There's going to be a good bit of trash, so it helps to have a dedicated trash box.

There's going to be a lot of reaching up high, so it helps to have a step stool ready.

You might also want to clear or designate an area to put all the boxes you pack.

If you are not the owner of the things to be packed, if you come across any pre-existing damage, make sure to let the owner know before packing, so you are not blamed for the damage later.

Notice the pesky little connections that hold the different cardboard flaps connected together, that looks like they forgot to cut the flaps fully away from each other.

They call those uncut connections "Flap-Locks".

To make a box, first fold the flaps down, with the "flap-lock tabs" under the hands as shown in the above  picture.

Then flex all folds of the box back & forth to reduce the pressure to spring back when trying to hold the box in position to tape.

Here you see an example of what we're aiming for, with the flaps folded against the side of the box, with those "flap lock" tabs intact holding the flaps from flopping open.

With the flaps folded down, open the box, flip it over, and place it on top of something the height of a chair, bench or medium size box so you don't have to bend down to work on it.

If you don't fold the flaps down it takes more time, effort and risk to reach in the box, multiplied by the hundreds of times you're going to reach.

To prepare boxes for dishes, first cushion the bottom with crumpled paper, a small pillow or a folded bath towel.  A folded towel can save time, is simpler, cheaper and provides superb protection.

Then bring a stack of plates to your work area.

Tap your fingers on a wet sponge that should be on the table to wet your fingers for much better paper gripping.

Place one plate in the middle of the stack of wrapping paper, and fold two sheets over from a corner.

Repeat folding over the other corners.  Some packers only fold over one or two corners to be quicker, which is usually sufficient, although not quite as fool proof or high-end of a job.

With all four corners folded in, leave the dish there.

Bring the next plate over and place it on top of the wrapped plate.

Fold two more sheets in from all four corners, wrapping around both plates.  

You now have two plates wrapped without removing either plate.

Repeat with additional plates until the stack is so high the paper doesn't fold over completely.

Then flip the plate bundle over and use two sheets to wrap around the stack from the other side.

Place your dish bundles parallel to the short direction of a small box, and fill any remaining space with crumpled paper or soft & light things.

Then, fill in the remaining space above the dishes with a folded towel, or crumpled paper.

Tape the top closed, 3 rows of tape across the top (going an inch over the end), and one strip down the flaps-joining center (going 6 or 8 inches over the end).  Remember to rub the tape down good to make it stick.

Then label the box in the upper right corner with the room it's from, a description of the contents, and any warning needed. If there's multiple packers, add your name.

If you forget to fold the flaps down before you tape the bottom of the box, you can  just tape the flaps down to make the reach easier.

That is, if your working box upper edge is too high when working on a table top.

Using double walled boxes and Dish Barrel boxes is usually only the right way to go if the value of the items are particularly high, or if the load is going into an ABF trailer or extra high stacked load.

Create crumpled paper anywhere you want protection between things that could damage each other like things made of ceramic or glass.  Flat paper does almost nothing to protect breakables. 

Things like cans and plastic bottles should not be wrapped.  Try to keep things that are going in one box all from the same area to make unboxing easier. Only fragile or scratchabe things need paper wrapping

But if you place a fragile thing surrounded by "soft" or non-hard things you can skip the paper wrapping on that item. 

Put things from the same drawer in the same box.  Use plastic bags to group together things that would be hard to separate later.

Make sure the lids of all containers with liquids are on tight.  It's even better to also put them in a sealed bag to protect against spills (or don't take them).

But all glass and ceramic items need to be wrapped.

It's a good idea to make an "Electronics" box for all remotes, cables, phone chargers, cords, and other small accessories. 

It's a higher end job if the more easily damageable things in drawers get wrapped in paper.

but you can put many individual items rolled up in the same sheet of paper.

It's a higher-end job if you plastic-wrap bundles of silverware together, to prevent any rubbing or scratching.

But if being quicker is the priority you can just plastic-wrap the whole silverware set holder, so it doesn't spill if the box is tipped.

Things that are in trays or groupings should be put in bags containing those groupings, because no one wants to spend a year trying to resort thousands of little things from a giant pile when unpacking.

For large fragile things, place them in a box with pillows & soft things.  So save soft things for this use.

If the priority is saving time, expense, and saving space in the truck, it's an option to just leave things inside of drawers, doors, & cubbie spaces.

The trick for doing this is to wrap any fragile breakables, and to fill the remaining space with things like pillows, coats, blankets or wrapping paper, just to keep things from banging around. 

Then, possibly seal it in with plastic wrap and/or blanketing to hold it all together, or leave that for the moving crew to do. 

