This article focuses on tips for moving house for people who want to reduce their carbon footprint. Packing materials are necessary for moving. There’s no avoiding using them unless you can live with lots of breakages. Even if you’re a legend when it comes to recycling, you can bet you’ll still have a heap of packing materials to deal with after you move. Here are some tips for lowering your footprint.

Declutter regularly, not just before moving

This is our number one piece of advice to make any move go easier, but in this case, having less to move means you won’t need mountains of packing materials. Decluttering your house is also good for the soul. It’s so easy to amass junk and things we don’t really need or want.

So embrace spring for a spring clean, and why not have one during summer, autumn and winter too. It makes moving feel like a breath of fresh air.

Remember the three golden virtues of decluttering: recycle, donate to charity or sell.

Beg, borrow and get inventive with packing materials

There are a lot of materials that can be used for packing that will reduce your waste. Many of them are common household items. 

You can use towels, clothing and linen instead of paper to wrap items for boxes. They’re very good packing materials, but we suggest you don’t use good clothes or linen.

You can use newspaper to wrap items, but you’ll have a lot of washing up after you unpack. Better to use newspaper as space fillers and wrap items in clean paper instead. Then recycle the lot after you’ve unpacked.

You don’t have to buy moving boxes if you have time to find alternatives. Specifically, you’re looking for double-layered or reinforced cardboard boxes. These are used to transport heavy and breakable items, so ask your local supermarket or liquor store if they have any you can use. Recycle them when you’ve unpacked.

Think outside the box before you pack the box. If you can pack one item inside another item, like a small vase inside a bigger vase for example, you’ll save space when packing your box.

Alternatives to plastic

Plastic is a really good wrapping material, but there are alternatives if you want to reduce your plastic use. You can use sheets to cover furniture to protect it from dirt and dust, just so long as it isn’t raining on moving day. You can also talk to your moving company about renting padded blankets, although we supply these as part of your move if we’re doing the pickup and delivery.

Reducing your carbon footprint doesn’t have to cost a lot more money. It just requires a little thought and invention. Ask your moving company about packing, unpacking and materials disposal the next time you need to move. We can do the clean-up and recycling for you.