Share your best moving tips please!

[krisperry]

I am moving in less than a month. Our current house is 5200 square feet + a 3 car garage and a ton of closets - all FULL! How I managed to acquire so much stuff is baffling.....

 

Our new house is 2100 square feet, one-level. The second floor is an attic that runs the entire length of the house and is floored. I'll have plenty of space to store items. Which is good because at some point we would like to build our dream house which would be larger (though probably not 5200).

 

Ok, so give me your tips! What do you do that makes moving a lot easier? I've moved before but somehow this one is making me nervous!

[sillymommy]

We're a military family, so we move a lot! I always purge the excess first! Then I purge some more, then a little more. You get the idea. I love it--it's a bit painful for my packrat DH. I don't do yard sales. Instead, we donate to Goodwill, Airman's Attic(base thrift shop), etc.

 

A friend of mine wrote about moving on her blog: http://www.janas3dresses.com/moving-tips-just-ask-a-military-spouse/

 

Good luck! Enjoy the new house!

[besroma]

I agree...purge!

 

Get rid of it if you do not love it or find it useful.

 

Pack all things you will need the first night in your new home and put it in the car with you (sheets for the beds, shower curtains, toiletries, a few pots and pans, etc.).

 

How far away are you moving?

 

Are you packing and moving, or is a company doing it for you?

[krisperry]

Not far away - 30ish minutes. But it is only my husband and I moving everything (including huge outside play equipment and the trampoline....) and all six of our kids (including the wild 2 year old) will be with us.

 

I've started purging. That is overwhelming by itself. I'm in a very rural area so not even sure what to do with the stuff. I know my mom has thrift stores that will send out trucks if you have enough stuff... I don't think we have anything like that here. We have a couple of thrift stores that are operated by churches so I'll look into it.

 

Trying to think of cheap and creative ways to cover the carpet while we tramp in and out.

 

Some sort of color coding system for the boxes....

 

Getting free boxes from the local stores. Picked up a load from the ABC store tonight.

[krisperry]

I think I'm just overwhelmed from the sheer amount of stuff. I mean we own 7 couches! How did that happen???? We had exactly 2 when we moved in. You don't even notice that there are 7 in this house. But there is only room for 2 in the new house. So I've got to get rid of 5 couches....

 

And it is like that with most things. We have 12 beds (though to be fair, there are 3 sets of bunk beds).

 

I'm probably conjuring up hoarding pictures but it isn't like that at all. My house is neat, just every room is completely furnished and it is a huge house. *sigh*

[OnTheBrink]

Wine. Lots and lots of wine.

[besroma]

Lowe's or Sherwin Williams has the carpet protector that looks like Saran Wrap but has adhesive on the back.

 

Can you hire some young men from church, or friends of the family to help move the large items? I would even consider hiring professional movers. They are sometimes very affordable and get the large items and boxes moved so fast. I am not talking about hiring a moving company. I am referring to hiring the people the moving company hires. I think you can find them at temp agencies.....or you could check at area universities.

 

Since you are only 30 minutes away, I would move a lot of things without packing them. When we had a similar move, we moved a lot in the van (KitchenAid, Vitamix, dishes, utensils, pots and pans, paintings, etc.) DH would take them over and unload them into the kitchen, and I was able to put the items exactly where I wanted them. The kitchen was up and running fast, which made the move a lot less stressful.

 

Label all of your boxes very well. You can color code or number them if you want.

[countrygal]

I think it's easier to pack all the things you really need/want first (pretending as if you can only take a set number of boxes with you!) As yourself, "What do I want most in this closet/drawer?" And, of course, if you haven't used in the past year, it gets tossed (all those intended projects...) Then whatever is left gets thrown or donated.

[happykate]

Label, label, label! People who have helped us move always make fun of my labels but they are real life savers when you know exactly what is in each box! I use index cards and as I'm filling a box I write down each item as I put it in. Then I tape it on the top left corner of the box with packing tape. The ones from the kitchen are especially helpful! It's just nice before everything's unpacked to be able to grab what you need if you really need it! (or to be able to send a kiddo to grab it!) Of course, I still have unpacked boxes in my attic from our move 5 years ago! Yuk! But I could grab anything I need out of them! :)

[hsingscrapper]

I can only offer this lone piece of advice in addition to the overnight essentials box/bag.

 

Save on packing materials by using towels and clothing to pack your breakables. They seem to better protect them.

[Ottakee]

We moved last summer after almost 20 years in our house.

 

I agree with calling a local moving company for the big stuff. We paid 2 Men and a Truck $500 and they moved ALL of the furniture and put it in the new house exactly where I wanted it. That was SOOOOO worth it to us.

 

PURGE PURGE PURGE and then PURGE some more. Seriously, we did TONS of dejunking before we moved and we still have WAY too much stuff. You could always take everything you wanted and then set out the rest with a FREE sign and it will disappear. Charities likely would drive out if there is quite a bit of stuff to donate.

 

Can you find a place/helper for the 2 year old for moving day? That would be easier than trying to keep track of a little one in a new place with the doors all open.

