Pro movers are a blessing, but for various scheduling, regional, and logistical reasons, they’re not always an option.
Last week, yours truly took a break from banging on the letter keys to help wifey pack up and move our entire house. And I can tell you from experience — how you pack a moving truck is a deciding factor in how smooth the move goes.
Not only does packing a moving truck properly save time, but a solid pack job also allows you to fit more stuff in a single trip. My wife and I were only moving about 30 miles south, and even then, we were adamant about getting it all in one trip – and we nailed it.
An extra day with a moving truck rental isn’t cheap, and sometimes, the truck is already booked with someone else. Plus, those of you moving across state lines have no choice but to make it all work in a single trip, especially if you’re doing it without professional help.
That’s why the SpareFoot Team and I have put together this handy guide on how to pack a moving truck – field-tested and tweaked by personal experience!
1. Make Sure You Have The Right Truck Size
Packing a moving truck starts with asking the most basic question: “What Size Moving Truck Do I Need?” Are you moving to a studio apartment you can pack into a cargo van? Or do you need a 26-foot box-truck beast to hold a four-bedroom house worth of stuff? Any major truck rental company offers similar size truck rentals. Their sites can tell you how much stuff each size truck holds.
Pro tip: As tempting as it might be to round down to a smaller size and save a few bucks, running out of space and making multiple trips – or running out of time trying to cram it all and adding extra time to your rental – are both more expensive. That said, if the truck is too big, your stuff can shake, rattle, and roll around during the drive. But it’s a lot easier to use packing paper, pillows, and blankets to fill extra space than it is to create space for those last three boxes of books.
2. Gather Any Necessary Packing Supplies
Depending on where you’re at in the process, you may have already gathered up your plastic wrap and packing tape before packing your belongings into boxes. But don’t put those packing supplies up yet – moving blankets and furniture blankets will come in handy further down the list. A dolly and ratchet straps are must-haves.
Pro tip: In my personal experience, there’ve been more than a few times when having that packing tape, bubble wrap, and an extra stack of durable boxes let us repack on the fly. Specialty boxes for fragile items and a mattress bag to protect your bed can open up your options since you won’t have to baby your belongings as much.
3. Recruit Friends and Family To Help
Packing a moving truck can be fun if you’ve got the right crew of homies lending hands to the loading and unloading process. There’s no need to prove how strong you are by wrestling your coach up the moving truck ramp by yourself. Recruit some friends and family to help carry heavy furniture.
Sure, you may owe them one next time they need help moving, but it’s easier to move twice with multiple sets of hands than it is to move once by yourself.
Pro tip: Friends and family bring more than extra muscles to stop you from straining and hurting yourself. They bring fresh eyes and extra mental energy for bouncing packing strategies back and forth. Plus, having friends and family help load and unload can save lots of time off that truck rental, and in this case, time is literally money.
4. Disassemble Furniture
The next step in our guide on how to pack a moving truck is to disassemble all furniture. Now that you’ve got friends helping you out, another temptation we all face is to load the whole dining table and the entire bed frame onto the truck one after another.
But packing assembled furniture onto the moving truck takes up more space and limits your organization options. And if you disassemble your furniture before packing your moving truck, you can distribute the weight more evenly than if you load whole pieces of heavy furniture as is.
How to dissemble your furniture for moving:
- Dissemble dining tables by removing the legs.
- Stash the legs between items or inside hollow spaces.
- Packed the tabletop in the upright position, strapped to a wall.
- Remove the headboards from your bed frame and disassemble all the baseboards.
- Wrap all furniture pieces with plastic wrap to protect them from dings or scratches.
- Empty out your dressers and desks, and remove all the drawers.
- Repurpose the removed drawers as moving crates by storing items inside drawers.
- Pack your tabletop in the upright position, strapped to a wall or something else heavy and stable.
5. Roll Up Rugs and Wrap Them in Plastic Wrap
Now that you’re done dissembling your furniture and wrapping the pieces in plastic wrap, keep the wrap out. Let’s hit this next step as you prepare to pack the moving truck efficiently. Not only does wrapping your rug in plastic protect the rug and save space on the truck, but it also allows you to strap the rug to other items without spreading dirt or rubbing the rug odor off onto your other stuff.
