Household goods moving and transportation is a long and expensive process, one where you entrust all your worldly possessions (or most all of them, anyway) to a company that you likely found on the internet. This in and of itself is not a bad thing - it's the way the industry works, after all - but that type of trust can be difficult to just hand to someone else, and you want to ensure that everything you own is properly protected during transport and that the company you hired is going to take good care of everything and do their job the way they are supposed to. But there are still some things that you can do to help your mover out and make things easier on yourself, and one of the biggest things you can do - at least when packing yourself - is to pack and secure things properly.
Most interstate household moves are known as \"self-service\" moves, which is where you pack your goods in boxes and you let your moving company load and secure them onto their truck. There is also full-service moving, which is where your moving company actually packs your items for you in their own boxes that they bring along, but this is more expensive and typically takes longer, so most people just pack their items themselves. This is where you need to take caution - pack like items together, don't make the boxes too heavy, etc, but more importantly, make sure that everything is secured properly before they are loaded.
This is especially true when you're shipping expensive items, particularly porcelain figurines or family heirlooms, things such as dishes and family photos. When packing things that can break, you want to wrap them all individually, preferably in bubble wrap (which you can get in a variety of different places, usually where moving materials are sold). If bubble wrap is unavailable, heavy duty paper towels will often work, but one thing you should avoid using is newspaper. If you can, get packing peanuts to properly secure your items; remember, even on short trips your items can shift during transit, even within the boxes they are packed in, so to minimize that you need to minimize how much space there is between the items in the box, and the best way to do that is bubble wrap or packing peanuts.
If you're looking for free quotes from top-rated household moving companies, don't hesitate to fill out our free online household moving quote request form, which you can find on our Household Moving Articles page. Not only will you get access to our free, dedicated household goods moving quote form, but you'll also be able to read our different articles on household moving services, which will give you a good idea of what to expect when it comes time to move.