123JUNK Tips To Make Your Move Green

Moving to a new home is a stressful and arduous process. In most moves you’re not just transporting your belongings from one location to another. You’re relocating your family, changing jobs, making new neighbors and friends, as well as making numerous other changes to your life.  Often times when you’re in the midst of a move you have about a thousand different things to worry about and the last thing on your mind is how your move is going to impact the environment. 

Since you probably don’t have the time or patience to consider all the environmental factors at play during your move, here are some tips courtesy of the 123JUNK Team to help make your next move as “green” as possible:

1) Be Creative:  If you want to do some of the packing yourself, be creative and use your clothes, towels and linens as padding for your dishes and other fragile items.

2) Use recycled/re-useable packing materials:  Most moving companies these days offer recycled packing materials to some degree, but make sure you ask your moving consultant when you are planning and preparing for the upcoming move.  There are numerous alternatives to harmful Styrofoam packing peanuts and other materials commonly used in the moving process. Besides your moving company, there are also third party companies out there to assist with keeping your move green, for example Lend-A-Box which provides reusable, recycled plastic boxes of any size to minimize cardboard waste.

3)  Be aware of your carbon footprint: When you’re shopping around for a moving company, ask them about the fuel efficiency of their trucks. Make sure they don’t use a truck bigger than you need for the size of your move. Depending on the distance of your move, there are different options for shipping and freight. Usually something transported via train or boat is going to have less of an environmental impact than something transported by truck alone.

4) De-Clutter/Donate: This is where 123JUNK can come in to help! Minimizing the amount of stuff you plan to take with you to your next home can be the one of the best ways to minimize the environmental impact of your move.  When you lighten your load, you can use a smaller truck putting less harmful fumes into the atmosphere.

5) Make your new home green before you move in: Do an energy audit of your new home before your stuff has been moved in. Replace your light bulbs to efficient LEDs. Check for any air leaks under doors or by windows. If it’s in your budget, think about replacing your appliances to ones that are more energy efficient, or maybe even adding solar panels to the roof of your house.