Guest post by Laura McHolm

Have you ever wondered how “The Bachelor” moves into the mansion each season, or if the home your favorite movie is set-in is just a set? These magnificent houses are often not sets, but are private homes the production company rents from the homeowner for filming.

As you can imagine, there are a lot of moving pieces to transform someone’s home into a movie set. Detail management is key. It takes a specialized synchronization of activities. First, the homeowner’s belongings are packed up and moved out. Then, the location managers take over, setting up the home for the movie; music video; or reality or scripted TV show. After the director calls it’s a wrap, the set furniture and props are wrapped up, protected and moved out. The homeowner’s belongings are moved back in, unpacking and setting up their furniture and knick-knacks exactly how they were before the movie magic occurred.

So, how does this massive moving production of transforming a home into a set and then back into a home take action? Think James Bond like movers: fast, stealth, precise and in the final scene leave no trace they were ever there. To accomplish a production move without a teacup out of place, Hollywood moving companies need to create a system such as Photo Perfect Packing™, a photo logging process to arrange clients’ items in an exact prescribed layout. Down to recreating the exact layout of the homeowners’ sock drawer and medicine cabinet, the homeowner would never know a full-scale production took place in their beautiful home. This system has worked for decades and in today’s digital world, the process is even simpler.

So, how do you use your smart device to conduct your own production precise move? We’re going to make your day: we are going to share the secrets of the foolproof system with you. Photo Perfect Packing™ is done in five steps:

1. Lights, Camera, Action

Before one teacup gets moved, take photos of belongings in your home on a smart phone or device. The photos should show how the items are organized and displayed. This includes anything from bookshelves to the lineup in your medicine cabinet; anything you want organized the same way in your new home.

2. File

Create a file for each room in your home. Name and save each photo into the appropriate file.

3. Pack

Now that the photos are properly filed and saved, go ahead and pack all of the items and have your mover move them on out.

4. Unpack

In your new home, use those selfies of your belongings to unpack and place everything exactly how it was organized before. From your sock drawer to the toss pillows on your bed, everything should be just like it was before.  

5. It’s a Wrap

Step back and admire your masterpiece. The items that you wanted to keep the way they were organized or styled in your old home are now a mirror image in your new home.

With picture perfect details of drawers and closets, and the exact arrangement of books on the bookshelves, you’ll get to fast forward to the cozy scene in your new home, the one where you’re cuddled up by the fire with a glass of wine, rather than rearranging wine glasses for the umpteenth time to make them fit on the china cabinet shelves. By using the Photo Perfect Packing™ method, you’re editing unpacking time in half!

Laura McHolm is an organizational, moving & storage expert and co-founder of NorthStar Moving Company. NorthStar Moving Company is an award winning, “A+” rated company, which specializes in providing eco-luxury moving and storage services.