One of the most used spots in your house is the living room. So, when you have to pack it up after selling your house, you have a lot of things to consider. There are artwork, bulky furniture, and electronics that have to be packed up in different ways. Even though some of the furniture pieces and other things are simple for you to pack, a lot of the household staples are going to need some special consideration. So that is why we have created this guide.
Declutter Your Living Room Before Packing After Selling Your House
Clear out the things that you don’t use anymore, such as the furniture that you aren’t going to be able to fit in the new house, old items, electronics that aren’t used anymore, and the gifts that you received that you didn’t care for. Anything that’s still working, in good condition, you can sell or donate. However, anything that is falling apart or broken you should simply throw out.
Here are some tips that you can use to pack up your living room.
Packing up Living Room Breakables After Selling Your House
Once decluttering is done, pack up those things that are breakable or fragile such as figurines or antique lamps, or your other collectibles. When you get these kinds of things packed up, it’s going to make it a lot easier to pack the other things in your living room without having to worry about any of your treasured keepsakes getting broken.
Wrap each of them using bubble wrap and packing paper. Tape your bubble wrap or paper in place. Then you want to pack your item in little boxes. Don’t overstuff your boxes and be sure that they’re marked FRAGILE.
It’s a good idea to pack them well even if you aren’t moving too far. If you have to stop abruptly, your collectibles could be broken. Use things like sheets, towels, and other kinds of linens to help with wrapping up the larger breakables. It’s going to save you from having to pack your linens separately and give fragile items extra protection.
Packing up Living Room Artwork & Wall Hangings After Selling Your House
Mirrors, artwork, and wall hangings are something else that you want to pack early. This will help them get out of the way and make sure that they are less likely to be damaged. The room is also going to look emptier. This can help you with visualizing how much progress you have made during moving.
Here are some tips on how you can pack these kinds of items safely.
Tape large Xs over your mirrors and glass surfaces. This way, if the glass shatters it will help with keeping your glass together. Masking tape is a good choice since it doesn’t leave any sticky residue.
Wrap your piece using bubble wrap, moving blankets, and/or newspaper before you put it into picture boxes. If bubble wrap is being used, you also want to wrap the mirror or artwork using packing paper beforehand. Those bubbles can leave imprints on your glass.
Fill in the empty spaces in your picture box using your packing materials so that movement is prevented. You are able to use anything except packing peanuts. The reason you want to avoid using them is that they’re going to settle to your box’s bottom, as well as make a mess upon unpacking.
Tape your boxes shut and make sure they’re marked FRAGILE.
Packing and Wrapping Furniture After Selling Your House
Packing up the furniture for the move is going to be the biggest part of your preparation for the living room. Begin doing this by emptying out shelves and drawers, and, if possible, separating your modular pieces such as a sectional sofa so they’re individual pieces. Put your hardware inside plastic bags that are labeled clearly or attached securely to your furniture. Then it’s time to start to wrap the furniture for the move.
Upholstered Pieces like Couches and Chairs
When you are moving your upholstered pieces such as ottomans, armchairs, and couches, the biggest thing that you want to do is to protect your fabric, so they don’t get ripped, stained, damaged by water, and are free from dust. the majority of moving companies are going to shrink wrap your upholstered pieces before they’re loaded into your moving truck to make sure they won’t get dirty during transport. However, you want to make sure that you are asking before the moving day so you’re aware of whether you’ll need to wrap the items properly on your own before the movers arrive.
If the move is long-distance and you are shipping the upholstered furniture, start out by wrapping the furniture in some moving blankets. Below are some tips that you can use for wrapping the furniture up in your moving blankets.
- Wrap it up totally in your moving blankets. make sure that any components that are made of finished wood also are covered.
- Tape your blankets and then use shrink wrap to seal them. poke some holes in this to make sure that your furniture is able to breathe during the journey. You also shouldn’t shrink-wrap your upholstered furniture directly, since that can lead to condensation that can ruin your fabric, particularly leather furniture.
