New Digs: Gear & Tools to Help You Move

Posted: February 21, 2019

That is, the best gear and tools to help you move besides your five 230-pounds-of-muscle friends Cornelius.

Packing boxes, hauling furniture, finagling a 2019 king-size mattress through a 1969 door frame...moving sucks. Even if you hire movers you're usually still stuck sorting and padding and stuffing, and then un-sorting, un-padding, and un-stuffing. And for the fancy dudes and ladies out there able to afford white glove movers who handle it all, well, one la-dee-da for you, and two, bossing people around under the stress of heavy loads, time constraints, possible crappy weather, and Grandma's antique wardrobe is almost as stressful and doing it yourself.

I don't claim to know the secret of a stress-free moving day. But I do have a couple tips, and a handful of items that will make it a little easier. Here are my best suggestions for gear and tools to help you move.

Wardrobe Boxes

Wads of hung clothes in the closet become wads of hung clothes in metal-rod-fitted cardboard boxes. Which is way easier than wads of clothes stuffed in suitcases or trash bags. I moved at least 9 times before discovering wardrobe boxes. And, fine, by "discovering," I mean by then-girlfriend told me about them when she saw me pulling pants of hangers and grumbling about having to put them back on.

These wardrobe boxes are sold in sets of 3, and have a nifty fold-down front panel for access, plus integrated hand holes on the side for carrying. In addition to clothes on top, they are strong enough to pack standard household items on the bottom, but careful how heavy you make them because their oblong shape makes them pretty cumbersome.

31.99 ➠ Amazon

X-Large, X-Thick Trash Bags

Trust me, your wife will be fine with this X-rated moving day. The 25-pack of extra-large (95-gallon), extra-thick (2 mil) trash bags from Primode is close to tear-proof. Use them for softer, lighter items you don't want to waste a box on, as well as to cover those wads of hung-up clothing in your wardrobe boxes to make removing and rehanging them even easier, plus reduce their exposure to dust and debris.

$31.99 ➠ Amazon

UpCart Lift Stair Climbing Hand Truck

UpCart - All-Terrain Stair-Climbing Cart

The UpCart Lift is a hand truck with a crafty set of triple tires that enable it to carry up to 200 pounds up and down stairs, and over uneven surfaces. And when it's not eliminating a big chunk of the laboriousness from your manual labor, the UpCart condenses down and folds in to store and transport completely flat.

$39.99 to $89 ➠ Amazon

HandiRack Universal Inflatable Vehicle Roof Rack

Maybe you're not moving your whole house or apartment, but just a single piece of furniture into or out of it. Or you don't have that much stuff, just a couple of big items you don't want to rent a U-Haul for. The HandiRack is vehicle roof rack that deflates and stuffs into a sack small enough to get lost under your car seat. And when you're done using it to move the dining table, keep it around for the next time you go kayaking or paddleboarding, or your mama needs you to come over with the ladder.

$75 ➠ Amazon

WRAPTIE All-Purpose Tie Down Straps

WRAPTIE all-purpose tie down straps go beyond traditional cargo straps with a patent-pending hook-and-loop closure system that eliminates jagged hooks and metal buckles from the securing process. WRAPTIE says this helps make their straps safer, easier, and faster to use, plus you'll never have to worry about your closures rusting and warping over time.

WRAPTIE straps come in 3 sizes for various loads: 130 for securing small items, such as bike and backpack gear; 180 for the likes of building wood, touring bike, and car loads; and 240 for the big stuff - surfboards, kayaks, and furniture.

$28 to $42 ➠ WRAPTIE

Your Own Towels & Blankets

Save money on packing materials and space on stuffing towels and blankets into their own boxes. Your fine china is going to love spending time inside cardboard with this Yaasa Infinity Blanket, a cover with special (FDA-determined special) Celliant fibers that give it the ability to increase blood flow, aid in recovery, and get more restful sleep just by wrapping up all Neflix & chill cozy on the couch in it? Yaasa, please, they'll say!

$149 to $229 ➠ Yaasa Studios

Protective Furniture Covers

Kind of a no-brainer, but you might think it's worth the cost savings to risk being extra careful about not soiling, smudging, nicking, or tearing your furniture during moving. But even if you manage to avoid damaging the couch or the leather chair, moving conjures up dust and debris like a hyper Taz at a rodeo. These plastic covers will protect furniture from infiltrating particulates, plus bugs and moisture.

$14.49 to $24.95 ➠ Amazon

Color-Coded & Labeled Packing Tape

What's in that box again? The brown one made of cardboard that looks just like these 20 other brown ones made of cardboard? What room does it go in? In what order should I unpack it? Color. Coded. Packing. Tape. With labels. Do it.

$12.90 ➠ Amazon

EverRatchet Ratchet Keychain Tool

Oops, guess that table isn't gonna fit through there after all. Oops, I was sure there was enough clearance for that in car. Oops, I didn't mean to seal up that box just yet. Oops. Anyone able to get into the box with the first aid kit? Uh...soon?

A multi-tool stocked with screwdrivers, wrenches, pry bars, and box cutter is a moving day essential. Even better if it's a mini multi-tool you can hook on a keychain without too much fuss. Even better yet if it's an EverRatchet, a mini multi mini-tool with a dynamic ratcheting beam, which allows for continual movement, rather than lifting and resetting it after each turn.

$28 to $37 ➠ Amazon

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