Packing, storing & preparation - without spending a fortune

What needs to be done before we move?
"Pack" would be high on the list.
We had no desire to outlay funds on shiny new cardboard boxes, so we were fortunate to find a reliable source of used cardboard boxes. As the boxes were originally used to ship music equipment to a store, they are made from a double layer of cardboard for added strength. The store would otherwise dispose of them to a recycling company, so they came at no cost to us.
Fortunately a fair portion of our belongings have been packed since September 2014, so there is much less to pack this time around. 
Our previous house sold much quicker than we had anticipated, and we needed to find urgent accommodation in Qld before we relocated interstate. It also had to be somewhere we could stay on a month-to-month basis as Victoria was committed to seeing two projects at her work through to completion in August 2015, and we were yet to find a house to buy in Tasmania.
The apartment beneath the cafe where we found ourselves is much smaller than the house we left. That meant there was a lot of furniture that we re homed at very reasonable prices as we had nowhere to keep it ... if we didn't need it, we didn't take it.
With little room to display anything in the apartment, all of Viktoria's books (all 23 boxes of them) have remained mothballed and packed.
We are hiring a shipping container to move our household belongings from Queensland to Tasmania, but will be loading and unloading the container ourselves, as this was a considerable cost saving.
Our thoughts have therefore turned to how best to pack everything into the container so it doesn't slide everywhere, and to minimise 'waste' moving materials.
For the larger pieces of furniture and white goods we purchased those 'single use' felt blankets.



While these blankets may only survive one outing in their life as a furniture blanket, they are:

1. relatively inexpensive ($9.96 each at Bunnings)
2. made from recycled materials
3. perfect for re-proposing as weed control mats at the new house.

The other main packing expense was decent quality ratchet straps to secure the load inside the shipping container.
The Android tracked down some 9m long x 50mm wide straps ($155.00 for 10 of them) from a Brisbane seller on eBay. With good friends who create monumental public artworks, the straps will also be destined for a new life once we're finished.
We will need to get one more lot of boxes from the store to cater for the 'daily use' items that we will need to pack closer to the move date. With such a long lead time, we are mildly optimistic that we will be prepared.
While the Android may not be dreaming of electric sheep, he is re-running packing scenarios and furniture arrangements in anticipation of the day in August that the container arrives. Details of the costs and logistics of the shipping container will be provided shortly.
Until then,
We remain
V&A