 

Pack a box for each kids with their favorite stuff in and take that in the car---blanket, pillow, stuffed animal, PJs, toothbrush, or whatever they need to feel comfortable in a new place.

 

If you have a bit of overlap where you can get into the new house a few days before you have to be out of the old one, I would do as someone else mentioned and not even really pack. Just put kitchen stuff in laundry baskets and unload it when you get there.

[NotSoObvious]

We moved into a house half the size of our previous one.

 

I clearly marked each box and wrote STORAGE on the ones we were just sticking in the basement. That helped tremendously because there wouldn't have been a "staging" area to make decisions once we got here.

 

I sold things to friends and on Craigslist, including two couches and a king bed. Things went fast.

 

Also, I thought I knew what we would need and I still ended up boxing up and putting even more stuff away when we got here.

[SailorMom]

On moving day - well - the day you move into the new house for good - make sure to keep a box handy with tv remotes, toilet paper, sheets/blankets, a few bath towels, and a shower curtain with hooks (unless you have shower doors).

:)

[marbel]

We numbered all our boxes and made a spreadsheet with fairly detailed lists of items in each box, and where it was to go. Since we downsized, we had to leave a lot of stuff in boxes, including many, many of our books!

 

So, example for nonbook boxes:

 

Box #562 Kitchen every day plates, mugs

 

Box #563 Basement seasonal kitchen items (madeline pans, mini bundt pans)

 

Box #564 Garage dremel tool, planes

 

Box #566 J's room airplane models, Legos

 

We have a lot of books so we inventoried them in readerware, using the box # as location.

 

(We didn't have 500 boxes. My husband made up the number labels and for some reason started with 500. Our book boxes started with 100.)

 

It has made life a lot easier. We expect to move again in the future and we're already starting to pack up less-frequently-used items, using numbered boxes which we saved from the last move, and updating the spreadsheet.

 

It was a bit of work setting up, but it saved us a lot of time during the move and after.

Edited August 19, 2012 by marbel

[HollyDay]

We moved last summer to a smaller house. As everyone else has suggested, purge, purge, purge. Then organize, organize, organize. I didn't know where everything would be at our new house (I'd never seen it, dh picked it out!). So, I put groups of things in boxes or containers then labeled it. I also kept a master notebook with more details of what was in each box. Some examples:

 

Books: math

Books: atlases

Books: history high school

stuffed animals (then the name of the dc they belonged to)

winter clothes: then the name of the dc they belonged to.

Barbies

My Little Pony

kitchen: pots and pans (use the master notebook for more details)

bathroom: shampoo, lotions,

 

For things like lego and puzzles, I made sure set was in a ziplock back and labeled. Even if they were in their original box, if the box was opened, I put the pieces in a ziplock and labeled it. Then I put the legos in a moving box and labeled it: Lego box 1 (or 2 or however many). My master notebook would have a list of what was in each lego box.

 

If a box was to be stored long term, such as baby memories, then it would be carefully packed and very well sealed and so marked: baby and the dc's name, not to be opened. I knew that box would be stored. If a box could not be stored in an attic due to temperature, the box would be labeled: stored climate control.

 

If a box would need to be stored but opened soon, such as winter clothes, I would label the box: winter clothes, temp. store. That way I knew not to put it somewhere I couldn't reach easily in a month or so.

 

Since you are not going too far away, I'd either get the standup clothes boxes or just cover your hang up clothes with trash bags and secure the hangars with zip ties. Then just put them in the new closet. Shoes and such would be in a box labeled: mom's shoes (or whoevers) and just put them directly in that closet.

 

Pay special attention to remote controls, phone charges, computer cables, etc. We put all of that in one box and labeled it. Some put those things in with the appliance/device.

 

We moved cross country and had a moving company. They agreed to take whatever boxes we unpacked while they unloaded the truck. They were amazed by how much we got unpacked!! They kept saying no one else had ever gotten so much done so fast. But, we really, really organized well.

 

If you know which room will be used for what, then make sure whatever goes in that room, gets put in that room. For example, if you know one room will be dc #1 bedroom, then all of his/her boxes (labeled at such) must go in that room. Family room, same thing, all the family room stuff goes there. Try very hard not to have undesignated boxes. They will wind up in the garage somewhere and it will take time to find it again.

 

Have a plan for the 2 year old. A place for a quiet nap or down time in the midst of the chaos. Since you are so close, stock your fridge a couple days ahead of time. Include lots of drinks and quick snacks. Have a trash can handy.

 

Try to move pictures "wall to wall". Take them off your wall in your current home, put them on the wall in your new home. Pics that will be stored must be packed carefully and stored (and labeled appropriately)

 

HTH!

[krisperry]

Thanks everyone!

[lynn]

go through every drawer, closet, cabinet and get rid of what you don't to show up in your new home. Arrange for charity's to pick up items on a certain day or load the bags/boxes in your car and bring to charity thrift store or whatever. Don't worry about a yard sale unless you have the time just bless others and move on.

 

Make a tote or box of p.towels, toilet paper, hand soap, all purpose cleaner. You never know when something needs a quick cleaning and it's annoying not knowing where the t.p. is when you are packing/unpacking.