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Whether you’re moving house, going abroad or just uncluttering your home, packing your items for storage should be quick, easy and stress-free. To help make this a reality for you, we’ve put together a list of 10 genius packing hacks that everyone should know. Commit these to memory and make packing a breeze!

Storage Trick 1: Electronics



If you plan on storing items such as TVs, stereos or computers, take a quick snapshot of the cables before you unplug them.

That way you’ll be able to reconnect them exactly as they were, without trouble, when you need to use the appliance again. You can take a picture on your phone, or – better yet – take a Polaroid and tape it to the item while it’s in storage. That way you won’t lose it or delete it by mistake.


Stroage Trick 2: Protect every item



If you don’t have enough bubble wrap to cover every item you can use items such as towels, linen and other soft items (which are also destined for storage) to protect your delicates.

To keep things organised you can group them by area: for example, use tea towels and dish cloths to protect kitchen items, but bath towels and linen to cushion ornaments from the bedroom.


Storage Trick 3: Storage compartments



Do you keep your journals in that drawer or do your calligraphy pens live in that desk? Use these spaces as convenient little storage compartments for small items.

Simply wrap the items in lots of newspaper or bubble wrap and place them safely inside the drawers – then use cling wrap or tape to secure the drawers shut. If your drawers are very big and you’re worried about items shifting around, you can use your scatter cushions, linen or clothes which are also heading into storage to keep them in place.

Once you’re done packing your drawers place a label on each one to remind yourself of what’s inside.

This not only makes it much easier to organise and remember where they are when you unpack, but it also saves on space.


Storage Trick 4: Boxes


If you’re using your own cardboard boxes, try this simple trick: using a craft knife, cut two rectangular holes in each side of the box. These act as handles and make awkwardly sized boxes easier to pick up and carry.


Storage Trick 5: Organising your storage unit


Before moving things into your storage unit, take a moment to decide where things should be packed, and draw up a map. For example, kitchen items in the back left corner, lounge items back middle, dining room back right, and so on.

Tape the map to the wall of your storage unit when you’re done as this will make boxed items easy to find – even long after you’ve forgotten about packing them.


Storage Trick 6: Colour Coding



Use coloured stickers or markers to help you organise your boxes and storage unit. First, devise a key like this:

Y – kitchen, cooking or food related

B – clothing, linen or material related

G – sports or activities related

P – garden, outdoors or gardening related

R – decor and art related

Then, when you’re packing your boxes you can simply mark them with a colour according to the theme of what’s inside.

This is helpful for when you have an overlap: like when a box is labelled ‘books’, but has a yellow and purple sticker on it, you know that they books inside are recipe and gardening books, or when a box is labelled ‘clothes’ but has a green sticker, you’ll know it probably contains your snowshoes and skiing jacket.

If you don’t want to go that granular, simply colour coding items according to basic colour labels like Kitchen and Garden Shed means that you can easily group boxes together by colour within your storage unit – to keep all like-items together – and also sync it with the colours on your map.

Remember to put labels on the side of boxes (not just the top) so that if you are able to see what’s inside from all angles.


Storage Trick 7: Drawers



Cupboards, drawers and dressers which have metal handles can scratch damage other items when in transit.

To prevent this from happening you should wrap handles newspaper to cushion them, or remove them with a screwdriver and screw them back in on the inside of the drawer – that way you won’t lose any of the small parts.


Storage Trick 8: Linen



If you’ve got a lot of linen or clothes that you’d like to put into storage, first give them a spin in the tumble drier to make sure they’re 100% dry and then vacuum pack them. This not only reduces them to 1/3rd of their original bulk, but it also keeps them fresh, clean and ready to be used at a moment’s notice.


Storage Trick 9: Humidity



If you live in a humid area or are packing on a particularly humid day, place calcium chloride crystals or silica bags (available from supermarkets and chemists) in your drawers, cupboards and boxes to draw in the moisture from the air. If you’d prefer the natural approach you can also use cups of dry rice for the same effect.


Storage Tricks 10: Smells and insect repellents



Mothballs smell horrible, but you don’t want critters in your clothes either. Unfortunately, these guys can sneak in while your things are in transit and wreak havoc while you’re away. The solution?

Lemongrass, cinnamon and rose geranium are all natural insect repellents which smell great. Place a few of these in boxes and drawers and it’s problem solved.

If it’s not moths that worry you, but the thought of that ‘long-term storage’ smell, you can place vanilla pods or packets of fabric softener in your storage unit. This will keep your stuff smelling delicious no matter how long it stays packed in storage.

Images courtesy of: Dennis Brekke, Didriks, Gabriel Flores Romero, Keerati at Free Digital Photos, Kim Love, Michael Cote, Wicker Paradise