After moving six times in the last 10 years, I’ve learned what to do and what not to do. C and I have done two moves to new states, I’ve moved while pregnant, we’ve moved with one kid, and now after this last move we’ve done it with two kids. By now we are really good at moving, and know exactly how to make it a relatively seamless process.
Where To Get Boxes
We’ve gotten boxes off of Marketplace (or even Craigslist way back in the day), purchased them new, as well as the slowest way possible: collecting them from our offices and other random places that had a lot of boxes that would otherwise get tossed. The fastest and most affordable way to get boxes is by finding them for sale on Marketplace or NextDoor. The key is to find ones that are not free. With this last move, I looked for someone who was getting rid of boxes that moved an entire home. I found someone selling $400 worth of moving boxes for $50. Because they were not free, I knew the boxes would be in decent shape (as opposed to free boxes that normally are falling apart).
Invest In Movers
On our second move, we were moving from a third floor walk up in Chicago to a high rise building on the 17th floor. We decided to hire movers and it was, dare I say, life changing. Ever since, we have always hired movers. They have all the equipment (shrink wrap, blankets, tape for your larger pieces of furniture) and know how to move efficiently. Of course we have had some not-so-great experiences too, but I’ve never regretted hiring them. It’s also worth mentioning that the two times we moved to a new state, we had movers load up our truck, we drove the truck to the destination, and then had movers waiting to unload the truck when we arrived. I don’t like the idea of waiting for a POD to arrive with all of your belongings.
Prep & Organize Your House To Move
In my experience with hiring movers, you are on an hourly rate with there being a minimum amount of time. The goal is always to get the move to happen as close to that minimum amount and not have to go too much over. In order to make things go fast, we will have all of our boxes in one area. Boxes get loaded onto moving trucks first, so when you have all of your boxes in one area the movers are much faster at loading up all of the boxes instead of traipsing all over your home trying to find them.
Everything that gets shrink-wrapped or needs blankets should also go in a room. With this last move, our living room on the main floor and the office in the basement were the two designated rooms that collected furniture that needed wrapped. Again, this makes things go faster so that movers can all be working in one room getting all of the furniture wrapped and ready to load on the truck.
When the movers arrive at the new house, have them drop all of the boxes in a room. This will decrease the amount of time you pay for movers. I still have movers take all the furniture to the designated rooms since I don’t want to have to haul furniture everywhere.
Take The Tricky Things Yourself
If you’re moving locally, try to move as many of the fragile or oddly shaped items yourself. Before this last move, we made three or four trips ourselves. We took lamps, the berkey, large baskets, the TV, etc. so that we didn’t have to think about how to get them in boxes or worry that they might get damaged by movers.
Suitcases: Sheets, Clean Clothes, Toiletries
I like to pack a suitcase about two days before the move with clothes and toiletries that I’ll need for the next five days. Just because all of your belongings are now at your new home does not mean you’ll know where things are or even be able to access them. I also will throw in some clean sheets and towels in my suitcase. The last things I want to do after a long moving day is to have to open boxes to look for towels and bedding.
Order Of Unpacking
We always start with getting our bed set up the first night we move in. That being said, there have been some moves where we were waiting on a new bed frame to arrive. So, our mattress went on the ground (not ideal). Regardless, our bedroom (as well as kid’s bedrooms) are always set up immediately.
Next is the kitchen so that you can eat and don’t have to continuously be ordering takeout. After the kitchen, we set up the kids’ playroom so that they had some sort of entertainment while we rushed to get our home in order since we did not have childcare. After the playroom we got our bathrooms in order and then went on from there.
Clean As You Go
As tempting as it is for me to want to show up and clean the entire house before a move, this isn’t usually feasible and also doesn’t make sense. There is no reason to clean a house before a move if movers with shoes on are walking all over and then placing dirty boxes and wrapped furniture in every room of your house. With each room that I unpack, I will clean first and then unload that room’s boxes.
Unpack In One Week
Give yourself a week to get everything out of boxes. If you have things that may not work in your new space or you might be getting rid of, try to condense those things down to just a few boxes. This timeline might sound insane, but I promise it is so doable and you will thank me later when your life is much more organized without random belongings strewn around your home. We are five days post move right now, and we have about 5 boxes left to unpack.