How to load a van during your house move?

When moving house, it is important to properly load your van in order to maximise space and also make sure it’s safe and properly secure to make your house move safely and sound. 

Here are a few tips for loading a van during a house move:

1. Start by loading the heaviest items first, such as furniture and appliances. We usually load beds and mattresses first as they are boxy and fit well in the van. Then we load all heavy wardrobes, bedside lockers and chest drawers. To maximise the space use always put some boxes between heavy items to fill in the gaps to make sure no extra movements will occur during the moving process.

   

2. Use furniture pads and blankets to protect your items from scratches and dings. Always cover each furniture piece with blankets or dust sheets especially ones that has glass, as during the move furniture might move inside the van and scratch.
3. Use straps and tie-downs to secure your items in place and prevent them from shifting during transit. Here you can do 2 things if you have tie-downs it’s the best way to secure all furniture, but if you don’t have and want to save money, use soft items like pillows and coach pads to fill in gaps between furniture.
4. Pack boxes tightly and label them clearly, so you can easily find what you need when you arrive at your new home. Also, a very common way to load softer items in bin bags is just before buying them to make sure those are strong enough to hold your items.
5. Take advantage of vertical space by stacking boxes and furniture. Always load heavy boxes bottom and go lighter up, you don’t want to squish lighter boxes, as well as it’s safer to have heavy boxes lower for balance.
6. Always try to load the van fully, and don’t leave any gaps and paths, as these might create movement during driving and all items might fall. If you see that the van wouldn’t full don’t load all the way to the top.
7. It is a good idea to measure the van before hiring one to make sure all will fit, but it really depends on furniture shape and size. Some custom furniture might take way more space than you planned, so plan accordingly.
8. Load the tv at the very start as most moving vans have a small gap at the front so you can put the tv stand and screen flush to the wall making sure nothing will bend the tv. After that, we always recommend putting on a mattress for some soft padding.
9. If you have a piano always secure it to the front wall for the best weight balance. Especially if you transport only the piano securing it to one of the side walls, might loosen straps on turns and the piano might fall.
10. If you don’t want to buy any boxes for the moving, we recommend hiring heavy-duty moving crates, as they are sturdy for all fragile items, and after the move you don’t need to store them you return them to the rental company, saving space in your new home.
11. We recommend loading bicycles very last, as you can’t put anything on them. If you load them first you lose so much space. If bicycles don’t fit in the van you can try loading them in one wheel up.
12. Be creative with loading: you can load the coach not on their feet but sideways to save space.
    
13. Remove legs from tables. You save so much space by dismantling some of the furniture like tables, it’s just 4 legs but saves so much space. Also reducing the risk of breaking those during the move.
14. We recommend packing any electronics like computers into padded boxes as during the move there is quite a bit of vibration, and you don’t want to lose any data because of that.
15. Don’t use the refrigerator after the move for at least a few hours. During the move, you carry the refrigerator on an angle that can make compressor oil run out and block the system. If you move the fridge in a vertical position few hours is enough if you moved it horizontal position leave it to settle for at least 24 hours.
16. Take out all items from the drawers before the move. Most of the assembled furniture doesn’t take good weight while carrying, so it’s always better to empty those.
17. If you decide to dismantle furniture to save space, dismantle all the way to leave half just because it fits through the doors, when dismantling any furniture you take the structural integrity of the item, so if you do it all the way or not at all.