How to Label Moving Boxes So Unpacking Is Easy

Knowing how to label moving boxes is the difference between an afternoon of unpacking and a fortnight of opening the wrong box. The system below takes about ten extra seconds per box while you are packing, and it saves the removal crew asking you where things go, saves you hunting for the kettle, and gives you a way to prove nothing was left behind. It works whether you are moving across Brighton or from London down to the coast.

Label three sides, not the lid

The most common mistake is writing on the top flap only. Boxes are stacked in the van, then stacked again in the room, and the lid is the one face nobody can see. Label two long sides and one short side, and add the top as a bonus. That way the box is readable however it is turned, and the crew can place it without shuffling the stack.

Use a thick chisel-tip permanent marker rather than a biro. Black on plain brown card is fine; if your boxes are printed or already have old writing on them, stick a blank white label on first so there is only one thing to read.

What to write on the label

Five things, in this order:

1. The room it is going to, not the room it came from. If your spare room is becoming an office, the box is labelled Office. The crew has never seen your old house and cannot guess.
2. A box number and the running total, written as 14 / 62. The number is what links the box to your list. The total is what tells you at the door whether everything arrived.
3. Three to five words of contents. The British Association of Removers suggests writing the room plus a basic explanation of what is inside, along the lines of "Bedroom 2: Josh's t-shirts and shorts". Enough to find something without opening four boxes, not a full inventory.
4. FRAGILE and THIS WAY UP where they apply, with an arrow. BAR advises marking anything fragile clearly so the mover can see it, and putting heavy things like books into the smaller boxes rather than large ones.
5. OPEN FIRST on the handful of boxes you need on night one.

Colour code by room

Writing the room name works. Adding a colour works faster, because a crew member carrying a box up a narrow Victorian staircase can read a coloured patch from across a landing but cannot read your handwriting. Coloured parcel tape, coloured dot stickers or four sweeps of a marker all do the job.

The part people skip is the other half of the system: tape a matching sheet of coloured paper to each door at the new address before the van arrives. Without it, the colours only make sense to you, and you will spend the morning directing traffic instead of unpacking. BAR makes the same point about colour coding, that it is there to let the mover put each box in the right room.

If you are moving into a flat or a terrace where rooms repeat across floors, put the floor on the label too: "Bedroom 1, first floor". Sussex housing stock is full of three-storey conversions and loft rooms, and a crew that has to ask on every box loses you an hour.

Number every box and keep one master list

Numbering is what turns labels into a searchable system. As you seal each box, write its number and a slightly fuller contents note in one list: a notes app, a spreadsheet, or a sheet taped inside the front door. When you cannot find the router two days later, you search the list rather than the pile.

Keep the list in one place and one format. Two half-lists in two phones is worse than no list. And write the final total onto every box once packing is finished, so that a gap is obvious while the van is still outside rather than after it has gone.

The boxes that need different treatment

• Open-first box. Kettle, mugs, tea, toilet roll, soap, a torch, chargers, medication, bedding, scissors and a screwdriver. Mark it OPEN FIRST on every side and carry it in your own car if you can.
• Valuables and documents. Passports, deeds, jewellery and anything irreplaceable should not go on the van at all, and should not be labelled in a way that advertises what is inside.
• Fragile glass and ceramics. Mark the top face as well, and write which way up. A box of glasses that is stacked upside down is a box of broken glasses.
• Flat-pack fittings. Bag the screws, tape the bag to the frame, and label it with the item, not just the room. Fixings are the single most-lost thing in any move.
• Do-not-load box. Anything the crew must not take, from the sold-with-the-house curtain poles to the neighbour's borrowed drill, gets a big DO NOT LOAD label and a corner of a room to itself.

Mistakes that cost you a day

Labelling only the lid; labelling with the old room name; using pencil or biro that vanishes under tape; writing "misc" on nine boxes; running out of marker halfway and switching to something illegible; and packing the marker itself. Keep two markers and the tape on you, not in a box.

One more: do not seal a box before you have written on it. Once it is taped and on the stack, you will write smaller, faster and worse, or you will not write at all.

Where labelling fits in the move

Labelling is the cheap half of packing. If you are weighing up doing it yourself against paying for it, our guide to packing service costs in Sussex sets out what the add-on actually buys, and BAR itself recommends asking your shortlisted movers to quote for the packing element so you can compare. For the wider picture, see our 8-week moving house checklist, our guide to choosing a removals company in Sussex, and the full cost of moving house in Sussex. You can also start from the Move Sussex homepage.

The source for the packing advice quoted above is the British Association of Removers' top ten packing tips, the trade body whose members work to an approved code of practice. If you want to check whether your quoted firm is a member, we cover that in BAR member removals explained.

Frequently asked questions