Moving and Storage: Packing Your Home for Moving Day

When Keats Myer made the decision to move her family from Maplewood, N.J., to an old farmhouse in New Hampshire, she gave herself plenty of time to pack.

"I knew we were moving eight or nine months before the actual move," she says. "So I looked around and thought, how can I disassemble this house and make the least impact on our lives?"

Myer came up with a strategy that helped her to sort through 18 years of accumulated household items, while allowing her husband and three children to continue living around the move. Every weekend she chose one space --- a bureau drawer, a closet, a bookshelf -- and tossed things in one of three piles: one to keep, one to donate, and one to throw away. Then, as she packed boxes, she looked at items again and made another attempt to toss what she didn't need.

Even with her well-thought-out, plenty-of-time strategy, Myer says, "It was a much bigger task than I thought it would be."

Eric Fierst, director of operations for Fry-Wagner Moving and Storage in St. Louis, Mo., says that Myer's attempt to clear the decks of as much stuff as possible is the best way to save the moving company time and space on the truck, both of which will ultimately save the homeowner money.

He offers these additional pain-free packing tips for those getting ready to move.