How to pack a moving truck

What’s the best way to pack a moving truck?
In an ideal world, professional movers would deal with your home move from start to finish. Realistically, however, movers are expensive, and the most affordable way to move is to hire a truck and do the heavy lifting yourself.

If you've chosen to move the DIY way, it's important you know how to pack a moving truck correctly. Packing it wrong will cause damage to your belongings that could cost you more than it would have done to hire movers in the first place.

How do I pack a moving truck?
First, figure out what size truck you need
You don't want to get halfway through packing your moving truck only to find it isn't large enough. This isn't such a disaster if you're only moving across town as you can resign yourself to doing two trips. But for a cross-country move, you must be able to fit all your belongings in the truck.

To give you a rough idea of what size truck you'll need, allow three cubic feet of space per room. This can vary, however, depending on room size and how much furniture you have. If in doubt, your truck rental company should be able to help you figure out what size truck to hire.

Disassemble furniture
Before you get started packing your moving truck, grab your tool kit and disassemble any furniture that comes apart, such as bed frames, desks and dressers. They'll take up significantly less space in their disassembled form, allowing you more room for your other belongings. What's more, especially large or heavy items are usually easier to carry when you've taken them apart.

Pack large and heavy items first
The cardinal rule of packing a moving truck is to pack large and heavy items first so they sit along the far wall of the truck nearest the cab. This keeps them together, and once secured, helps prevent them from getting loose and crushing your more fragile items. Pieces to pack first include refrigerators, freezers, ranges, couches and bed frames. You'll need a couple of people to carry these items safely, and you may even need to use a hand truck to help you out.

Fit long items along the sides
Long items such as mirrors, mattresses and tabletops should be fitted along the sides of the truck. This lets you pack them upright using the wall as support, so they take up less room. You may need to secure them in place unless the rest of your belongings fit tightly enough to offer adequate support. Make sure any fragile items are well protected to prevent breakages.

Secure large items using straps
Although a tightly packed truck should theoretically keep everything in its place, we'd highly recommend securing large items with ratchet straps, bungee cords or other tie-downs. By using these straps, you stop large, heavy items from shifting when you turn or brake, protecting the items that are secured and any items they might crush if they moved around.

Many truck rental companies provide suitable straps to secure your items, but if not, you can buy them yourself. Husky 12-foot-1-inch Ratchet Tie-Downs with S-Hook are a good choice, with an impressive break strength of 1,500 pounds. This might be an expense that you didn't expect, but it's worth spending a little on these straps to stop you from needing to replace thousands of dollars' worth of broken items.

Use padding
Always use plenty of padding when packing a moving truck. Some items obviously need padding, such as glass picture frames or television sets, but you might not think about items like wooden furniture that can easily get scratched during a move. Padded moving blankets are an easy way of draping or wrapping any large items that might need protecting. For smaller breakables, bubble wrap is a good choice, though it isn't the most eco-friendly option. You could use biodegradable packing peanuts as an alternative, especially for small items that you can pack in boxes.

Pack heavy boxes on the bottom level
Once you've packed all your furnishings and other large items, it's time to start on your boxes. Start with heavy boxes, such as those containing books and non-fragile kitchenware. These types of heavy items should be packed in heavy-duty packing boxes, such as the Home Depot Heavy-Duty Small Moving Box with Handles. Small boxes are ideal for small but heavy items — if you fill large boxes with lots of small, heavy items, they'll weigh too much to safely carry.

Save lighter boxes to fit on top
You should stack your boxes in rows reaching right up to the top of the truck, with cushions or other soft items stuffed into the space between the top of the top row of boxes and the roof of the truck. To avoid them getting crushed and damaged, lighter boxes must go on top of the heavier ones. Once you've stacked all your heavy boxes up to a few boxes high, stack your lighter boxes on top to keep them safe.

Think carefully about fragile belongings
Carefully label any boxes of fragile items, such as ornaments and tableware, and save them until near the end. Depending on how your truck is pack