A Labelling System That Actually Works

Labelling is treated as an afterthought and it is the thing that determines how the unloading goes and how long you live among boxes afterwards.

It takes no extra time to do properly, only a decision made before the first box is sealed.

Just-In-Time Moving works throughout Washington and Washington County.

Label the sides, not the top

The single most common mistake. Boxes are stacked, and once one is on top of another the label on its lid is invisible.

Write on at least two sides, in large letters, with a marker rather than a pen. A crew reading labels from three feet away in a truck is what makes an unload fast.

Say the destination room, not the origin

Where it is going, not where it came from. Those are frequently different and only one is useful.

Then number the rooms in the new house and put a sign on each door on moving day. A crew can then place every box correctly without asking, which is most of the time saving available on an unload.

Number every box and keep a list

Ten seconds per box, and it gives you three things.

You can find something during the weeks when everything is packed. You know at the far end whether everything arrived, which an unnumbered stack will never tell you. And if something is missing you can say which box it was in.

The list needs number, destination room and roughly what is inside. Not an inventory: 34, kitchen, baking things and the mixer.

Keep it on your phone and somewhere else, not on a sheet that goes into box 41. This happens constantly.

Mark three things beyond the room

Fragile, on the sides, and mean it. Everything marked fragile means nothing is.

This way up, on anything that needs it.

Open first, on the handful of boxes you genuinely need on day one.

Colour helps, in one specific way

A coloured tape or sticker per room, matched to a sign on each door, works well because it is readable at a glance and does not need reading at all.

Use it in addition to writing rather than instead of it.

Where people go wrong

Labelling after sealing rather than as they go. Vague labels: miscellaneous is not a room. Pencil, which is unreadable across a truck. Reusing old boxes without crossing out the previous labels, which is genuinely confusing.

Call (435) 862-3080 or email office@movingjustintime.com.