Moving day is fast approaching, and it’s time to start getting everything ready for your new home. This means sorting through everything you own, and deciding what you want to keep.

For the stuff you no longer want – it also means having a garage sale, selling them online, or donating to charity or friends and family. Lastly, it’s time to pack up everything you own ready to be moved to your new home by expert Sydney home removalists.

Moving home usually means creating a lot of waste. But by reducing the waste you make during the moving process, it helps to simplify moving. So how exactly do you reduce waste?

Here are 9 ways to minimise waste when moving home.

1. Don’t Buy New Moving Boxes

In the weeks leading up to your moving day, start saving boxes which you can reuse. Another way to get free boxes is to go to a local business and ask them if you can have their leftover boxes. Supermarkets, in particular, are great for this, and they will happily let you take any unused boxes.

To make moving easier, don’t put heavy items into large boxes. Otherwise, it will be difficult to carry, and the box may potentially break. It’s best to place heavy items into small or medium boxes and make sure that the bottom of the box has support.

Once you’ve finished moving and unpacking, recycle the moving boxes. Either give them to someone else you know who may be moving soon in the future or recycle them

Some removalists will also provide free reusable packing boxes for your move.

2. Don’t Buy Packing Paper

Rather than buying packing paper, instead use old newspapers or junk mail, old t-shirts or towels, or cloth to wrap any fragile items you have.

After you have finished moving, you can then donate any old towels to your local animal shelter. They will be extremely grateful and be able to use them in kitten and puppy crates.

3. Utilise Suitcases and Backpacks

Use your suitcases, duffel bags and backpacks to help save space! Pack your clothing, and linen into them. It also helps to reduce using new boxes.

To save even more space and fit more clothing in your suitcases, you can ‘army roll’ each item.

4. Use A Laundry Basket

Use a laundry basket to pack any kids soft toys when you are moving. Not only will it reduce box waste or plastic bags, but it will also help you to save space. They are great not only for packing and transporting toys, but also are ideal for any other lightweight items. You can also use any other tubs or baskets the same way, to sort and pack things in.

5. Avoid Packaging Tape

Instead of using packaging tape, you can alternately fold the flaps of packing boxes, so that they securely stay in place, and you cut down using any packaging tape.

This is only recommended for lighter weight items. For any heavy items, it’s suggested to use biodegradable tape to strengthen the bottom of the box.

6. How To Wrap Delicate Items

For any delicate and fragile items consider wrapping them using towels, face washers, tea towels, sheets, blankets, rags, clothing or socks. This way you keep your items protected in transit and don’t need to buy any additional packaging.

You can also use sheets and blankets to wrap furniture to keep it safe from scratches and dents.

If you don’t have any of these items, then scrunched up a newspaper and junk mail catalogues work great.

7. Borrow Reusable Tubs

A great way to reduce waste that comes from cardboard boxes is to borrow reusable plastic tubs from your friends and family. They are environmentally friendly, and also see through, so you can easily see what is in each container. This means that you don’t need to go searching through them to find what you are looking for.

They are especially useful for moving towels and blankets in.

After you’ve unpacked everything and settled into your new home, be sure to reuse and recycle all the packaging and boxes.

8. Declutter, Declutter, Declutter

Before you pack anything, go through your belongings, and start to declutter. Are there things you don’t want to bring to your new home? What about old worn out clothes, or clothes which no longer fit? It’s also a chance to get rid of outdated or broken electronics, old mismatched dishes, and furniture which won’t fit in your new home.

The more you can declutter now, the less packaging you will need to move these items to your new home

If you have a lot of items to dispose of after decluttering, you can hire a waste skip bin to ensure that your waste is disposed of correctly, and recycled wherever possible.

9. Sell Or Donate Unwanted Items

For any clothes, books, CDs/DVDs, appliances, toys or furniture you no longer want, minimise waste by letting someone else enjoy them!

Go through all of the items and decide for each item, whether you wish to either donate it to charity, give it to friends or family, or to sell it.

For the items, you wish to sell try online on eBay, Gumtree or Facebook Marketplace. You can also try an old fashioned garage sale.

For any leftover items, offer them to your friends or family who will give them a good home, or take them to a charity to donate, where somebody will cherish them. If you are unable to transport them to your local charity, many of them offer a free collection service, where they will come and collect the items from your home.

Each time someone moves home, there is a lot of waste which accumulates during the process, either in packaging materials or in unwanted belongings.

The above tips help you to minimise waste during your move. Not only is it good for the environment, but it will also save you money due to reduced moving costs as you won’t need to move as many physical items.

For further tips on reducing waste, visit the Energy.gov.au website.

Finished minimising waste and ready to move? Local & Interstate Removals are professional and affordable movers who offer you peace of mind and great service while protecting your valuables. Contact our customer service team for a free moving quote today. Call 1300 705 705 or email info@localandinterstateremovals.com.au.