Moving can be hard without proper help, but you know what isn’t so hard? Moving while reducing the amount of waste you create and leave behind. There are several nifty ways you can apply our eco-friendly packing tips without buying new boxes or several rolls of packing tape (which is plastic!). Not to mention loads of bubble wrapping – which is also made of plastic, and dealing with all of the items you have forgotten you owned, but now you’ve found them after 10+ years. Hiring moving services Boynton Beach is the perfect opportunity to assess your belongings and figure out what you really need and want.
Now’s the time to minimize
Go through your home before packing and declutter and purge! Why not gift your surplus goods to friends and neighbors, or leave them at your local thrift/charity shop. Maybe you have some friends who need your patio grill, and if you’re moving to Florida overseas, it’s a win-win situation! You could also organize a yard sale and maybe even make a few bucks in your minimizing endeavor that you could put towards your moving budget. Even though you might not make a ton of money, you will be able to get rid of quite a few things, which means less to pack and haul to your new place. Trust us, you’ll be thankful when you have fewer boxes for eco-friendly packing! Facebook marketplace is the perfect place to sell your items that are still in good shape.
Start early
You should start at decluttering early. This is essential if you want to leave enough time for eco-friendly packing, as well as getting your surplus items to the right places before you go. It’s tempting to procrastinate until the week before the move, but if you slowly start finding homes for things you want to donate, you give them a better chance of being reused or recycled properly.
Eco-friendly packing 101: Use everything you have
Cut down on the packing materials you buy by letting any of your household goods serve as eco-friendly packing equipment where possible. You could still use cardboard boxes when you move, but you could also utilize wooden crates, wire baskets, suitcases, and backpacks. Depending on how you’re organizing your moving process, this could be a really good option for you. Our skilled movers will arrive at your doorstep with a truck, and they can pack everything you own or as little you want. Sealed eco-friendly packing containers will go in the truck, while open boxes, crates or baskets will go you. Apart from your makeshift boxes, clothing and linens are perfect eco-friendly packing materials for delicate items.
Stock up on reused eco-friendly packing supplies
If you have space, start gathering supplies a few months ahead of time. Save and gather boxes from friends, neighbors, and local stores. Also, remember to gather extra newspapers and packing papers. Try searching Craigslist, Facebook marketplace, or your local moving companies for secondhand moving boxes – many folks just want to take the boxes off their hands so they leave them with the movers. And that’s easy and free eco-friendly packing for you!
We call these eco-friendly packing hacks “no-hassle storage”
Use all of these containers you already have around the house to pack up your stuff.
- Laundry Baskets
- Buckets
- Wicker Baskets
- Dresser Drawers
- Large Cooking Pots
- Pillow Cases
- Cloth Bags
Find secondhand eco-friendly packing supplies
Call some big chain store’s shipping department before you move to find out when they receive their trucks. Then you should verify if it’d be fine if you collected the empty boxes afterward. And here’s one of our most practical eco-friendly packing tips: don’t buy a bunch of bubble wrapping for breakable items. We’ll show you plenty of alternative items in your home that will work even better! These can save you the money you could put towards something more important! Since you have to move these items anyway, you might as well be put to good use.
- Washcloths
- Bath Towels
- Tea towels
- Cloth Bags
- Clothing/Socks
- Blankets
- Save up old newspaper and wrapping paper
- Scarves
- If you’re in need of an alternative to plastic tape, a better choice is paper tape. Or you could get plastic tape secondhand at a local creative reuse center.
- You could also use all of your kitchen towels to wrap breakables like dishes and glasses.
- Bedding works great as protection for monitors and TV screens during transit.
- Use towels to stuff the boxes enough so that your fragile items don’t shift during transport.
Once you don’t have a use for your boxes after the move, you can:
- Fill them up with donations
- Use them to ship packages
- Let the kids play with them and get creative
- Break them down and drop them off at the nearest recycling facility.
After the move, it is best to reuse your packing materials before recycling. Go on Craigslist, a Buy Nothing group, or a neighborhood forum and try to get the boxes to a new home. Which you probably won’t have a problem with, because people like free stuff!
Final thoughts
When in doubt, just use more eco-friendly packing materials. In case you’re wavering between wanting to pack everything carefully and avoiding using too many packing materials, a good rule of thumb is: better to use more supplies than to allow your items to break in transit. A broken glass bottle wastes the condiment and the glass. A broken lamp will end up in the landfill, and broken ceramics aren’t recyclable, so choosing between damage and using an extra towel or more newspapers becomes easier with that in mind.