One of my least favorite things about moving and packing, is having to write on all the boxes because I get so tired of writing the same thing over and over again. If you’ve ever moved you know what I mean! For this move I decided I would print out bright colored labels to identify each of the boxes, which would make it easy for my friends to know where the boxes go, and it would save me from having to write on all the boxes! I bought these shipping labels from Office Depot and I love them because they are super bright and nice and big (2″x4″).
After purchasing the labels I used Microsoft Word to print out what I wanted all the labels to say. I have a lot of fragile stuff so I used all the bright pink sheets to make the “FRAGILE” labels. The other colors I divided between bedrooms, bathrooms, the kitchen, decor, office, playroom, etc.
Looking at this picture makes my OCD side get all excited! What crazy organized person wouldn’t love to have these awesome, bright labels for moving and packing!?
After printing the labels I put them on all my boxes and furniture. It’s important to label the furniture too so it’s easy for your friends, or movers, to know right where everything goes.
I also printed these bright colored pieces of paper to hang up at the new house, to identify the rooms for the movers.
With the boxes labeled and the rooms labeled my friends and family will know right where to put everything, and then I won’t be searching for misplaced boxes later on!
One of my other least favorite things about moving is having to call around to change our address and all our utilities over to the new house. Luckily, this time, I was able to switch a lot of them online, but I still spent a good amount of time on the phone too. While I was waiting on the phone I created this handy dandy checklist to share with you!
Click HERE to get the printable version.
If you have any moving tips I would love to hear them! Leave me a comment and share your best moving and packing tips. To see my other moving related posts click on the links below:
How to Make Packing Stress-Free
Jen M. says
July 26, 2013 at 12:55 pmSquee! We are moving in less than a month and I love these! Especially the change of address checklist. Thank you for sharing!
Anna says
July 26, 2013 at 2:06 pmYou’re welcome! Good luck with your move!!! 🙂
cass says
July 26, 2013 at 9:26 pmSince we always move with littles I make a prep room. Either an office or combine them in room. That way all the stacked boxes are not a danger to them. It has helped a lot on cutting down the repacking of the boxes a toddler finds interesting.
Anna says
July 26, 2013 at 9:55 pmThat’s a GREAT idea!!!
Crystal says
July 30, 2013 at 5:52 pmThese are awesome tips and printables for moving!! I pinned it for when we get ready to move. It will make my life alot easier!! Thanks so much!!
Sabrina says
August 5, 2013 at 4:47 pmI love the printables and will definately share. This will make it more fun to move, right? At least, I hope. Thanks for sharing.
KMICHELLE says
August 12, 2013 at 12:14 amOne thing we did with our last two moves, instead of just labeling the boxes with what rooms they went in, we made a master list of all the boxes we packed in a notebook and numbered the boxes as we went, corresponding to their number in the notebook with a basic list of what was inside. Not as helpful in identifying where each box goes quickly, but some of our things went in storage and weren’t unpacked right away. This way, we could look through the notebook for a specific item without having to open a ton of wrong boxes.
Melissa says
August 12, 2013 at 12:26 amGreat idea! Did the sticky labels come off of the furniture OK?
Anna says
August 12, 2013 at 10:31 amI had to use a razor blade, but it wasn’t bad. 🙂
JulieAnna says
March 23, 2014 at 3:34 pmif you heat it up a little with a hair dryer they peel off easier from the heat 🙂
Any ideas on packing up for my son’s dorm room?
Anna says
March 24, 2014 at 8:00 amHere’s one of two posts I have about dorm rooms: https://askannamoseley.com/2011/08/reader-question-getting-organized-in-the-dorms/.
If you need packing tips here are a bunch of posts we have on the blog: https://askannamoseley.com/tag/moving/
Victoria says
September 17, 2013 at 1:54 pmHi Anna! I am love with this idea and have been trying to implement it. However I’ve only been able to find the laser labels, which I’m now seeing is what you used. However I need ink jet but I can’t find them. Did you use your labels in a laser printer? I’m wondering what ink jet users can do… Thank you 🙂
Anna says
September 17, 2013 at 2:31 pmI have an ink jet printer. I think any printer will work fine. 🙂
Victoria says
September 20, 2013 at 9:10 pmThank you! The employee at Staples didn’t recommend it, so I hesitated. Thanks for the update!
Anna says
September 21, 2013 at 2:49 pmYeah, they don’t know what they are talking about. 🙂 It worked great for me!
Aspen says
September 20, 2013 at 8:50 pmWe did something similar but with duct tape! The different colors of duct tape corresponded to each room. Just hung the matching color in the door frame! 🙂
Meegan says
November 7, 2013 at 8:15 pmAspen, that’s exactly the compromise I”ve settled on, since we don’t have a printer. But I haven’t found a good soft pastel pink yet, only really fluorescent pink.
Meegan says
November 7, 2013 at 8:13 pmI am so envious of your great labels! We are about to move, but we don’t have a printer, so I am stuck handwriting everything and it is going to make me crazy!
Elaine Simpson says
January 7, 2016 at 1:58 pmIt has been 27 years since we last moved but, in our experience, it is much easier if the labels are placed on both sides (or all sides) of the boxes, not the top. In that way, you are not lifting each box in a pile to see where it should go.