What it Means to Have an Eco-friendly Move

You’ve planned for your upcoming move when it comes to your professional relocation and your family’s new home, but have you considered how you will handle the details of the actual move? Now is the time to start preparing for your move and making the decision to make it an eco-friendly one.

This means that you are making choices along the way that will allow you to help avoid waste, cut back on moving supplies that harm the environment, and hiring movers that do everything in their power to contribute to an eco-friendly move. Take a look at what it means to have an eco-friendly move and how you can do this in your decisions.

Use what you already have

The first thing you are going thin you should do is buy dozens of cardboard moving boxes, packing peanuts, and other moving supplies to pack up all of your things. Then you will most likely throw them in the trash after you’ve unpacked in your new home.  This is a big mistake if you want to have an eco-friendly move.

Instead, make the first decision to use what you already have around the house to start packing your things. That means that you are taking bags, trash cans, bins, baskets, laundry hampers, and suitcases to pack your things first before buying new boxes for your move.

Suitcases are perfect for transporting clothes or even books since they can roll away heavy items out of the home. Baskets and hampers are perfect for your bed sheets, toiletries, clothes, and other items. Trash cans can be cleaned and used to hold all kinds of things in your household.

If you have bins or bags laying around, these are going to be perfect for holding a variety of things. Use trash bags for your hanging clothes while vacuum seal bags can pack bulky bedding and winter coats. Use Ziploc bags for small items.

In addition, you may have items in the home that work in place of packing peanuts and bubble wrap. Use blankets, towels, socks, and newspaper that you already own to pack things like fragile glasses, fragile household items, and filling space in boxes.

If you have received boxes throughout the year when you’ve purchased an item at the store or had something shipped to you, save those boxes to be used for the move.

Rent Plastic Moving Boxes

You probably won’t have enough suitcases, spare boxes, and other things around the house to pack up everything you own. For the rest of your items, make sure you rent plastic moving boxes that can be reused by someone else when you’re finished moving.

By renting plastic moving boxes, you’ll keep your move super eco-friendly. These boxes can be reused and don’t have to be thrown away after you move. Plus, they hold more weight than cardboard and stand up better in bad weather.

Donate what you don’t need

Another decision to make before you move to make a more eco-friendly experience is to simply move less stuff. This can be done by making the decision to donate, sell, or trash things you don’t need any more or things that are not serving your family.

Gift things to family and friends, donate things you don’t need any more like children’s toys, books, and food, and sell things that you wouldn’t like to get out of the house but the cash could be beneficial to the upcoming moving expenses. Take the time to go through your things to donate, sell, gift, and dispose of unnecessary things so that you are moving fewer things to the new home.

Recycle

Whatever you still require for the move, be it moving boxes or packing supplies, be sure to recycle it at destination rather than throwing it in the trash. You can even take someone else’s recycled moving supplies and use it for your own move.

Use a green moving company

An easy way to make sure you have an eco-friendly move is to hire a green moving company. They will help you from start to finish with a green move. This means that they will do things like using bio-diesel for their green moving trucks, using GPS to plan for the most fuel-efficient routes, consolidate shipments when possible to save resources, and supply you with eco-friendly packing materials like re-usable plastic bins.

Hiring a green moving company will be the easiest way to ensure you are moving to a new home without wasting a thing and in the most efficient way possible.

When you make decisions like these along the way, you are choosing an eco-friendly move. Avoid the waste this year with your household move by going green from start to finish.

How to Keep Your Chicago Move Eco-Friendly Beyond the Boxes

When it's time to move, you want to make sure you do it in the most eco-friendly way possible. Choosing eco-friendly boxes for moving is a start, but there are many things you can do, outside of boxes to make your move friendly for the environment. Here are a few of the ways you can make your move eco-friendly.

Use Eco-Friendly Cleaning Products

Using harmful chemicals is not a good idea. These chemicals are not good for you or whatever you're cleaning. Instead, choose eco-friendly cleaning products to leave your current home clean for the next owner and to clean your new home.

You can also use these products to clean things you need to pack. With the right eco-friendly products, you can clean everything from windows to countertops to furniture to floors.

Reuse Newspapers

Newspapers are great as a packing supply and it will save you money, along with saving the environment. If you have a stack of newspapers sitting around, use them for packing items. This is a great way to reuse something for another purpose and will keep you from buying plastic packing bubbles or Styrofoam peanuts, which are not good for the environment.

If you prefer to keep your items free of the ink from the newspaper, you can purchase packing paper made from recycled materials. Then, when you're done with it, it can be recycled again.

Hire an Efficient Moving Company

The right Chicago moving company won't waste space, gas or any other resources. They will recommend the right size truck to ensure you don't have to make multiple trips to get all your things moved. Make sure you choose a moving company using practices to help ensure the eco-footprint they leave is smaller.

Donate Anything You Don't Want

Moving is a great time to downsize your things. When you move, you can go through everything you own and get rid of things. Instead of throwing things out, however, donate them. You never know what you have that you consider junk that could be someone else's treasure.

Use Proper Planning

While planning your move may not seem like it's an eco-friendly moving practice it is. When you have a great plan, you have the ability to move without making multiple drives to different places, which uses up gas. You will also know exactly where and how to recycle any moving materials you use.

Put together a good plan from the minute you know you're going to move. This will help you to keep your eco-friendly practices in place because you've planned for them.

Along with all of these eco-friendly tips, you want to make sure you rent reusable plastic moving boxes. This is the most eco-friendly way to go as cardboard, while it can be recycled, it cannot really be reused after a move. Rent the right green moving boxes and you'll have completed your eco-friendly move in the best possible way without causing any more harm than absolutely necessary.