Instead, we suggest rolling the rug up with the top side facing out and the bottom side inward. Then, wrap the rolled-up rug in plastic, tie it with a bungee, a shoelace, or a narrow piece of plastic wrap rolled up like a string, and load it on the truck.
Pro tip: The rug’s “backing” or bottom is actually the support structure that gives the rug its shape. The knee-jerk reaction may be to roll the rug with the pattern or colored side on the inside to preserve it, but this can wear the rug’s backing out and change the shape of the rug.
6. Use Furniture Pads and Blankets To Protect Items
Remember those furniture blankets we told you to keep handy? Now’s their time to shine. Once you’ve got all your furniture broken down and wrapped in plastic, go ahead and wrap it in packing blankets for an extra layer of protection. Pull the furniture pads tight around your items, then use packing tape or more plastic to hold the blanket or pad in place. Blanket-wrapped furniture pieces are easier to stuff in between items without risking damage during transit.
Pro tip: Furniture blankets are also a great tool for wrapping appliances and other heavy items to keep them from shifting during transit and getting scratched, dented, or crushing other boxes. If you’re short on furniture pads, most moving truck rental companies can include extra furniture blankets with your rental.
7. Load Heaviest Items First
One of the golden rules of packing a moving truck is to put all the heavier items as close to the cab as possible. Putting the largest and heaviest items toward the front of the truck also means packing them first. This includes appliances like your washer, dryer, and fridge, your table and chairs, couches, bed frames, and mattresses, and even your coffee tables and end tables (see next step for tables and couches).
Not only do you want these as close to the driver and passenger seats as possible, but you also want them on the bottom of the stack or staged in a vertical position, strapped against the walls to minimize movement during transit.
Pro tip: Once you’ve got the heavy items, pack them in with mid to lightweight objects like TVs and Mirrors (also wrapped in blankets and plastic) and lighter items like blenders, microwaves, and other mid-to-small-sized kitchen appliances. You can throw that food processor back in the box it came in and strap it to the top of a couch or dresser, for example.
8. Position Headboards, Couches, and Tables Upright
You can save so much space when packing a moving truck by securing the couches, tables, and headboards in a vertical position. Packing them upright ensures they’re taking up more height and less horizontal square footage.
Pro tip: You should have already wrapped these items in plastic and moving blankets, but if you haven’t, now is a good time to do so. We already shared how the extra padding decreases the chance of damage and increases stability during transit – adding the heavy items also protects the surrounding boxes from smashing on impact if they slide into the furniture during the drive.
9. Place Heavier Boxes On the Ground
Once all the heaviest items are either forming the bottom layer or lining the walls toward the front of the truck, it’s time to extend that heavy base layer toward the back by packing your heaviest boxes first and putting them straight onto the ground.
Once you’ve strapped down all the heavier boxes forming the base layer, you can start to pile the medium boxes on as a middle layer. Stack your boxes with care from floor to ceiling, with heavier items placed at the bottom, with each box getting lighter as you pile up the stack. Some smaller or lighter pieces of furniture, like nightstands or small desks, might be too light or crushable to serve as a base layer. These can accompany the medium-sized items and lightweight objects and boxes used to form the middle layers.
Pro tip: That said, take care not to lean items in or against stacks of boxes, or you’ll compromise the balance. Long or odd-shaped items like fishing rods, lawn chairs, and skis can slide up top across the stack of boxes rather than
10. Use Moving Straps to Tie Down Items
We mentioned this briefly when we were talking about strapping your couches and tabletops vertically to the wall and strapping down your layer of boxes. If you really want to learn how to pack a moving truck like a pro, you’ll have to strap down each layer you pack step by step.
Pro tip: Once all your heavy appliances and furniture are loaded toward the back of the truck, strap them in place. Once you’ve formed a layer of heavy boxes, strap them down before adding the middle layer, which you’ll strap in place before topping off with the lighter and odd-shaped items.
11. Make Sure Weight is Distributed Evenly
The next step in our guide on how to pack a moving truck is to ensure all the weight is distributed evenly. This is a continuation of step 7, where we stressed the importance of putting your heavier belongings toward the back of the truck.
As you make stacks and strap layers, keep an eye on the weight distribution. Part of why we suggest working from bottom to top layer by layer is so you can evenly distribute the weight as you go. You don’t have all your heaviest boxes on the right and all your lighter items on the left, for instance, or your box truck will be prone to tipping at worst and, at best, an obnoxious pain to control while driving.
