A Moving Checklist

Moving is such a pain in the ass, right? Whew. We just went through the pain of it and we promised ourselves that we will not move again for at least five more years. No matter how you slice it, moving will push you to your limits as a human. I should know; we’ve moved three times in the past three years.

With all those moves, I’m starting to gain competence. I have a process and a checklist that I’m excited to share. Yes, I want to write a post here to share the ULTIMATE moving guide that led to our smoothest move ever. I hope you find it helpful and I hope to record it for my own posterity so that we inevitably move again (hopefully waaaay down the road), I will have it for reference.

So, here it is:

Pre-move/Upon Signing the Lease:

• Create a budget and then double it. This is just my experience, but it’s almost impossible to account for all of the costs of a move so I just calculate what I think it will cost and then double it. If you don’t have that kind of money, try to delay the move for a few months until you can scrape together more cash. If that’s not possible, create a budget for what you’d like to do, double it and then see if you can DIY or delay some aspects. The amount of cash you have to spend while moving is truly staggering and you need to be prepared emotionally and financially or else you are going to stay up at night stressing and have a really big hole to dig yourself out of.
• Coordinate move-ins: If you can, try to stagger your move-in and move-out a bit when you sign your lease. Obviously, this works best for in-town moves but it can also work for long distance moves if you budget for a couple of nights in a hotel once you pack the moving truck and send it on its way. We had two weeks this move, which was potentially too long because it felt like we were moving FOREVER, but it was really nice to be able to leave our previous home and have time to close out our old home.
• Book Movers: Super important! I used to try to get family referrals for movers, but this last move I trusted google and yelp reviews and ended up with the most efficient, professional moving crew ever: Jay’s Small Moves. I know a lot of people swing a move without movers, counting on the kindness of friends. Totally your call. Everything is a put and take in life, but for me movers are THE BEST because they are trained and competent at moving. It makes the process move SO quickly.
• Reserve Boxes: For this last move, I rented boxes! I saw it on another blog I read and decided to try it to make our move more sustainable. We went with a company called ZippGo. It was so easy! I ordered the boxes online. You select the amount of boxes you need (we went with the three bedroom 60 boxes because we have a ton of stuff) and then they deliver them on your dedicated day. We rented for three weeks to give us plenty of time to pack and unpack. If you underestimate the number of boxes you need, they will bring you more for a fee. Once you’re done with them, they come and pick them up for free. In past moves, I have spent a LOT of time trying to gather or buy cardboard boxes. It was so much easier and time saving to use the plastic totes and I felt better about creating less waste.
• Prep your new house: We decided to paint our house. The entire thing. The walls were dingy and the color was a terrible taupe. I knew the wall color would drive me crazy, so it was a no-brainer for us. Plus, it was so much easier to paint without our stuff in there. We had a lot of people questioning our investment in painting, especially because we did every room except two of the bathrooms that had been renovated somewhat recently. Our landlord approved it, but didn’t help us pay for anything. Obviously, we would’ve loved it if he would’ve helped us, but here’s what I’ve decided as an adult who has been renting for nearly 20 years. It’s a gift to make a place better than you found it, whether you’re renting or not. It’s a gift to yourself to make your rental a home. Taking care of yourself means doing what you need to do to make your life as comfortable as possible for you. For us, that’s a home with walls we love. Everyone has their thing.
• Schedule your move-out walk-through: This is a note for my future self. I didn’t get around to scheduling this walk-through until the last minute which caused an unnecessary scramble and forced me to take a day of PTO to clean our old house. Get that stuff scheduled on YOUR timeline so that you’re not dependent on the mercy of someone else.
• Pre-pack/Donate: So critical. Every box you pack early is a box you don’t have to pack late. ANYTHING you’re not using at the moment should be packed or donated. You have more enthusiasm early in the process versus later.

A couple of weeks prior to move:

• Forward your mail: Go to USPS.com and pay the dollar to get the mail started. Be sure not to schedule delivery until you take possession of the house. Put in a separate forwarding address for every member of your home. If you’re not married, you have to do separate requests for every individual.
• Transfer your utilities: It’s pretty awesome that most of this can be handled online and can be staggered for different due dates. Try to give yourself a bit of time to get everything set up and ready to go. Here’s a list of what we had to do in the Bay Area: trash service, internet/cable, PG&E, Water, cancel alarm, set up gardening service at the new place. Internet is super important if you have teenagers or kids in the house. They are going to lose their mind without internet for one day. Plan accordingly.
• Eat down your pantry: get creative and eat everything up. Anything you eat is something you don’t have to pack. I also wish that I would’ve frozen a couple of meals to help us get through the last weeks without ordering so much take-out.
• Schedule PTO: take time off work if you can. It’s so tiring to move. You’ll be so thankful for your foresight on the days after the move when you feel like you got hit by a truck.

Day of the Move:

• Have a huddle with the family: whew, this is one I learned the hard way. I wish we would’ve all sat down and had a heart-to-heart about expectations and asks for help. We had a little drama, not going to lie. We could’ve had a smoother moving day if we were all on the same page and knew our roles.
• Eat a good breakfast: See bullet above. The drama comes when the hanger is sharp. Take the time to eat a hearty breakfast and start the day off right.
• Get cash: TIPS are the name of the game. Do you know how hard it is to be a mover? Talk about back breaking work. Tip handsomely. Think of a generous amount and then add an extra twenty to it. Individually tip every mover to make sure that it’s fair. You never know the interpersonal dynamics.

After the Move:

• Unpack right away: You’re only about halfway through the process once the movers drive away. The best thing you can do for yourself is keep the momentum going and start unpacking right away. For us, renting the boxes gave us a positive incentive to unpack quickly to save money by returning them early. I love unpacking. It’s my favorite part of the process. Get your beds, bathroom and kitchen done first because you need those the most. Focus on getting stuff in its rightful place and then circle back to handle the finer organization after you’ve lived in the home a bit.
• Manually update your address on your bills: the USPS will forward your mail for you, but you still need to login to your various systems and update your address: Amazon, your bank, your credit cards, chewy.com, human resources at work, student loans, the DMV, your retirement accounts, health insurance, doctor’s office. I wait until I have possession of the house to do this step because I once had a rental fall through just days before I was scheduled to move and I have a little trauma around it.
• Call insurance: Make sure that your car and home insurance gets updated. This is super important to make sure you’re protected.
• Return your boxes (if you rented them).
• Clean your old home: a move-out cleaning is a true luxury that we couldn’t afford this time, so we broke our backs to get our old house shining to get our security deposit back. We got it back 100% but whew that was a tough day. My arms were so sore I seriously thought I had injured myself!
• Schedule a one-time trash pick-up: Your waste management company will typically do a one-time pick-up for free to collect the inevitable trash that piles up with a move. I still need to schedule this, but we need it. We have a big pile in our garage that needs attention. Our bunk beds were broken in the move beyond repair (our fault, not the mover’s) so we need a pick up bad so we can actually start parking in the garage.
• Say thanks/leave reviews: If you found a service you liked, take the time to leave a positive review. I am planning to review our movers and the box rental company because they were just so awesome. These small businesses live and die by their yelp and google reviews, so taking the time to leave a thoughtful review is a huge help. I also like to personally thank ANYONE who helped us during the move via a heartfelt text or even a written note. We had amazing friends who brought us pizza while we were in the middle of painting and it was a gift from the heavens. It truly takes a village to pull off picking up your life and moving it somewhere new.

WOW!!! that was a MONSTER post. Apparently, I have a lot of moving thoughts. I’m so thankful I captured all of this here for posterity.

Do you have anything to add? I’d love to know!