Planning to pack a rental van, or moving truck for your next move? You're in luck! We've been doing this every day for 40 years, and we're sharing our expert advice on how to load your vehicle without damaging your belongings while maximizing the space you've available.
Introduction to DIY Moving
There are several reasons why people opt for DIY moves, including budget, control over the timeline, or the distance of the move itself. However, a successful DIY move, regardless of the reason, starts with how you pack and load the moving truck. Packing a moving truck is a crucial step in the moving process, requiring careful planning and execution to prevent accidents and damage to items. Well-packed boxes, furniture, and appliances will save time, money, and effort, making your move to a new home much easier.
Pre-Move Preparation
Planning for your move, especially if you're moving yourself, is vital to pulling off a stress-free move. There are some important considerations for how to pack a moving truck when starting, including:
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It's essential to start packing early, create a moving-out checklist, and gather necessary supplies, such as a variety of boxes, furniture pads, shrink wrap, and packing tape.
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Before packing, take inventory of all items, including furniture, mattresses, box springs, appliances, heavy boxes, lighter boxes, and fragile items, to determine the right truck size and loading strategy.
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Measure large items, like sofas and box springs, to ensure they fit in the truck and can be loaded efficiently.
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As you pack your belongings, ensure that you label each box with the room, contents, and weight (light or heavy) to facilitate staging the boxes on the truck rental.
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Create a plan for loading the truck, taking into account the weight and size of the items, to minimize wasted space and prevent accidents.
Choosing the Right Truck Size
Like most jobs, having the right tools for the job makes life easier. Selecting the right rental truck will make your move easier. Research truck rental options, like U-Haul trucks, to find the best fit for the move. Check out several rental websites, as they often guide you on which truck will suit your needs. You'll want to do the following to ensure you have enough space:
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Use the number of bedrooms and square footage of your current home, along with your inventory list of furniture, appliances, and belongings, to help determine the correct size.
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Determine if your move is local or long-distance. If you're moving locally, consider opting for a larger size truck if the additional cost to rent isn't significant.
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Consider the size and weight of items, such as box springs and mattresses, when selecting a truck size, and plan how to distribute the weight as you load.
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Select a truck size that fits all items, including heavy boxes, furniture, and appliances, to prevent overcrowding, shifting, and damage.
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Use the weight of items, the slope of the driveway or walkway, and other factors to select a truck with a ramp or lift-gate that best meets your needs.
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Ask your rental company about add-on tools, such as dollies, hand trucks, and moving blankets, when you're getting the rental quote.
Protecting Items During Transit
As you prepare to load your packed belongings, take the time to prepare items to protect them during transit properly. This will help prevent damage caused by items rubbing together or shifting during transit. You will want to make sure that you do the following:
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Use packing materials, like bubble wrap and tape, to protect fragile items, like glass and light bulbs, during transit.
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Wrap fragile items, like furniture and appliances, in blankets or furniture pads. Once wrapped with pads, use shrink wrap to cover the pads and hold everything in place, preventing damage.
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Place fragile items, like valuable items and electronics, in a safe and secure location, like the front of the truck, to prevent damage.
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Consider using custom boxes or crates to protect fragile or bulky items, like artwork and mattresses.
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Break down furniture pieces, such as bed frames, to both protect and maximize space on the truck.
Packing the Moving Truck Load
Now that you have adequately protected your furniture and appliances, it's time to move on to executing your loading plan. Loading a moving truck is a delicate balance of utilizing space, distributing weight evenly in the box, and protecting against shifting during transit. There are three main types of items: heavy, light, and odd-shaped (such as a treadmill or an L-shaped desk).
Loading Heavy Items
You need to plan on parting the sea, using the space towards the cab and down the sides to load your heaviest items. Load your heaviest items, such as appliances and furniture, first, using tie-downs to secure them and prevent them from shifting. Start by:
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Placing heavy boxes and items, like refrigerators and washers, at the front of the truck to distribute the weight evenly. Ensure each piece is wrapped, and use tie-down straps to secure them across the front.
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Protect furniture items, such as dressers and bed headboards/footboards, mattresses, and box springs, with pads. Secure the pieces along the sides of the truck box with tie-downs.
