Renovating your home can be both an exciting and stressful time. Depending on the size of your renovation there will be a certain amount of preparation you should undertake to make the entire process smother. While your renovation is being complete, it’s important that you pack and store your items in a way that is safe and secure.

Renovations can be carried out in any part of your house and each area will have its own challenges. A bathroom obviously has different bits and pieces compared to a living room. There are however, some techniques and tactics that can be applied to any room which will make the entire renovating process easier.

When it comes to packing your items to make way for a renovation, organisation and planning is key. This will not only help you pack efficiently, but will be hugely helpful when it’s time to move your items back into the space. It’s also a good idea to pack up things in adjoining or nearby rooms as dust and other debris can make their way through parts of the house.

Supplies

Before you start packing up, it’s important you have all the necessary supplies to carry out the job successfully. The list of things you will need should look like:

• Boxes of various sizes

• Bubble wrap

• Packing paper and newspaper

• Packing and masking tape

• Labelling stickers

• Markers for labels

• A notebook for checklists and inventory

Packing techniques

If you’re packing for a multiple-room renovation, the most efficient strategy to is to tackle the job room by room. Whatever you’re packing, the items should be thoroughly cleaned and dry beforehand.  A good place to begin is the kitchen as it will likely have the most fragile items. Packing fragile items first like glass, crystal and china gets them out of the way and helps ensure they won’t be broken during the packing of other things.

For fragile and valuable items, it’s best to wrap them in bubble wrap and newspaper individually. Any empty space in these boxes should be filled with crushed newspaper to prevent items moving around. Obviously, when you place these things into storage, nothing should be stored on top of them and they should be on a stable surface.

Furniture that can be dissembled, should be broken down, cleaned and should be the first things you move into your storage space. Furniture is heavy and won’t be able to be stored on top of other things, while other boxes can easily be stored on table tops or within drawers and filing cabinets. Folding and dissembling things like tables and desk chairs makes transport and storage much easier.

Organisation

Whatever you’re packing, it’s important to remember to label and even colour code boxes. Make sure your labelling is large and clear, and says where the boxes should go after the renovation. You can even list the inventory of what is in each box and tape it to boxes. This means when it’s time to unpack it will be much easier to know what boxes belong where. Making a master list in a note book that lists your entire inventory is extremely helpful, especially if you’re putting everything into storage.

If you’re looking to renovate your home, or simply need more storage space, Spacer can provide you with affordable, secure and local storage solutions.