Nobody warns you that a house move is, above all, a life-sized game of Tetris, except the pieces are heavy, some of them break, and the soundtrack is your own sighing.
I’ve done enough moves to know one thing: the chaos doesn’t come from owning too much, it comes from packing it badly. So here are the tips I wish someone had given me before I stuffed my entire library into one box and needed two friends and a prayer to lift it off the floor.
Not every box is born equal
That leftover cardboard box from the supermarket seems like a great idea until it gives up halfway down the stairs with a dramatic “thud.” It’s worth using genuinely sturdy boxes — kuboo boxes hold up to the weight, and to the indecision, of any move. Golden rule: heavy things in small boxes, light things in big boxes. The other way round, and you’ll regret it.
Heavy at the bottom, fragile wrapped up
Pack like you’re building a pyramid: weight at the bottom, the delicate on top. Wrap the crockery in paper (or in towels, which have to travel too) and don’t leave empty gaps — a half-empty box is a box that rattles, and a box that rattles is a plate waving goodbye.
Label everything (your future self says thanks)
Write the contents and the room on every box. It feels like overkill until it’s you, at midnight, in your pyjamas, opening seven boxes in search of your toothbrush. “Kitchen — fragile” takes two seconds to write and saves you a tantrum.
And what doesn’t fit yet?
Not everything has to move into the new place at once. Seasonal gear, boxes of keepsakes and the stuff you’ll only use “somewhere down the line” can wait somewhere else. That’s what I did: I rented a self-storage unit at KUBOO and sent over whatever wasn’t urgent. There are sizes from 1 m³ to over 30 m², an indoor loading bay so you can unload without the rain running down your back, and access at any hour — because moves rarely respect office hours.
A move is never going to be fun, but it can stop being a nightmare. Pack smart, store the rest at KUBOO in Carnaxide, Abóboda or Seixal and let the Tetris end with the full line vanishing.
Level complete.
