Are you moving overseas? That can be a great experience. But, as always, there is a big problem with that – moving. When you are moving somewhere close, that is not very difficult. But, for this, you will need sea freight Kuwait to transport all your belongings to your new country. And now you need to prepare your container for shipping. How to do it correctly?
What kind of container should you use?
Arranging the shipping container is easy. Quality logistics companies Kuwait offer both new and used standard and high-performance containers for transporting cubes. Depending on how large your load is, you can choose 20-foot or 40-foot standard containers, high cubes or quality open transport containers, ideally suited for transporting vehicles or boats along with other dry cargo. For best results, use some of the suggested packaging and loading tips.
Cargo preparation for loading
Before a shipping company that you hire comes for your cargo, you must pack it first. Especially if you move the contents of your home or office in addition to your car, motorcycle or boat. Using some of these tips will facilitate the process for all participants:
- Use new boxes for packing. Cardboard boxes are great for items such as books, movies or household items. While specialized laundry containers should contain your bedding and other kitchen accessories. If you have fine porcelain, think about how to collect real packages of dishes to gently place them.
- Use bubble wrap or even some of your towels to soften your porcelain or to pack fragile items, such as photo frames.
- If your family has a lot of good clothes, think about putting them in a cardboard box for a wardrobe that takes about 10 cubic feet.
- Double check all of your items for safety and cover them with strong adhesive tape. Mark each of them with their content and box number, for example, kitchen appliances, box 3. Save the count of your goods.
- Wrap couches and armchairs in a stretching wrapper to protect them from dust and damage in the container. In addition, wrap other fine furniture, like your dining table with actual furniture cushions. And do not forget to put them in a long furniture panel inside the container.
- Arrange your furniture and boxes in the room in the order in which you plan to load it onto the container.
How to correctly pack and load the container for transportation
On the day of your planned shipment or moving, professional shippers will transport and load your stuff or cargo. Or you can bring them yourself with a bunch of your friends, and then the company will send it to its destination. Some companies offering different variants of intermodal containers give you two free hours of the time for loading. And start charging you an hour after that. It usually takes about three hours to load a container of 20 feet. And up to six hours to load a 40-foot container.
Here are some basic guidelines that you should follow to prepare your container for shipping
- Check the container when it arrives. When you want to prepare your container for shipping, check its cleanliness and condition. Check the locks and serial number by writing it for reference.
- Distribute the weight of your cargo, furniture and other boxes proportionally throughout the transport container. For reference, the 20-foot container contains about 1170 cubic feet of space and can hold a maximum of 62,000 pounds. While a standard 40-foot container holds nearly 2,400 cubic feet.
- First load the largest items, remembering the distribution rule. If you put the clothes dryer in one corner, balance the container by placing the couch or chair in the other.
- Load the rest of the furniture in the corners and walls, facing the walls. Do not forget to put additional wraps for furniture, so that small woodcutters or end tables are not scratched. Use some nylon rope to attach your tables’ legs to the floor or sides of the container for better protection.
- Add mattresses and springs. You can put them on their side to save space. And install them along the wall or in the middle of the load to distribute space and weight better.
- Pack similar objects together. For example, place a row of boxes containing heavy books or kitchen utensils at the bottom, before loading into more fragile items, such as glassware, on top. Also, avoid packing any liquids with other sensitive objects.
- If you load your car, motorcycle or boat with you, follow the laws, draining all the gasoline out of it. As well as disarming the alarm and battery system. After that, create a barrier in the transport container from the plywood. Build a wall separating your cargo from the place where you will store your car for the rest of the way. Make sure that the license plate is facing the door, according to the specification.
How loading open top containers differ from standard shipping containers
Open top containers have a removable roof, either solid steel or one with roofs and tarpaulin. While open top containers can be used for any type of dry cargo ship, they are usually used to load hard shaped cargo inside. After loading the container and fixing it with roof bows and tarpaulins, you can use flat racks to transport cars or boats on top of the container, if you want. Like the standard ones, they are made of durable steel and wooden floors. Their dimensions are similar. In fact, it depends on the simplest way to load your things, which type of shipping container best suits your needs.
What to do after you prepare your container for shipping?
Well, there is not much to do after you prepare your container for shipping. If you have hired reliable sea freight forwarders, there is no need to worry about anything.