Pro tip: Before we move on to packing your delicates, take the truck around the block on a test drive to double-check that your weight is distributed evenly and nothing rolls around while you’re driving.
12. Secure Fragile Items Properly
When it comes time to pack and load your breakable items, you’ve got two best friends: Packing paper and bubble wrap. Packing paper is ideal for wrapping fragile items like glass dishes and ceramic plates, while bubble wrap can protect valuable items like picture frames, decor, and artwork. Put all your breakable items together in the same box and mark it “fragile.”
Once your fragile items are all in the box, gently pad the spaces between your items with towels, t-shirts, or more bubble wrap and packing paper to stop the items from shifting during transit and smashing into each other
Pro tip: You can put the fragile item boxes between large and soft but stable items, like couches and mattresses. Label the boxes and let your helping hands know the deal. Oh, and you can always wrap the whole box in bubble wrap once it’s packed for added protection.
13. Place Any Essential Items In the Back
We’ve come to the home stretch of packing a truck to move. You’ve got your weight distributed per our suggestions, and everything is strapped down tier-by-tier. We suggest using that last bit of square footage by the moving or rental truck’s rear door for essential items you might need to access during the drive.
If you’re moving across the country and staying overnight somewhere in between, this might mean your suitcase and bathroom kit. Otherwise, this spot is typically reserved for essential tools, extra moving blankets, and the dolly you plan to unload.
Pro tip: Even if you’re only moving 30 miles south of your current address, trust me when I say those brooms, packing and cleaning supplies, extra ratchet straps, and your dolly should be easily accessible.
14. Fill Gaps Between Items
You can reinforce all that hard-pack work and give your item proper protection by stuffing moving blankets, furniture pads, and soft items like pillows, sheets, and old (stain-free) work clothes into each and every gap you can see. If you’ve got any extra bubble wrap or packing paper, filling in the gaps between items is a great way to finish it off.
Pro tip: If you know you’re moving well in advance, you can save up newspaper and annoying coupon mailers and use them to stuff the extra space between loose items within each box (see Step 12). That way, you’re saving bubble wrap and packing paper for padding the space between boxes and furniture.
15. Triple Check That Items are Secure Before Transit
If you’ve followed our step-by-step instructions every step of the way, you’ve just about mastered the art of packing a truck for moving by now. But let’s not waste all that hard work – it only takes one poorly fastened strap to unhinge the whole pack job!
Last thing, let’s make sure we’re embarking on a safe journey by triple-checking every strap, stack, and pack job before we take off.
Double-check that all your straps are taut and fastened properly, that your weight is evenly distributed, and that every item on your moving truck has little to no wiggle room. Finally, before starting your successful journey to your new home, we’ve got one last pro tip for you.
How SpareFoot Can Help Stage Items Before Packing a Moving Truck
Now that you’ve mastered our guide on how to pack a moving truck, you understand that it all starts with breaking down furniture and packing your boxes properly beforehand.
Our final pro tip is simple, yet you’d be surprised by how many seasoned movers are unaware of this easy-moving hack.
The first step is to use our easy SpareFoot Storage Unit Locator Tool to find a cheap storage unit near you. Our tool searches the cream of the crop in your area and tailors the results based on the detailed search parameters you set.
Next, pack as much as you can ahead of time, and then stage those boxes and broken-down, bubble-wrapped furniture in a storage unit. A head start lets you organize and stabilize your boxes over time, with plenty of time to tweak and re-pack as needed.
And the benefits of this hack don’t stop there – once you rent the truck, you just cross-load your packed stuff from storage to the truck, and it’s on to your new home!
And if you’re moving across state lines, use our site to find a second storage unit near the new place. You can unload the rental truck into your new storage unit and return it, moving your stuff into your new house at your leisure. We know moving is expensive – that’s why we even have a search tool that finds you storage deals that offer the first month of storage for free!
Michael Ta’Nous
Michael Ta’Nous is a full-time writer who works and lives with his wife in Taos, New Mexico. “Mikey” spent his early twenties living either out of a van as a touring musician or out of a backpack on motorcycle trips writing from cafes–these rigorous adventure years polished him into a master packer. In addition to managing storage units full of catering supplies and outdoor gear professionally, Michael has used storage units as a band rehearsal space and a motorcycle garage.
