Most of us only move a handful of times in our lives, so these packing tips will protect your sanity and help you get ready. If you've ever moved without being organized, you know it can be a disaster waiting to happen.
If you've been reading The Turquoise Home for the past few months, you know that we just moved!
We're thrilled to be in our new home, but moving (over the holidays, no less) made life hectic, busy, and stressful at times. As a mom of two young daughters who also works full-time on this blog & plans for the holidays, my workload was daunting, and staying organized really helped keep me sane (ish).
If you're anything like me, you love being super organized and giving everything its own special place. Not only does this keep things ready for the move itself, but it saves you time when you go looking for something.
Helpful Packing Tips For Moving
Here are a few of my go-to packing tips for moving out that will leave you more than ready for your next big move!
1. Get Rid Of Clutter
The last thing you want is to move extra stuff you haven't used in the past year from one place to another. If you don't use it anyway, what's the point?
Plus, moving is a great time for a fresh start! Even if you're moving across town, it's the perfect time to get everything clean and decluttered.
This is also a wonderful thing to do before you list your current home for sale, because it lets buyers see your home, not your clutter!
As you pack, go through all your drawers, closets, and cabinets. If you find things that are broken, unused, or duplicates, don't hesitate to toss them or donate them to a local charity if they're in good condition.
Items that can be sold are worth listing on Facebook Marketplace, your local Buy, Sell, Trade group, or even hosting a yard sale. You'll be surprised how much money you can make selling things like clothes and toys.
Odds are you'll come across things you don't want to take the time to sell. That's fine, just donate them instead. Many shelters and thrift stores will happily take gently used items off your hands.
Getting rid of unneeded and unwanted things is one of the most important moving tips, because it also frees up a lot of space on the moving truck, which saves time and money!
I wrote a whole series about decluttering, and how to declutter an entire room in 5 simple steps. Check those out if you need some extra encouragement!
2. Work In Spurts
Have you ever looked around and thought, "How in the world am I going to pack up this whole house? It's going to take forever!" I can definitely relate.
There's no reason to pack the entire house in one day unless you're on a tight timeline. It's much less stressful when you plan ahead and make a schedule where you do a little at a time. I recommend creating your packing schedule by room and by time.
Depending on your timeline, you could work for a bit, do something else for a while, and then come back to it. If you want to be a little more efficient, give yourself 1 to 2 hours a day and knock it all out at once. Surprisingly, you can accomplish a lot by working really hard for one hour.
At the end of the day, do what's right for you and your family!
3. Work On One Room At A Time
As mentioned before, you can set up your packing schedule by room so the chaos stays contained to one space at a time. There's not much point in running around like a chicken with its head cut off, working on one room for five minutes before bouncing to the next.
Start with one room and do everything you can before moving on to the next. You'll feel a great sense of accomplishment every time you get to mark a room as done!
4. Use Great Quality Boxes
I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH! (Sorry for yelling, but trust me on this one!) Yes, you could grab boxes from your local grocery store, but you often end up with a jumbled mess, and you never have the right sizes when you need them. Not to mention, some of them carry gross germs you don't want anywhere near your things.
It's best to buy moving boxes (and packing tape) from a local moving supply company, since they come in a variety of sizes, are sturdy, and are ready for labeling.
We used U-Haul boxes for most of our move, plus a few random non-U-Haul boxes. The stuff in the U-Haul boxes was all fine, but we had numerous broken items in the other boxes. It's not worth it!!
Tip: If you can't afford good moving boxes, check Facebook Marketplace or other local classifieds to see if anyone is getting rid of theirs. We got some from friends, and it was such a blessing! Good-quality boxes can be used for multiple moves.
5. Use A Label System
To make the move between homes as smooth as possible, I find the easiest labeling system is color coding. You can:
- Order from Etsy and print them off yourself
- Download a free printable
- Make them yourself with a label maker
- Order these colored stickers from the store (this is what I used!)
Use your colored labels and assign each one to a room so you know where to place boxes in your new home.
I'd even go a step further and label exactly what's inside each box. This will save you a headache later when you're hunting for something specific. (It's so worth it, because you WILL be looking for things after the move, and writing the contents on the boxes will be a lifesaver. TRUST me!!)
We did both of these things when we moved, and it was so helpful!
6. Use Baggies For Important Hardware
If you're taking apart furniture with lots of screws and bolts, the biggest mistake you can make is not keeping them organized. Grab a zip-top bag and put every piece in it as you disassemble the furniture. Label the bag with what it's for and tape it to one of the parts so everything stays together.
If you have the installation instructions, toss those in the bag too.
Moving Tip: Never mix hardware from different items in the same bag. Keep everything as separate as possible to make reassembling your furniture easier once you're in your new home.
7. Wrap Breakables
To make sure none of your valuables or fragile items get damaged in the move, I recommend wrapping each breakable item individually. And use those sturdy boxes, too!
Inexpensive bubble wrap, plastic wrap, corrugated cardboard, or newspaper will all work. Don't leave empty space in the box, or the breakables may shift and break. Pack everything snugly. It's a huge lifesaver!
8. Leave Out The Essentials
Keep a container or box just for the essentials you'll need every day leading up to your move date.
I had a box just for the hotel that I kept separate and rode along in our car to the new house.
Some of the things I kept out were:
- Toilet paper
- Toothbrushes
- Medicine
- A roll or two of paper towels
- Garbage bags
- Box cutter (for opening everything once you reach the new house!)
- My daughters' favorite toys, books & Kindle Fires (with the chargers).
- A cup or mug for each family member
- Laundry soap (I didn't do this and wish I had. I ended up buying a new bottle because I couldn't find the old one in our boxes fast enough.)
- Dish soap
- Clothes for a few days
- Any essentials or anything else you may need quickly
- We even packed our coffee maker in the car, since we knew we'd need it ASAP.
Keep that box somewhere you can grab it easily when you need it!
I'd also recommend buying paper plates and plastic cutlery for the move, because you'll be so busy unpacking that you won't have time to wash dishes.
9. Hire Someone to Watch Your Kids on Moving Day
Moving is so stressful, and it demands your full attention. We were thankful that friends and family were available to help with childcare during our move, but I would have hired someone if they hadn't been.
We sent our kids to my parents' house while we moved out of our old home. Then my mother-in-law and friends helped with the kids while we moved into the new house.
Whether you have help or need to hire someone, I highly recommend arranging it well in advance. My kids were with me for about 15 minutes while the movers unloaded the truck at the new house, and it was pretty stressful having them underfoot.
These moving tips may seem like extra work, but doing them will keep your move on track and help you declutter your belongings. Moving is still stressful, but these tips will make the switch to your new home much smoother.
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