Why standard boxes fail here
Thin cardboard softens in humid air faster than most people expect, especially if boxes sit stacked in a garage or a trailer for even a few hours. A double-walled box holds its shape through a full moving day where a thinner one starts to sag.
If you are packing yourself, buy sturdier boxes for the bottom of any stack and put the lighter items on top, since a soft box at the bottom of a stack is how a whole tower collapses.
Wood furniture and humidity
Solid wood dressers and tables can swell slightly in humid air and then shrink again once they are back in an air-conditioned house, which is why drawers sometimes stick for a week or two after a summer move.
Wrapping wood furniture in moving blankets rather than plastic film for the drive helps, since plastic can trap moisture against the surface on a hot day.
Electronics and anything with a battery
A closed trailer parked in the sun runs hotter inside than the air outside it, sometimes by a significant margin. Electronics, especially anything with a lithium battery, should load last and come off first so they spend the least time in that heat.
Photograph the back of televisions and computer setups before disconnecting cables, then bag and label the cords so reconnecting at the new place is quick rather than a guessing game.
What to just carry yourself
Candles, cosmetics, vinyl records, and houseplants are the items most likely to suffer in a hot trailer, and the easiest fix is simply to carry them in your own air-conditioned car rather than loading them on the truck.
It is a small adjustment that avoids a genuinely disappointing surprise when the truck is unloaded at the other end.
Timing a move around the forecast
A humid afternoon thunderstorm is a near-daily event in the Triangle through midsummer, so we schedule the heaviest outdoor carries for the morning where the calendar allows it.
If rain does roll through mid-move, we cover open truck doors and pause loading rather than rushing furniture through a downpour, and we build a little slack into the day's schedule for exactly that.