About 40 million Americans move each and every year.

Moving to a new home is stressful enough without making packing mistakes that will ruin the experience. There is nothing like getting to your new place to live only to find that you don’t know where your toothbrush or bedsheets are!

Are you moving soon? If so, you need to make sure you’re packing the right way.

Check out four common packing mistakes to avoid below.

1. Not Creating Labels

Imagine getting to your new home after a long day of moving and realizing you don’t know where anything is because you don’t know which boxes carry what. This is an easy way to make yourself more stressed out on moving day!

You may think that you’ll remember what is in each box, but it is much easier to rely on labels than your own memory.

All you need to do is simply write what the contents are on the outside of the box, and you’re done! You can also choose to buy specially made labels for boxes if you want to separate by color or room to make it even better.

2. Buying Bad Supplies for Packing

Saving money by purchasing inexpensive supplies is a hazard because not only will it be less likely to hold your items properly, but you may end up using more of it than you think just because it doesn’t work as well.

It’s much better to purchase supplies that you can rely on.

3. Leaving Space or Overfilling Your Boxes

When you’re packing your small and large boxes, you have to really be strategic. You don’t want a lot of empty space, but you also don’t want them to be too full. There is a fine line to walk here.

Having a box with a lot of empty space inside means that your packed items can shift easily in transit. They may end up knocking together and breaking. If you find that your box has empty space, add some towels, blankets, or another soft padding to block out the additional space.

Overfilling is just as dangerous because your boxes are going to be super heavy. This means the box may end up breaking under the weight. even if it doesn’t, you’re doing a disservice to your residential moving service providers (or yourself) to make the job more difficult and take more time overall.

4. Waiting to Pack

If you want to avoid stress on moving day, you absolutely don’t want to wait to pack until the day before. Procrastination will make you more nervous, more worried, and give you less time to get everything else done on the big day.

It’s a good idea to give yourself a lot of time to pack and start doing it little by little in the weeks leading up to your move. This way, you can pack away the things you use least often and work up to the items you use every day.

You’ll feel better about how you’ve packed your boxes, and you will give yourself more time to work out a good packing strategy.