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In the space between the sides of the truck box, begin the game of Tetris, using heavier boxes that won't crush items as your base. Take care to minimize empty space without crowding.
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Balance loading heavy items on the left and right side of the truck to balance the weight and prevent accidents.
Loading Light Items and Boxes
Once you have staged the heaviest items on the truck, continue your game of balancing weight, space, and protection and move on to your lighter items, stacking medium and lighter weight boxes on your base items. Some things to consider:
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Stack boxes and items on your base boxes in a manner that helps lock them together in rows, forming a natural pyramid. Seek ways to offset while stacking to keep box corners from both shifting and crushing.
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When stacking out the smaller and lighter items, consider loading them in labeled boxes to make unpacking easier.
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As you work your way up, save the higher-up spaces for lightweight and easily crushed items as your top layer.
Loading Odd-Shaped Items
Your game of Tetris on a truck will always have oddly shaped items that need special consideration. Weight, shape, and whether these items can be broken down into less irregular shapes need consideration to not only stage correctly but also prevent damage. If possible, think about:
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Breaking these items down into more manageable pieces, make sure to use bags and other means to store the parts.
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If the items are lighter, consider using up-high space to load these items.
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If heavy (such as a treadmill base or adjustable bed base), you will need to line the sides and secure them with straps, using proper protective materials.
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Consider holding these items back (if there's sufficient space) and loading them last.
Securing Items for Transit
As you load the truck side to side and front to back, securing items must be done correctly to prevent shifting and damage. Most trucking companies use load bars to prevent pallets from shifting, and you can use those principles for your move by:
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As stated, use tie-downs and straps to secure heavy items, such as furniture and appliances, and prevent them from shifting during transit.
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Run straps across each row of boxes, up high, to avoid any boxes in the row from tipping or shifting.
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Mark fragile items, whether boxed or not, and save smaller boxes for the top layer or transport them separately if possible. Any important documents and medications should be kept in a safe and secure location, like the cab of the truck or your vehicle.
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Consider using locks or seals to secure the truck and prevent theft or damage.
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Use packing tape to secure boxes and items, such as furniture and appliances, to prevent them from shifting during transit.
Filling Empty Spaces in the Truck
Once you've built and secured your base layers of heavy to lighter boxes and items, as you fill the moving truck from front to back, do the following to maximize the remaining space:
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Use smaller boxes and lightweight, oddly shaped items to fill gaps and empty spaces in the truck, preventing shifting and damage.
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Load boxes with lighter items, such as clothing and protected cushions, into empty spaces to maximize space and prevent waste.
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Consider using packing materials, like blankets, to fill empty spaces and prevent shifting.
Final Check
At various stages of loading your moving truck, take the time to inventory what is left to load and make sure that you haven't missed any heavy items or smaller boxes. Doing so will ensure that you don't waste time reworking the loading process.
Once you've completed loading your moving truck, make sure that you:
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Double-check the moving truck to ensure all items are loaded and secured, and you feel confident that the contents won't shift.
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Review your moving plan to ensure everyone is involved. If you're making a long-distance move, review your route, stopping points, and any other details to prevent confusion. If you're moving locally, ensure that everyone knows the new address and your expectations.
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Consider doing a final walk-through of the old home to ensure everything is packed and nothing is left behind.
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Take a final inventory of all items to ensure everything arrives at the new location safely.
Other Options and Loading Considerations
If your move is longer, you're operating on tight timelines, or you have some physical limitations, consider some options to help speed up the process and reduce effort. A couple of these include:
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Consider hiring a professional packing service to pack your belongings in advance of your move. Well-packed moving boxes make loading the truck easier and minimize damage on moving day.
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If your move is a longer distance, consider hiring professional movers to handle the loading and unloading process. Search for labor-only movers on Google to see who can pack a moving truck for you. In most cases, professional movers will load a truck with more skill and quicker than you can.
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If you're dealing with physical limitations, call in some favors from friends and family. You'll need to be there and communicate how you'd like items to be loaded, but you can save money and effort for the price of pizza and beer.
Final Thoughts
Professional movers like 3 Men Movers execute more than 30,000 moves annually and, through decades of experience, have developed tried-and-true methods to load moving trucks effectively. Follow our tips and tricks, and you can have similar results. Or, if you'd rather hit the easy button, call us, and we can do it for you.