Remember, plastic wrap does not protect the item from scratches or rubs, only blanketing does that.

For TV's, it's best to use a TV box because it has spacer foam corners that create an air gap to prevent pressure against the screen.

If your move situation allows it, it can save time and expense to put a TV in a passenger car, but it's a little more risky.

You can prepare to box-up your non-plasma TV laying it down.  But tilting a Plasma TV more than a little can ruin the screen.  Keep Plasma TV's mostly upright.

After stretch wrapping the corners on, without ever touching the screen, slide it into the smaller end of the TV box.

But there is also potential for other areas of the screen to be rubbed, even in the TV box.  Any Styrofoam touching the screen anywhere causes this potential for rubbing the screen (as shown above, which cost a damage claim of $1300).  It's not likely, unless you have foam rubber touching the screen somewhere (which this one did), but there is this potential unless you add a TV screen cover.

So if you want to have maximum protection, you need to add a TV screen cover, as shown above.

Slide the two box-halves together, tape it, and tuck it somewhere it's not going to fall over.   If it's a plasma TV, make sure to keep it upright, and draw a huge arrow pointing upwards on the box on both sides.

Then label it, and include the location of source room (to identify the TV), and identify where the TV stand is stowed.  If there is more than one packer packing the house, add the name of the packer (for accountability).

Pictures that will fit in a medium or large  box should be bubble wrapped, and placed in descending size order, making sure the frames are against each other's frames, and not against glass. 

Fill the remaining space above and to the sides of the pictures with a pillow, folded towel, clothes, or crumpled paper to make it firm.

The most frequent cause of picture damage I have witnessed is caused when the pictures are taken off the wall and stacked up against each other.    

The back side of a  picture has the sharp protrusions that can damage the front side of another picture. So stack only back to back, and face to face, gently, in groups of like size pictures, where the frames support each other.

You can leave your clothes in your dressers and chest-of-drawers (Highboys).  These are going to be padded up all cozy-like, and your clothes will be fine staying inside.  We have tools that will make the weight not really matter much.

Coats, or bulky fabrics (even hanging clothes) can go in garbage bags (50 cents ea.)   

Table lamps can go in large boxes, padded on the bottom with crumpled paper, pillows, or bulky fabrics.

First unscrew the cap and take the shade off.  It's better to never touch the fabric of the shade, only the metal.

Remove the harp by lifting up the little bell shaped things, and squeezing the wires towards each other.

Screw the cap back on the harp, & wrap the harp in paper.

If there's more than one harp going into the same box as the lamp, label the harp, & which lamp it goes to (they're not all the same)

Multiple shades can go over each other, small to Large, but add a sheet of wrapping paper between them.

Wrap the chord on the base.

or use a rubber band to bundle the cord.

Wrap the lamp base in bubble wrap (or a coat or big towel).  Then use a little piece of  tape to hold the wrap together.

Put it in the cushioned box standing upright, & fill in between multiple lamps with bulky fabrics, a coat, or crumpled paper. 

If you a lay lamp base on it's side it's more likely to break. 

Wrap the light bulbs individually in crumpled paper, taped together in a group, and add to your lamp box.  Don't skip the tape or the crumpled paper can be mistaken for empty paper.

Label a lamp box "Top Load" written ON THE SIDE OF THE BOX.  This means that this box is light, and so being high is better for the stack of boxes underneath it, in addition to the factor that it's not quite as solid to withstand the weight of being lower in a stack.

Pay attention to which boxes contain something that is packed in a way that makes the item need to be loaded in the truck upright with a certain side UP, and label those boxes  box with an actual ARROW drawn pointing up, written on the side of the box.

Lamp shades that don't fit over each other get their own box, with crumpled paper on all sides, or wrapped in a blanket or coat.

If your moving crew shows up and you don't have a lamp boxed up, as a second best option they can find a place to just lay it down in the truck nestled in a blanket. 

For computers, the tower would go preferably in a double walled electronics box, just because it's extra heavy & extra important. But the key thing is to pack it on top of and surrounded on all sides by several inches of thick cushioning, like a thick comforter, blanket or pillows.  This dampens risky vibrations & jolts.

Then, the monitor should go in a small TV box with the foam corners, because this creates an air gap that prevents even the box from coming near the screen.  

Any Styrofoam that touches the screen should have a soft velvety "TV Screen Cover" or dish-sleeve between the styrofoam and the screen to receive full protection, because styrofoam can rub and scratch a screen.

You should end up with something that looks like this.

And or this.     It is a required mandatory step for the Lead to take a picture or pictures of the end resulting stacks of boxes and text that picture to AGMC.