Anyone who has moved knows the pile. By the end of unpacking, there is a mountain of flattened cardboard by the garage, a bin bag stuffed with bubble wrap, and a tangle of tape that sticks to everything. Moving house produces a surprising amount of rubbish, and most of it is used once and thrown away.
It doesn’t have to be like that. With a little planning, you can cut the waste right down without making the move any harder.
Start by moving less
The greenest box is the one you never pack. Every item you don’t take is one less thing to wrap, lift, load and find a home for at the other end.
- Start decluttering a month or two out, one room at a time.
- Sell good furniture and appliances on Trade Me or Facebook Marketplace. Bulky items often sell faster when you make collection easy.
- Donate clothes, books and household goods to op shops, or to community groups and charities that take furniture.
- Look for your local community recycling centre. Auckland has a network of them, and many take reusable household goods as well as recycling.
- Book an Auckland Council inorganic collection if one is available for your area, and check the rules on what they’ll take.
Be ruthless with the garage and the shed. Half-empty paint tins, broken garden tools and old electronics shouldn’t come with you, but they shouldn’t go in the general rubbish either. Look up where paint, batteries and e-waste can be dropped off properly.
Rethink the cardboard box
Cardboard is recyclable, which is good. But a new box made for one trip and then recycled still uses a lot of resources. There are better options.
- Reusable plastic crates. Many movers hire out sturdy, stackable crates. They are delivered before the move and collected after, and they don’t collapse in the rain.
- Second-hand boxes. Ask friends who’ve just moved, check community groups, or pick up boxes from local shops.
- What you already own. Suitcases, laundry baskets, chilly bins, drawers and storage tubs are all containers. Use them.
If you do buy boxes, buy good ones that will survive the trip and can be passed on to the next person moving, rather than going straight into recycling.
Swap the bubble wrap
Most of what we wrap in plastic can be protected just as well with things already in the house.
- Wrap plates and glasses in tea towels, linen, T-shirts and jumpers. You have to move them anyway.
- Use towels and blankets around mirrors, pictures and small furniture.
- Pack socks inside glasses and mugs.
- Use newspaper or butcher’s paper for anything that needs extra padding. Both can be recycled or composted afterwards.
For bigger items and furniture, ask your mover what they use. More moving companies now offer sustainable packaging, such as reusable furniture blankets, paper-based wraps and recyclable or recycled materials, instead of single-use plastic.
Plan your packing to reduce trips
Fuel is part of a move’s footprint too. A properly planned move uses one well-packed truck instead of several half-empty trips in the family car and a borrowed trailer.
- Get an accurate estimate of the volume so the right-sized truck turns up.
- Pack boxes fully and evenly so they stack well and nothing gets crushed.
- Combine errands. Drop donations at the op shop on your way to the dump rather than making separate runs from Albany to Avondale and back.
Clean without the chemicals
The end-of-tenancy clean is often where the harsh sprays come out. Vinegar, baking soda, a little dishwashing liquid, hot water and microfibre cloths handle most of what a bond clean demands. If you hire cleaners, ask whether they use low-tox products.
Unpack with a plan for the leftovers
The moment you finish unpacking is when good intentions tend to collapse into one big bin run. Decide in advance what happens to everything that is left over.
- Return hired crates promptly.
- Flatten good boxes and offer them on a local community page. Someone nearby is always moving.
- Recycle damaged cardboard in your council recycling bin, flattened and dry.
- Keep a few boxes and some packing paper for the next time you need to post or store something.
- Check your council’s guidelines on soft plastics before anything plastic goes in the recycling.
Small changes add up
An eco-friendly move isn’t about being perfect. You’ll probably still need some tape and the odd new box. But decluttering early, reusing what you have, choosing crates and sustainable packing materials, and sending leftovers to the right places can turn a move that fills a skip into one that barely fills a recycling bin.
Written by the CityMove team, Auckland movers who offer reusable and sustainable packing options for home and office moves. CityMove Ltd, 16 Harrison Rd, Auckland, 0800 126 128.