paperwork that has been piling up. Everybody has those important documents that they have kept for 3 years, and are no longer that important.

If you have children, it’s time for them to help go through the toys, or have them go away for a day so you can make things disappear.

What to Do With Furniture and Appliances

If you love your sofa or have a one of a kind accent table, you may want to move it across the country, but there are some things that are easier to replace and not worth the hassle. When it comes to furniture and appliances, you need to make sure they will fit into the space you’re moving, as well as they do in your current house. Size and color matter, and you don’t want to move a large item just to have to get rid of it and buy a new one later.

Hire the Right Moving Company

A good moving company staff can make light work of a tough job and get your possessions moved safely to your new home. Not only will a moving company have a big enough moving truck to relocate you, they also have the right packing materials, furniture blankets and appliance carts.

If you need help with an upcoming cross country move, contact Lint Van Lines. Serving Iowa City, Coralville, Cedar Rapids and Des Moines with superior relocation services.