A move can be stressful enough, especially when you know that your most expensive and essential belongings could be damaged.
Electronics are not cheap and often store valuable information on them. The last thing you want is to be careless during your move and risk breaking them or losing important documents or photographs.
Preparing a moving checklist or to-do list can help you stay organized and assess how many gadgets you have. Since this is a digital world, you will likely have more than you realized.
Whether you have a home office, homeschool your children, or use electronics for photography or gaming, you will want to protect your valuables. While it may not be the most fun task, learning how to store and protect your electronics can ease your mind. Finding a reliable and professional moving company can help as well.
For tips on preparing, organizing, and how to pack electronics, continue reading below.
Prepare your Electronics for the Move
Before you begin packing your electronics, you will want to get organized and prepare them first. You can start by locating all of their manuals in case you need guidance to set them back up. You can either keep all of these manuals together or pack the manuals with their electronic or device.
Before you begin disconnecting computers, televisions, stereo systems, and gaming systems, you could take a picture of how they are all connected, to save you time and stress when you need to reconnect them at your new home.
Remember to eject all CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Rays from their devices and remove batteries from remotes. Taking these precautions can save you the pain of discovering your batteries leaked and caused corrosion or that your disc drives were damaged.
Safely packing your electronics should prevent damage, but it would be wise to back up all data and files before unplugging and packing computers or other storage devices in case an accident did occur.
How to Pack Your Electronics
Once you have located and prepared your electronics, you can begin packing them. Because these items are fragile, you will want to invest in the proper moving materials to keep them safe.
Some of the packing supplies you need include:
- Cardboard moving boxes
- Bubble wrap
- Durable tape
- Permanent markers
- Twist ties
- Moving blankets
If you are packing a television or computer, you will want to ensure that the screen is protected by bubble wrap or foam. It is best to put these back into their original boxes, but it is possible to purchase boxes for them that will keep them upright, secured, and safe.
If you are storing your television or other electronics, you will want to consider temperature and humidity. For smaller gadgets and electronics, you can use silica gel packets to remove moisture. For larger devices, silica blankets can be purchased online.
Organize and Label
You may know to label your boxes, but you may not have thought about labeling all of your cords, chargers, and remotes.
Labeling everything before it gets packed away can save you a headache later. Instead of wasting minutes or hours trying to remember what goes where, everything will be marked and ready to use when needed.
You may even want to take your labeling a step further and use a color-coding system that can be easily seen even at a distance. You will appreciate these simple tasks later when you realize how easy it is to find and set everything back up in your new home.
When organizing your electronics, it would make the most sense to keep matching parts and accessories together. For example, if you have a gaming system, keep the plugs, controllers, headsets, and games with it. Don’t just throw all of your cords into the same box; what a tangled mess that would be after moving.
Speaking of cords, when you pack them, you should use bread ties or even rubber bands to keep them compact and prevent them from getting tangled up.
Tips to Consider Before and During Your Move
One of the best ways to keep your electronics safe is to hire an experienced and professional moving company to help you.
They are trained to move heavy and fragile items, can offer advice on protecting them, and offer insurance in the rare event that something gets damaged.
Other great tips when packing and moving electronics include:
- Read your manufactures guides for special moving instructions
- Use a technician to uninstall or move mounted electronics
- Cushion your electronics
- Protect fans and moving parts from dust
- Take measurements of large electronics to determine if and where they will fit in your new home
- Check boxes for rough handling and water damage when unpacking them
- Give electronics 24-48 hours to acclimate to the humidity and temperature in your new home before plugging them in
- Handle everything with diligence and care
The Takeaway
Now that you understand how to pack electronics safely, let someone else handle the rest of the move.
The trained professionals at Road Scholars Moving company are here to help you in any way that we can.
We understand that figuring out how to pack electronics safely can be a daunting task and cause a lot of unwanted anxiety.
This is why we handle your move and belongings with respect and care.
Contact us to schedule your next move and learn about the moving and storage services we offer.