7, Books and also records can be deceptively heavy, and you can be forgiven for loading them to the brim of your removals boxes, but when you come to pick them up of your removals men do you will be surprised at the weight. So a good idea is to part load your moving boxes with books or records and then to use soft and light things in the boxes such as cushions or linen or clothes. This will not only secure the books in place in the cardboard box but also make the whole load lighter.
9, as in point 7, over loading removals boxes is a big mistake, it makes moving them harder and by default the increases the chance of them being dropped or mishandled and unless you have bought decent double walled moving boxes, when they are stacked you can find that really heavy boxes can crush down into the lighter boxes bellow, thus destabilising the whole stack.
10, cookers and washing machines, with gas cookers you need a certified gas engineer to come and unplug the cooker. This should be done well in advance of the removals men arriving as anything you can do on the day such as buying your removals boxes before, palming the kids off to a loved one and making sure the fridge is emptied will help make the day go quicker and reduce the risk of accidents or damage. Washing machines should be unplugged and the hose removed, and given a chance to drain should the need to. They also have locking pins on the back that wills secure the drum during transport. But you must remember to take these locking pins out before you start it up or you’ll ruin the motor.
11, Plants and lamp shades, are notoriously difficult to transport safely, so if you have any significant emotional attachment to them I would always recommend taking them yourself. If not, a good idea is too pack them into your removals boxes leaving the top open and to have packing paper wedged between them, this allows them to breath but not break when they are transported and the pots bang together. Lamp shades are always best taken off the lamps, put inside each other and given their own moving boxes marked fragile.