When it comes to preparing for moving day, the more obsessive-compulsive you are, the smoother everything will go once you’re settled into your new home. There is no better example of that than disassembling everything prior to moving day.

You must fight the urge to justify that everything should not be taken apart and that your movers or friend-labor crew can show up on moving day to handle it all. Taking apart bed frames, kitchen tables, electronic components, and bookshelves can prove to be a tedious and time-consuming task, but doing so isn’t as frustrating as searching for that one bookshelf peg or HDMI cable for your blu-ray and having no idea where they are in your new home.

Here are a few tips in helping with the disassembling process:

A Picture is Worth a 1000 Words – whip out your smartphone and snap a “before” picture prior to taking something apart or disconnecting cables. Then you have a guide or map to help you get it back together correctly in your new home.

Get A Guy – There are companies that specialize in going through your home and dissembling your items prior to transport. Those experts can handle anything from the kids’ swing set in the backyard to great grandma’s hand carved coo-coo clock as well as pool tables. Don’t let your general lack of knowledge be the reason that your possessions end up damaged and destroyed.

Break It Down – It is common to think that since you are hiring a professional moving company that you can be lax on the bigger furniture.  Take the legs off of your tables, wrap the glass from your end tables, take the feet off of your couch, take your mirror off your dresser, take your TV off the wall. All of these tasks can be done by you prior to moving day. As you are doing these tasks, don’t toss all the hardware from these items into a big plastic bag and pray you remember what everything goes to.  Instead, bag the hardware for each item together, label, and place in a secure area.

Go-Go Gadget Organizer – Disassembling most electronics like your media center, computer equipment, and any gaming consoles like XBOX or PS3, are fairly simple. Get colored stickers to keep track of cords and put the same color on ends that pull apart. Once you are all moved into your new home, you can simply match the colored cables and cords to one another to put them back together in an expedient manner.