Packing Coffee & End Tables After Selling Your House
The majority of end and coffee tables are easy for you can pack. Below are some tips.
Empty & Secure the Drawers
If you are able to disassemble the tables, do it and then separately pack your individual pieces. This is going to help with giving you more room in your truck and lower their chances of causing or suffering damage. Store the small pieces or screws in resealable bags
Wrap your tabletop using one of your moving blankets and then secure it using tape. Make sure that you don’t allow the tape to stick to your tabletop. If the tabletop is glass, wrap your whole top in your paper, then secure it with tape and then wrap it using your bubble wrap. Remember that this can cause marks on your glass if it has direct contact, so wrapping it with paper first is better.
Use packing paper for wrapping the legs and then secure them to your tabletop’s underside.
If you have antique furniture in the living room, you want to make sure that you’re taking special care of them. it’s a good idea to find out about shipping services for antiques in that case.
Packing TV Cabinets After Selling Your House
Empty your internal compartments in your cabinet and remove the glass doors. If you can’t do this, tightly secure them using masking tape before you move. Also, you should secure any drawers or doors.
When everything’s empty as well as secured, use some moving blankets for wrapping the cabinet.
Packing up Window Treatments & Draperies After Selling Your House
Window treatments and draperies can get packed into special moving boxes for draperies. These often have hanging rods in them, but you also can pack them into your regular types of moving boxes. How you choose to pack them is going to depend on what kind of window treatments you have and their value, along with the number of sets that are being moved and your budget for your supplies.
If you are going to use the special moving boxes for draperies, begin by wrapping that rod that is inside your box using packing paper. This is going to help with protecting the treatments from becoming dirty. Then you want to wrap the drapes around the rod, so they aren’t going to slip off of it. This way, you aren’t going to have to secure them with pins, which could damage the drapes.
If you aren’t using this type of box, carefully fold your drapes and put them inside a bureau drawer or standard box. Simply make sure that the box’s clean. You don’t want to spend a lot of money on cleaning the drapes. Fold them loosely so that wrinkles are avoided and then cover them over with towels, so they are protected from dirt and dust.
No matter how you are packing the drapes, you always should remove the curtain rods and separately pack them. if the drapes are cleaned before the move, make sure they are dry. Otherwise you might have a problem with mold.
Lamps are fragile and bulky, and homes often have quite a few of them. this makes them a really troublesome thing that you want to pack. Below are some things to keep in mind when you are packing up lamps.
- Remove the harp and bulb. Discard your bulbs from the lamps, unless you have a secure and safe way that you can pack them. LEDs can be expensive and might be worth the extra effort and materials for packing them. But if you use incandescent bulbs, they’re cheap and easy to replace.
- Disassemble the lamp and pack the shade and base separately. For your shade, the box that you should use is sturdy and should be a minimum of 2” bigger than your shade. Line it using paper, which will prevent it from shifting. Don’t pack anything else with your shade. You can put in other shades that are smaller if they’re layered with tissue paper, pillowcases, light towels or packing paper. Don’t use any newspaper, since ink might transfer to the shade and damage it.
- Wrap up your base carefully using packing paper, then put it upright inside another box that’s been cushioned using crumpled-up packing paper.
- Mark your boxes as FRAGILE.
Packing Electronics After Selling Your House
Before starting to pack up the electronics, review their owner’s manual to find out if there are instructions for moving and packing. If the manual has been tossed out, you can look online to see if there is one to download.
An electronic item’s original packaging will be the best bet when you pack up electronics. However, if the boxes they came in have long since been tossed, contact your manufacturer. Sometimes they are going to be willing to send you another box. If this isn’t an option, you want to invest in some heavy-duty cartons for moving these easily breakable, expensive items.
Here are some tips that you can use to pack up electronics.
- Take a picture of how they were plugged in with your phone to refer to before packing. This will make it a lot easier when you get to the new home
- Remove any kind of media, like CDs or DVDs before you pack it.
