# Done Sowell's Packing Guide: Pack Without the Stress
Packing wears people out before the truck ever shows up — the boxes, the tape, the feeling that there is always another closet. So here is my packing guide: pack with a plan, and the whole move gets easier.
## Start With a Plan, Not a Pile
Do not start by grabbing a box and filling it with whatever is closest. Walk through your home, room by room, and decide what is actually going. Stuff you do not need anymore? Donate it or toss it before moving day. Every box you do not pack is a box you do not pay to move.
Then pack in order: start with the rooms you use least, and leave the kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom for last. Pack one room at a time, start to finish.
When people search "movers near me" and call us, Sacramento movers, this is the first advice I give — whether you are moving across town with local movers or across the country with long distance movers, cross country movers, or coast to coast movers, the plan is the same.
## Pack Heavy Small, Light Big, Label Everything
Here is the rule that saves backs and boxes: heavy things go in small boxes, light things go in big boxes. Books, dishes, tools — small box. Pillows, blankets, clothes — big box. A big box full of books is a box nobody can lift, and a box nobody can lift is a box that gets dropped.
Wrap the breakables: packing paper around each plate, glasses standing up instead of stacked flat, and no empty space rattling around. If it can shift, it can break — fill the gaps with towels or paper.
Then label like you mean it. Write the room on two sides of the box, plus one line about what is inside: "Kitchen — pots and pans," not just "Kitchen." At nine at night in your new place, that one line is the difference between finding your bedding and sleeping on the floor. If packing is not your thing at all, that is what packing services are for — a full service moving company like ours can pack, move, and set things down in the right rooms, so you are not living out of boxes for a week.
## Leave the Hard Pieces to the Crew
Some things you should not pack or move yourself, period. Big mirrors, flat-screen TVs without their original box, heavy dressers, washers and dryers — those are the pieces that hurt people and damage walls without the right equipment. Tell your movers about them ahead of time so they show up with the right gear.
The same goes for a senior move — our senior moving services take extra care and patience — and for overseas moves, where our international movers and overseas movers pack tighter for the long trip.
Plan the rooms, pack heavy small and light big, label everything, and let the crew handle the hard pieces — and moving day starts feeling like what it is: the first day in your new place.
Of all the moving companies Sacramento families compare, the affordable movers worth hiring are the ones who tell you the rate plain: our two-man crew runs $68.99 an hour with equipment included, and full service is $110 an hour with a two-hour minimum. Long-distance moves start at $1,200, with mileage billed separately.
Call us at 279-285-2463 or email EandN@donesowellmoving.net, and let us take it from here.
Good service is good business, backed with the seal of excellence.