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I have only moved once in my life. I moved from my parents house to my house with my husband. Unless you count from the hospital to my parent’s house…
We are going to move. My second move! This will be quite different from moving out of one room as a single girl to a whole house as a married woman. This is a family of five and ten years of accumulation.
There’s one more twist. Most of our possessions will be in storage for several months. Lord willing, no longer than six.
So, I need help! Help! Any moving tips or links to great advice sites would be wonderful. I’m counting on you ladies. I know that Cyndi and Faith have moved quite a bit. I’m not sure about the rest of you [all five], but I’ll take any advice. What should I most avoid? What should I definitely do?
This is where I started:
I have six 18 gallon totes packed full and five shelves left to be packed. I’m packing sheets, sweaters, and blankets around the books to make the boxes not too heavy.
You can’t say to get rid of books. I’ve already whittled it down to these. Two of those shelves are music. I did make a foot high stack of books to get rid of. Are you proud of me? There is another full bookshelf in my room…and there is a library book sale on April 19. I’m so glad for an understanding husband who knows I’d rather get rid of my clothes than my books.
The house needs to be show ready by April 21, 2008.
Hit me with your bestest advice!
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on Mar 24th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Having just had a whirlwind Christmastime move myself, here are some things I *wish* I would have done before we moved.
1. De-clutter before you pack up. This means go through your entire house and purge items you don’t need or use. This is big and will save you a lot of hassle when you are trying to get settled in the new house. I have a whole basement full of junk because I didn’t do this before we moved, and it was one of the worst parts of the move. Not only is everything disorderly b/c you are getting used to your new surroundings, but you also have whole lot of junk that you don’t want to put away at the new house b/c you don’t need or want it.
2. Label all of your boxes with the contents of the box. This was a huge help to us as most of our boxes were labeled. It’s an annoying step but WELL worth the effort!
3. Get LOTS of boxes. I *thought* we had tons of boxes, but when we got to moving day, we were packing things in trash bags.
4. When we got our house ready to show, we took down most all the pictures from the wall, and made some changes to the house per our realtor’s advice. We fixed things in the house that we never bothered to do….until we had to sell the house…I always wanted my laundry room floor to be painted, and we even had floor paint, but it didn’t get done until we put the house up for sale…go figure!
5. Just do your best. Showing your house with little kids is nerve wracking…I think I had heartburn through the whole process, but we got through it, and it was a good thing. Nothing will be perfect, just do what you can do and let the cardboard boxes fall where they may.
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on Mar 24th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Well hey, where are you moving to?? Do you have a place? Yeah I have moved plenty of times. My biggest advice is to clear out ANYTHING that you have not used for a long time or that you don’t need!! If you have not used it in the last 6 months or more than most likely your not gonna use it in the next 6 months - I know that doesn’t work with everything but I have found it is a good thought to have while packing. The other thing is make sure boxes are marked REALLY well!!! Not just misc or bedroom but Master bedroom, (kids name) bedroom. Also mark what is in it. The second time Randy and I moved I did not mark things very well so we had a hard time finding stuff since we had a lot of it in storage. Well, I hope that will be helpful and I hope things go well for ya!!
on Mar 24th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Like Katina said…Purge! If it helps, while you’re packing things in each room, have two boxes at all times. One for things to keep and one for things to go. (oh! and don’t forget lots of trash bags.)
Also, like Katina said…Label. If you don’t feel like you have time to list the items in each box, label them (the boxes) by room. My friends that I just helped move did this and it made it sooo easy to figure out where everything was going when we got to the new house. Of course, in your case, you may want to add an extra line under the room to note whether it will be put in storage or whether it will go with you. (btw, i didn’t label my boxes by room so I was still “moving” for at least a month after we actually moved into the house.)
Do a little everyday. Even if you think you have no time, set your kitchen timer for ten to fifteen minutes and pack or sort for that entire time. It may not seem like alot on a really busy day, but all that little time adds up fast.
Use lots of newspaper. Your glasses and breakables can never be too well packed.
As for the books….I found that it worked very well on my guys’ backs that I had packed most of my books in many small boxes instead of a few large ones. (Of course, Titus may not agree with that fact since he had to carry them from the garage to the basement when he moved in with us.) Use your big containers for the light items. Small ones for the heavy things.
Oh! and my favorite tip….leave your laundry baskets empty until the day you move….I guarantee you will find odds and ends that were missed and there won’t be the right size boxes left for them. The Laundry baskets work like a charm!
Good Luck!
on Mar 24th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
BTW, thanks for putting up the date of the book sale… I may just have to convince Joseph to let me come up and visit the fam so that I can actually go book shopping.
on Mar 25th, 2008 at 4:41 am
Whoa!! That’s humoungous. Hey, have you finished reading all the books on the shelves? That’s like the palace’s library in the beauty and the beast cartoon.
on Mar 25th, 2008 at 5:23 am
Hey!
Unpacking is much better! 
I was just helping someone move yesterday which brought back terrible memories from the countless times we have moved! Not that I want to discourage you!
Instead of labeling the boxes, I number the boxes and keep a master list of what is in each box. You can make a numbered list on the computer and then just fill it is as you fill the boxes. You can be detailed on the list if you want and can easily direct movers when they tell you what number box they have. I also label boxes FRAGILE - although depending on your movers it doesn´t matter if they are labeled or not.
You will always need a few more boxes. We even tear them apart and use them around furniture like mirrors, rocking chairs, etc. but then we do long distance moving!
Depending on your situation this may or may not be helpful. But when we move long distance I always make a “Survival Box”. It has sheets for all the beds, towels for us all, plates (or paper plates), pans to cook a small meal, silverware, etc. Anything that I need right away when we move in so I don´t have to go through six boxes just to get to bed that first night!
Happy moving!
on Mar 25th, 2008 at 7:59 am
Details, girl, we need details! Where are you moving to? I definately have a lot of experience. Especially with the entire stuff in storage for a while scenario. At least you have a month to get ready to show. I usually have a week at most. Here’s my simple comment advice… purge ruthlessly, clean as you go, be prepared to live with out “stuff” since it will be in storage. It’s hard but you get used to it. Take down personal knicknacks and “stage” your home. A good show to watch is HGTV’s series on selling your home. I’m not remembering the name but it is on weeknights at 8pm. I actually bought new shower curtains and stuff like that to “beautify” the house and make it appeal to buyers. People will judge your furniture and your stuff even though they know it is not staying so make your house look like a magazine. I don’t want to go too long on your comments so I’m going to try to do a post on my blog on this today. Best wishes.
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on Mar 26th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Hi! I found you through Cyndi and Brenners, and I’ve moved a handful of times in the last 8 years or so. I second Julie’s suggestion of numbering the boxes. I didn’t do much labeling for my first move and seriously regretted it. It takes time to make the lists, but it is well worth it when you need to find that thing you didn’t think you’d use! Another benefit of numbering is you can easily find the number rather than having to read/scan boxes and boxes.
As far as the books, smaller boxes are definitely better. I have shelves and shelves of books too and even though small boxes = a lot of trips, they are much easier to manage. If your totes are stacked in storage and you “need” a book out of one, it’s always the one on the bottom and the movers won’t be around to move the ones on top.
One of the best places I found for boxes was a music store. They had weird shaped boxes (ie electric guitar) that worked great for flower swags or other odd-shaped items. Plus the boxes seemed to be thicker, maybe because of the “fragile” contents.
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