Moving abroad can be an exciting experience for you, whether prompted by family, business, or career. However, this new chapter could be quite devastating if not properly managed. Since most of the shipping containers are primarily transported through maritime shipping, your belongings are prone to certain rough conditions. Some of these conditions include changes in humidity and temperatures and sudden movements. Therefore, it is vital for you to properly pack your household properties into shipping containers to minimize damages.
Where Should You Start?
Packing entails a lot of activities and precautions to ensure the safety of your belongings. Hence, the first step would be to find appropriate packing boxes of high quality and resistance to external damage. Always ensure that the boxes’ flaps are secure and intact. Label all the boxes with your credentials such as names, home addresses, and name of your foreign destination. It is worth noting that you need to label each box depending on the goods they are carrying, whether fragile or not.
What to Take with You?
The kind of belongings to take with you while moving abroad largely depends on the move’s nature, long-term, or short-term move. Always consider asking yourself the kind of belongings that are essential for your new life chapter. Additionally, you should be able to identify and compare other suitable alternatives. For instance, what would be the cost implication of storing certain items versus shipping them? Besides, it would be best if you always had the total weight of your possessions in mind to avoid exceeding the stipulated container payload. Once you have identified those essential possessions, you should start packing them into the boxes, depending on the nature of the items.
The following tips could be quite helpful when packing the boxes into the shipping container.
- Ensure that all the boxes are correctly labeled based on the items they contain. Package each of the boxes appropriately. Various packing materials could be used to achieve this. The most commonly used packing material includes bubble wraps, which help minimize external damage to the boxes.
- Large possessions such as furniture should be placed at the back of the container to help create space for the smaller ones. After that, boxes containing durable items should be placed first into the container and removed last. On the other hand, the fragile ones, including kitchen items and electronics, should be placed last and removed first during unpacking. Ensure that all the light items are placed on top of the heavy ones to avoid crushing.
- In case you are opting for an FCL shipping, always spread the items inside the container and avoid stacking them in one corner of the container. Additionally, in instances where you’re forced to move with wet cargo, always place them under the dry load.
- When satisfied with your packing, tightly pack your container using straps to ensure each box is in place to prevent them from moving or sliding.
If you are uncertain of how to go about your packing, seek the services of professional movers. Moreover, always remember to ensure your container against the risk of damage or loss.