Packing is the part of a move almost everyone underestimates — and the only one where poor preparation translates directly into hours on moving day.
How many boxes do you need?
A reliable rule of thumb: roughly one box per square metre of living space. For a 65-square-metre flat that means around 60 to 70 boxes. If you own a lot of books, allow more; if you live minimally, you will need fewer. Get ten too many rather than five too few — nothing stalls packing progress as reliably as a trip to the hardware store on a Saturday afternoon.
What order to pack in?
Work from what you need least towards what you use daily. Concretely: cellar, attic and storage rooms first, then books, decorations and out-of-season clothing, then crockery and the kitchen except the essentials, and last the bathroom, bedding and the essentials box.
Pack room by room, not category by category. A box containing "things from three rooms" is worthless when unpacking, because it belongs in no room and therefore stays in the hallway — sometimes for weeks.
Labelling: the top is not enough
Label every box on at least two sides, not just the lid. Once the boxes are stacked you can no longer see the lid. The label needs the destination room and a keyword for the contents — "Kitchen / pots & pans" is useful, "Kitchen 7" is not.
Mark fragile boxes clearly and never place them at the bottom of a stack when loading. When we carry your boxes we go by your labelling — anything unmarked we treat as ordinary household goods.
The six most common mistakes
- Packing boxes too heavy — 20 kilos is the sensible upper limit
- Not filling voids: anything that can shift will break
- Taping the base only once instead of crosswise
- Packing away the tools needed for furniture disassembly
- Putting the essentials box in the truck instead of your own car
- Starting too late — two weeks is realistic, two evenings is not
The essentials box
One box stays open until the very end and travels in your own car: IDs and lease documents, chargers, toilet paper, hand soap, towels, coffee, a set of cutlery and crockery, painkillers, a screwdriver and cable ties. With this box you can arrive in the new flat without having to unpack everything at once.