I know what you're thinking, the laundry room, it's small and there is really not much in there: should be easy, right? Well you might be surprised. Not only are there some larger items that you might be forgetting about, (yeah like moving the washer and dryer), but you probably have a lot of smaller items in there, too. It's easy to accumulate stuff, especially when you only have to see it when you're doing laundry (what happens in the laundry room, stays in the laundry room). And lets face it for some of us that may not be all that often. Well hopefully I can help you with a few steps on how to make the process a bit easier.
First Step: Decision Time
First step is to decide what you want to take. Let's start with the big stuff: Are the washer and dryer yours, and are you planning on taking them with you? Any shelving or hanging units you need to remove, make sure you have the proper tools on hand. And be sure to take everything off the shelves before you attempt to remove them. I know this seems obvious to some but just a friendly reminder for those of us that like to cut corners especially when time is a factor. Now the small stuff: laundry baskets, ironing boards, organizers, etc. Figure out which items you really need and which are worth taking. Remember regardless of whether you are doing the move yourself or hiring a moving company you're paying to move these items and leaving it behind is leaving money in your bank account.
Second Step: Disposal Time
Now that you know what you're going to take lets figure out what and how to get rid of the stuff that you're not taking. So the big stuff you can just leave as is and odds are the small stuff is just going to need to be disposed of via the traditional means ? the garbage! And remember you can't take any liquids with you, because they'll spill, no matter how careful you are they always leak. So if you just went out and bought a new jug of laundry detergent and bleach well now is the time to do laundry and try to use it all before moving day. And hey, you don't want to pack dirty clothes anyway because that's gross.
Third Step: Prep Time
Now that you've gotten rid of everything it's time to get prepped. Make sure you have someone that can unhook the washer and dryer for you unless you know how to do that yourself in which case, I'm impressed! If that dryer is a gas one though, treat it with care ? turn off the gas before removing and be sure to terminate the gas line with a gas line cap. If none of those words made sense, don't mess around: get a professional! Breakdown any shelving units and be sure to secure the hardware to one of the larger pieces, so you can find it easily when you arrive. And be sure to inventory the smaller items, so you can be sure you have enough boxes and packing materials.
Fourth and Final Step: Pack Time
Now the real fun begins, it's pack time! So a couple of tips: One, make sure to pack like items together, heavy with heavy, light with light, etc. and two, try to use your smaller boxes for the heavy stuff and your larger boxes for the light stuff. It will help to keep the weight more evenly distributed among the boxes making them more manageable on move day.