- Protect your screens using a foam layer
- Unplug your cords and wipe them down, then use twist ties for securing them. label the cords that have been detached from your device. Try keeping your cords with your devices if you can.
- Wrap up all of your electronics using packing paper before you put them in the boxes. This will help them stay clean from dirt and dust.
- Line your box’s bottoms using moving blankets and bubble wrap that is anti-static. This will give them an additional protective layer. Keep some of your packing paper so that you can crumble it up and put it at the box’s top.
- Pack the items that are heaviest and largest on the box’s bottom and fill any empty spaces using packing paper.
- Mark boxes with FRAGILE and clearly mark which end should go up.
Components such as computers and speakers often require additional care.
Packing up Speakers Look for some special boxes for speakers with additional cushioning
- Use bubble wrap that is anti-static for wrapping your speakers before you put them in the boxes.
- If you have really big speakers and they won’t go in boxes, use moving blankets for wrapping them and then secure them with shrink wrap or tape.
Packing up a Computer
Back up the files so that if something happens that you are covered. The components inside computers are often fickle and don’t like to be moved around a lot.
If the printer is being moved, remove your toner and ink cartridges and then store them in bags that can be sealed. These kinds of cartridges don’t like changes in temperatures and the last thing that you want is to arrive at your new home and find that you have a huge mess due to leaked toner or ink.
Packing up Rugs After Selling Your House
Rugs should always be vacuumed before it’s packed. If you have it cleaned professionally, you should ensure that it’s dried completely before it gets rolled up.
Here are some tips for packing a rug:
Use a PVC pipe piece to roll the rug around. When you roll it along the rug’s width so that it’s very short is going to make it much easier to stow in your truck and handle. It also should be tight so that it doesn’t shirt. However, it shouldn’t be rolled too tight. If it’s done too tightly, the warp and weft could get damaged.
If your rug is bigger than 6×9’, you can fold it before you roll it. If you hear something like cracking when you try to fold it, you should stop. This means that the creases might become permanent.
When your rug is rolled, wrap it up in one of your moving blankets or a bag. Bags that are opaque are going to help with protecting the rug from exposure to the sun.
Secure your rug using tape, stretch film, or heavy-duty twine. These kinds of materials might cause indentations. So, you want to make sure that they’re not directly on your rug’s surface.
Be sure the rug’s able to breathe. When your rug is packed air-tight, it can sweat, which can lead to warping or discoloration. So that this is prevented, make some pinholes in any kind of plastic sheeting or bags that you’re using for wrapping the rug.
Packing up Books After Selling Your House
If you have a lot of books, or even if you don’t, books are a really heavy item. If you have a lot, it can be expensive and cumbersome to move them. if you are moving them long-distance or you’re paying the moving company based on your belongings’ weight, you want to consider downsizing the library before packing.
Below are some tips that can help you with packing u your books safely and properly.
- Double the amount of tape that you usually use when you assemble the boxes. This will account for additional weight, particularly if you’re using used or older boxes.
- When you are packing your books, pack them together based on their size inside smaller boxes. If it’s necessary to use bigger boxes, only fill them partway. Then top the books with things like clothing or linens.
- Pack your books lying flat or with their spines facing down. When you pack them so that the spines are facing up, it can cause the books’ glue to come away from its binder. When you do this with your paperback books, this can cause bending of their pages.
- Make sure that the boxes are clearly labeled books. This way the movers know that they should be appropriately stacked. When a box full of books shifts, it can damage your other items seriously.
We hope that you enjoyed this blog and that you found it to be useful for packing up your living room. But maybe you are an old hand at packing things up because you have moved many times before. Maybe you are having trouble finding someone to buy your house? If this is the case, then you want to contact us for a no-obligation quote. We are happy to give you a fair cash quote and it’s going to take a lot less time than you expect. Contact us today and we’ll get back to you with a cash quote
