Moving can present a myriad of challenges, but the most potentially expensive challenge is figuring out how to protect your electronics from damages. If you’re looking for a step-by-step guide on how to properly pack your electronics to protect them on moving day, you’ve come to the right place.
1. Back Up Your Files
This step doesn’t apply to electronics that don’t save data, obviously. This step applies mostly to desktop computers, laptops, or tablets. You never know if something may go wrong during the packing and transporting of these items. If the hard drive becomes damaged, it becomes inaccessible. That means any pictures, music, files, videos, text documents, etc. will be lost to you permanently. It’s essential that you back up all of your data to a portable hard drive, a flash drive, or to the cloud via a third party storage website. Once you’ve backed up and saved all of your important files, it’s time to move on to the next step.
2. Pack It Right
Cheap Movers Seattle (www.cheapmoversseattle.com), says you can provide safe packing for your electronics by using appropriately-sized boxes, strong packing tape, packing blankets, Styrofoam packing materials, and bubble wrap. The key thing to remember when packing electronics is that shifting of the equipment during moving is the biggest potential hazard. To prevent shifting, you must leave little to no space within the box. To accomplish this, you can stuff the box full of Styrofoam, packing materials, or you can use sheets and blankets to save money. As an important side note, be sure to purchase anti-static bubble wrap. Static discharges could damage the delicate circuit boards within your electronic devices.
3. Bundle Cords with Remotes
If your electronics come with a cornucopia of cords, cables, and remotes, be sure to organize them properly. Using rubber bands, zip ties, bread ties, string, or any other type of banding material, wrap each cord into a small bundle and secure it with a banding material. Be sure to label each cord so that you know to which device the cable belongs. To make unpacking easier on you, pack the cords and remotes with their corresponding electronic device instead of packing them separately.
4. Remember Temperature Control
Electronics are surprisingly sensitive to extreme temperatures. To prevent your electronics from being exposed to such temperatures, it’s best to keep them with you as you travel instead of trusting them to a moving company or a third party. Keep in mind that if you’re moving a printer, it is wise to remove the printer cartridges before packing it away for moving. Ink cartridges are more sensitive to extreme temperatures than other electronics and could cause a mess inside of your printer if left inside.
5. Labels Save The Day
When boxes are being picked up for moving, unless they’re properly labeled, the boxes’ contents are unknown. This can cause the boxes not to be handled properly. To avoid a potentially damaging situation, always label the boxes that contain delicate electronics. “Fragile,” “This side up,” or “Pack Last – Electronics” are good examples of labels to use on your boxes so that movers can give proper care when handling these boxes.