The Complete Guide to Packing a House

Packing is the part of moving that people most consistently underestimate — and it's the part that most determines what the next few weeks feel like.

Pack well and unpacking is a pleasant few evenings of putting things where they belong. Pack badly and you spend a month living out of containers, opening six to find one thing, discovering the kettle in a box marked "living room misc."

The difference isn't speed or strength. It's method. Here's the whole thing.

Before you pack anything: get rid of things

This is the step that changes every other number in your move, and it's the one most people skip.

Every item you don't own is an item you don't pack, don't pay to move, don't carry, and don't find a home for at the other end. Most people declutter after they arrive — which means paying, in money and effort, to relocate things they were always going to throw out.

A decluttering pass typically removes 10 to 20 percent of a household's volume. On a fifty-container move, that's five to ten fewer containers.

Four destinations, and be decisive:

• Keep — you use it, or you genuinely love it
• Sell — real value only, with a hard deadline; unsold by moving week means donated
• Donate — clean and usable; book charity pickups early, they often need a week's notice
• Recycle or dispose — and note that electronics, paint, batteries and chemicals can't go in regular household waste in Ontario

The deciding question: would you pay someone to carry this into your new home? If not, don't pay to carry it out of the old one.

What to pack into

Cardboard boxes

The default, and they work. Cheap or free if you're willing to collect them, and disposable at the end.

The costs are on both ends: sourcing, assembling and taping at the start, then breaking down and disposing at the finish — usually in your first week in the new home, when you least want another job. A two-bedroom move produces more cardboard than most curbside collections take in one week.

They also collapse when carried by the middle, don't stack reliably once they've been loaded and unloaded a few times, and do not enjoy a wet driveway in March.

Reusable totes

Rented, delivered before you pack, collected after you're in. They stack squarely, need no tape, survive weather, and the disposal step simply doesn't exist.

The trade-off is that you're working to a rental window, and they cost more upfront than boxes you scrounge for free.

Whichever you choose

• Small containers for heavy things. Books, tinned goods, tools. A large container packed with books is one nobody can safely lift.
• Large containers for light, bulky things. Bedding, cushions, winter coats, lampshades.
• Don't overfill. Lids need to close for anything to stack.

What else you actually need

• Packing tape and a dispenser — more than you think
• A thick marker, several
• Labels or coloured tape if you're colour-coding by room
• Towels, linens and clothing as padding — free, and you're moving them anyway
• Zip-top bags for hardware and small parts
• A tool kit kept out until the very end

Skip: specialty boxes for most things, packing peanuts, and enough bubble wrap to fill a landfill. Your linens do the job.

The order to pack in

Work from least used to most used. That means:

Start 4–6 weeks out with: - Storage areas — garage, basement, attic, shed - Out-of-season clothing - Books, décor, photographs - Guest and spare rooms - Good dishes, ceremonial items, anything display-only

Then 2–3 weeks out: - Most of the kitchen, keeping a working minimum - Most clothing - Living room, apart from what's in daily use - Bathrooms, apart from daily toiletries

The last few days: - Everyday clothing - The working kitchen - Daily toiletries - Electronics and chargers - Bedding, on the morning itself

By the night before, packing should be finished — not nearly finished. A crew arriving to a house still being packed is how a schedule collapses before it starts.

The labelling system

This is where the real difference is made, and it takes no extra time.

Label by destination, not contents

The most useful thing on a container is which room it goes to in the new house— not which room it came from, and not what's inside.

You'll be directing traffic on moving day, possibly tired, possibly after a long wait. A container marked "Kitchen — upper cupboards" gets carried to the right place by someone who's never been in your home. One marked "misc" gets set down in the hallway, where it will stay for a month.

Label the side, not the lid

Stacked containers hide their lids. A label on the short side is readable across a room.

Better still: label two sides. You don't get to choose which way things end up facing.

Number everything and keep a list

Number each container, and keep a simple list — number, destination room, rough contents.

Twenty seconds each. In return you get: a way to know on moving day whether anything is missing while the truck is still there, and a way to find the one thing you need without opening nine containers.

Mark the priorities

A clear OPEN FIRST on the handful of containers you'll need in the first few hours. Bedding, towels, toiletries, the kettle.

Mark FRAGILE meaningfully — if everything is fragile, nothing is.

Room by room

The kitchen

Usually the highest-volume, highest-difficulty room. Start early and don't leave it to the last weekend.

