Moving into a new home is exciting but packing and unpacking – not so much. But if you approach the process in a smart way you will save yourself a lot of headaches and frustrations. This series of blogs will help you make a smooth transition from your current home to your new one.

To begin with, you don’t want to have a pile of boxes looking like this when it’s time to move. Yes. it’s nice to know what’s fragile, but what exactly is in each of those boxes and where do they go? Before you pack your first box, you need to create a system. And that system should be based on the place you’re moving to, not where you’re moving from.

Develop a three-letter code for every room in your new home: It could be KIT for kitchen BD1 for the master bedroom, BA1 for the master bathroom, FAM for the family room, and so on for every room in the house. Buy three or four wide black magic markers and plan to mark each box on the top and all four sides. That way stacking doesn’t block the room location. Also buy a large red marker to mark all fragile boxes. Place those in a special location separate from the other boxes.

Determine the level of organization you can handle: Some people are organized enough to number and list their boxes with key contents. Don’t be hard on yourself if this is too much structure for you. However, do mark those boxes you will need to unpack first. This may include dishes and silverware, key kitchen utensils, your childrens’ favorite toys, and bedding and towels.

Pack like things together: It’s easy to get harried at the last minute and mix bedroom, bathroom and kitchen stuff in the same box. But when it is time to unpack this ends up leading to a lot of unnecessary work. It’s better to leave some boxes not quite full than to waste time shuffling things all around the house when you unpack.

In our next blog, we’ll talk about what you need to do before you actually start packing.