When you’re on a tight budget—as many people are these days—you want to make sure you plan ahead to avoid any unexpected costs during your move. After you reserve your moving truck or trailer rental, you’ll want to calculate a budget for moving supplies. Here are a few tips to help make this an easy task:
First, you’ll want to print this handy packing planner checklist. Then, take that list room by room in your home and estimate how many boxes you’ll need.
The checklist has a number in the upper left corner of each box with the minimum number of boxes that are generally needed for each room. These box estimates take a lot of the guesswork out of planning a budget for moving supplies. After moving 13 times, I’ve found that these numbers are extremely helpful.
All packing supplies on the list have prices next to them which make it easy to calculate the cost of your moving supplies. U-Haul also has a bulk rate for small, medium, large and extra-large boxes. And any unused moving supplies can be returned for a full refund with a receipt. So, don’t stress about buying too much. It’s better to get more moving supplies than you need. You don’t want to risk running out while you’re packing.
To save a trip, you also have the option to purchase all moving supplies online and have them delivered to your door.
Here is a scanned copy of my packing planner checklist from my last move. Since U-Haul boxes are designed to be used more than once, I only needed a small amount of packing supplies to supplement what I already had. Depending on the size of your home and what supplies you already have, your checklist will most likely look very different from mine.
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- Packing Planner – Side 1
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- Packing Planner – Side 2
For those of you on a very tight budget, check out the “Take a Box, Leave a Box” at your local U-Haul center where customers can drop off their used boxes for other customers to take.
Hopefully, you’ve taken some time to de-clutter your home. If not, moving is the perfect time to do it. Why move stuff you don’t need? Check out this post on “Clearing Out the Clutter” or this one about “Where to Sell, Trash and Donate Old Items” for tips on where to get rid of your unwanted goods.
How many times have you moved? Did you use a list like this or just wing it? Share your thoughts the comments section below. We’d love to hear from you!