• Plates travel on their edge, not stacked flat. Vertical is dramatically stronger. Pad between each with paper or a tea towel.
• Glasses and stemware get individually wrapped and packed upright, never on their sides.
• Pots and pans nest, with a towel between each.
• Knives get wrapped in a tea towel and taped, blade clearly marked.
• Small appliances ideally in their original boxes; if not, well padded, cords bundled.
• Pantry goods: check dates and use things up. Anything open, bag it. Anything liquid, tape the lid and bag it.
• Don't move: opened perishables, anything expired, and anything you bought for a recipe you never made.

Keep a working minimum until the last days: a pot, a pan, a few plates, the kettle.

Bedrooms

The easiest room, and a good place to build momentum.

• Hanging clothes can often stay on hangers — bundle in groups and cover with a garbage bag, hangers poking out the top.
• Folded clothes can stay in the dresser drawers if the drawers travel separately and the furniture can take it. Ask your movers first.
• Bedding and towels are packing material. Use them.
• Jewellery and anything valuable travels in your own car.
• Under the bed is where people forget to look.

The living room

Lower volume, higher fragility.

• Photograph the back of every electronic device before unplugging. Cable identification is not a puzzle you want to solve at 11pm.
• Screens travel upright, never flat, ideally in their original box.
• Cables bundled and bagged, labelled by device.
• Books in small containers only, packed flat or spine-down.
• Artwork and mirrors on edge, corners protected, never flat under anything.
• Lamps: shade, bulb and base packed separately.

Bathrooms

Low volume, high nuisance value.

• Every liquid gets its lid taped and goes in a sealed bag. This is the room that ruins other people's belongings.
• Medications travel with you, not on the truck.
• Discard anything expired rather than moving it.
• Keep one set of toiletries out until the morning.

The home office

Deceptively heavy — paper is one of the densest things you own.

• Files in small containers. A large box of paperwork is not liftable.
• Back up everything before a computer goes anywhere near a truck.
• Photograph the setup before disconnecting.
• Important documents — passports, deeds, tax records — travel with you.

Storage areas

Garage, basement, attic, shed. Start here, and budget more time than you think.

• Tools in small, sturdy containers; sharp edges protected.
• Sports and hobby equipment kept together by activity.
• Paint, chemicals, propane and fuel mostly can't legally travel with movers. Use them up or take them to a disposal depot.
• Anything you moved into this house and never unpacked — that's your answer.

The first-night tote

The single highest-value fifteen minutes of the whole process.

One container that never goes on the truck and travels in your own car:

• Bedding for every bed, and towels
• Toiletries, medications, prescriptions
• Phone chargers and a power bar
• A change of clothes per person
• Coffee, kettle, mugs, snacks, water
• Toilet paper, hand soap, paper towel
• Basic tools and a utility knife
• Closing documents and identification
• Anything irreplaceable

Label it obviously. Guard it aggressively. On a day when the truck might arrive after dark, this is the difference between a manageable evening and a trip to a store you don't know.

Ten mistakes worth avoiding

1. Starting too late. The single most common one.
2. Packing before decluttering. Paying to move things you'll discard.
3. Overfilling containers. Lids that won't close can't stack.
4. Heavy things in big boxes. Nobody can lift them, and cardboard fails.
5. Labelling by origin instead of destination. Useless at the other end.
6. Labelling only the lid. Invisible once stacked.
7. Not taping liquid lids. One shampoo bottle, one ruined container.
8. Losing the hardware. Bag screws and tape them to the furniture.
9. Putting essentials on the truck. That's what the first-night tote prevents.
10. Not photographing electronics. A bag of identical black cables and no memory of what went where.

The short version

• Declutter before you pack. It's the only step that makes everything else smaller.
• Pack least-used to most-used, starting four to six weeks out.
• Heavy things in small containers, light things in big ones.
• Label the side, by destination room, and number everything.
• Linens are your packing material.
• Tape every lid, bag every liquid.
• Finish packing the night before — not on the day.
• One first-night tote, in your own car.

Do those eight things and packing stops being the worst part of moving. It becomes what it should be: a few weeks of steady, unremarkable work that makes the day itself easy.

Want to know how much you'll actually need? See how much stuff you actually have for a room-by-room way to estimate. For the day itself, there's the hour-by-hour moving day playbook.

Moving in Barrie or Simcoe County? Binny's Tote Rental delivers reusable moving totes before you pack and collects them once you're in.

This article offers general packing guidance. Restrictions on transporting hazardous materials vary — confirm with your moving company and your municipality's disposal rules.