Packing and unpacking help: start with one cupboard

The kettle made it onto the counter. The mugs are somewhere in a stack of boxes, and the person who has just moved would like a coffee before unpacking the entire kitchen. If you enjoy sorting belongings and keeping track of what goes where, this is a useful kind of help to think about offering.

You could pack clothing and familiar non-fragile items, label the boxes or help unpack one cupboard. Choose belongings you can handle comfortably. Getting one area ready to use gives you and the person asking for help something specific to discuss.

How do I start offering packing help?

Think about what you've packed yourself. Perhaps you kept clothes together by season and could find them again afterwards. Describe the belongings you know how to handle. One move doesn't give you experience with every sort of item.

Packing and unpacking need different descriptions. Filling a box neatly and finding its contents a place in someone else's home involve different decisions. The guide to earning from everyday skills can help you choose what you already know how to offer.

Tadam includes making moving easier among its everyday skill examples. Its planned model connects requests with nearby people who have relevant skills, with Tadamers choosing which offers suit them. Offers will begin at launch, with Tel Aviv first. Read about becoming a Tadamer for more on that model.

What should I ask before packing or unpacking?

Ask what the person wants to use when you're finished. That might be a clothing cupboard, rather than every room in the apartment. Before packing, find out what must stay available until moving day. Before unpacking, check which boxes are already in the right area and which should remain closed.

Agree on where the contents will go, and check who provides boxes, tape, markers and suitable packing materials. Fragile or unusual items need relevant experience. Leave anything you don't know how to handle to someone who does. The owner keeps private papers, medicines and valuables under their control; you don't need to inspect or photograph these to help with the clothes.

What makes box labels useful after a move?

Use categories the owner chooses. "Bedroom cupboard, shirts" is easier to follow than "miscellaneous," as long as that's where they want the shirts. Ask which boxes they want to open first and mark those accordingly. Your own system might be lovely, but someone else has to live with it.

If an item doesn't seem to belong anywhere, ask. Update the label when you change a box's contents, even if you've already put the marker away.

Keep personal information off the labels, including medicine names and details from documents. The owner can choose a discreet label for private belongings and handle those themselves. You can know where a box belongs without knowing what its papers say.

How do I help prepare a first-night box?

Ask what the owner wants within reach that evening and the following morning. A change of clothes, towel, charger or mug might make their list. Let them choose, then help set aside a separate bag or box with a label they recognise.

They pack their own medicines, documents and personal essentials. You can leave room for those and help keep the bag accessible. Before closing it, check together what's inside and what is still outside. That avoids leaving each person with a different idea of where the charger ended up.

Who decides what to keep and where things go?

The owner decides what to keep, give away or discard. Put anything undecided in an agreed place to revisit. Ask before disposing of empty boxes and packing materials too. Sorting doesn't give you permission to read paperwork, open private bags or throw away something that looks unwanted.

When unpacking, check the destination before filling the whole cupboard. Follow the owner's habits, even if you'd arrange things differently at home.

Loading, transport and heavy lifting are outside the help described here, as are cleaning, furniture assembly or repair and glass disposal. If any of these are needed, arrange them separately with an appropriate person.

What should I explain before leaving?

Walk through the area together. Show where the unpacked belongings are, what remains boxed and which decisions still need the owner's attention. Say what you haven't finished.

Go back to what the person asked for at the start. Before leaving, check that they know where to find their clothes or which box holds the mugs for that first coffee.

Enjoy making sense of a pile of boxes? You're welcome to meet Tadam