Give me your best tips on packing & moving your craft room

Are you moving stuff yourself or hiring movers? We've always done DIY moves and anything that was already in a container, I moved in that container. I even moved my Michaels cubes full of paper - just put them on their backs in the car, Albums I packed in liquor boxes - albums are heavy and those are sturdy.

Can you elastic band pens/markers/coloured pencils together in sorted groups? Ziploc bags would work also.

small drawers - ziploc bags work or even shopping bags (plastic or reusable). I moved my plastic drawer units full tbh

The big cutting tools? I would wrap in a blanket or throw or towels and put in a box and add additional towels etc...to cushion it.

paper is heavy - use SMALL boxes

As far as what to pack first - given your timeline, I don't think it really matters too much. But if you think it'll take a while to get it all unpacked at the other end, consider a box or bag that you can put a few basic supplies and a collection kit or card kit or the like so you CAN scrap if you want to and mark it so it doesn't get lost in among everything else.

You can do this!

I used a lot of ziploc bags to hold the contents of drawers. That way I could just put them items back in the drawer when I unpacked. Inks, sprays, and paint all went in ziploc bags, too.

I packed my paper in moving boxes, but made sure they would not be ridiculously heavy. I tucked in lighter weight items. I even used rolls of paper towels and any other lightweight things I would not need right away.

I bought a bunch of 2 gallon storage bags to slide 12x12 papers into.

Any drawer units or marker cubes, etc., I wrapped in that saran wrap type stuff made for moving. It kept me from having to pack the containers and items separately, and made sure the items wouldn't fall out or get lost.

For my 12 x12 papers and my albums, I got heavy duty moving boxes in extra small size. I found that size was tall enough for my 12x12 items, but not so large that they became incredibly heavy when full. However, I found out the hard way that the standard moving boxes, even in the smaller size, didn't hold up well to heavy things like books & albums. Which is why I wound up going back and getting heavy duty ones.

Also, give yourself ample time.  It took a lot longer than I expected, and I was feeling pretty stressed about that because I hadn't expected it.  (Of course, needing to swap boxes part way through didn't help with that.)

I moved in 2021 and only went 7 minutes away. My craft room was the worst room to move x1000. My best answer is to tell you to go to your local grocery store and ask for apple boxes. They are sturdy and stackable and free. I reused them a lot since we closed 30 days later on our house. I had time to do loads.

ETA: I have seen people take drawers/Alexes and wrap them in Saran Wrap so they stay closed.

We’ve moved 18 times in 33 years—gotta love the Air Force!

First of all, take photos of your space, including shelves. (Especially shelves!) you think that you will remember how you had it set up, but you won’t. Pull the pegs out of the shelves when they are empty and put them in a zip bag. Bonus points if you mark where the pegs were so that they go back in the same slot! Put all the pegs, cords, and various pieces in a MARKED box.

Facebook Marketplace will have moving boxes. It’s much easier to have the same sized boxes. You need a lot of book boxes for a studio pack, but also medium sized boxes because some things are bigger than 12”. (Iris containers, some paper pads, Silhouette mats, lamps, crates, etc. Buy clean (non-inked) newspaper/packing paper. Buy a lot. Use it a lot! The boxes help keep things together and from getting broken. It’s also easier to stack boxes than a pile of lamps, albums, pillows, and photos! I always resell it all after the move is done, including the packing paper, as I want to keep it out of the landfill.

I keep everything that I can in the storage containers that I use in my space. This can use more boxes, as you can only get one spin organizer in a box with a few things tucked around it. It’s ok. You will need a lot of boxes. I probably had 40, with about half of them book boxes.

I have a lot of the old Jetmaxx drawers and I stuff packing paper in the drawers to keep things from shifting. (I also do this with desk drawers and dressers if it’s not too heavy.) I never make inventory lists (who has time for that!) Get some Sharpies and write on the boxes themselves. I do make a small kit for myself in case of a craft emergency, as the studio is usually the last room to get unpacked.

I have Iris containers that I use for projects, to keep it all together. I have all of my paper in Cropper Hopper paper holders. It’s key that you don’t have papers sticking out and that you have like sized items packed together. I even organize my books, papers, etc by height to keep things as upright and unwrinkled as possible. Use the paper to pack the boxes firmly. The boxes get heavy and you don’t want them to crush when they are stacked. This also applies to any breakables—there shouldn’t be any dead airspace in those boxes either. A crushed box=broken items.

If you are needing to pack up the drawers, try to make a layer with one drawer, then lay a few pieces of packing paper over that, then another drawer. If the boxes are packed firmly, they don’t shift. You can do this with categories as well. Wrap a group of pens in the paper, then do the same with another group of pens. You don’t need to mess with plastic bags.

For items like you Cameo/Cricut/Big Shot, put them in boxes. Otherwise they will get broken.

Good luck!