Moving Tips & Recommendations

I've watched a lot of families move, in and out of homes I've sold, and a few patterns show up every single time. The people who have the easiest move aren't the most organized on paper. They just know a handful of small things ahead of time. Here they are, plus the one link everyone forgets until they're standing in a new kitchen wondering why their mail hasn't caught up.

The First Night Box

This is the single most forgotten tip, and the one that saves you the most misery. Before anything else gets packed, set aside one box (label it in huge letters: OPEN ME FIRST) with toilet paper, a shower curtain and liner, phone chargers, basic toiletries, a set of sheets, a couple of towels, paper plates and plastic silverware, a few snacks, and a small tool kit. You will not want to dig through forty identical boxes at 10pm looking for a charger. Future you will send present you a thank you note.

The Small Stuff Nobody Thinks Of

• Measure and write down your furniture before loading day. Doorways, hallways, stairwells, and the rooms it is headed for at the new place. It is a lot easier to catch a problem with a tape measure than with a couch stuck sideways in a doorframe.
• Magic erasers. Cleans walls without ruining the paint, plus floors, doors, and cabinets. Wipes out scuffs, stains, and scraped-on grime you did not even remember was there.
• Ziplock bags taped to furniture. Every time you take a piece of furniture apart, drop the screws and bolts into a labeled bag and tape it underneath. You will not remember which screws go where three weeks from now. You will think you will. You won't.
• Label as you pack, not after. Use color-coded labels with bold, large font or moving label stickers, whichever is easier for you to see and read at a glance. Stick them on the side of the box, not the top. Once boxes are stacked, the top disappears and the side is all you can see.
• Photograph the back of your electronics. Before you unplug the TV, router, or sound system, take one photo of the tangle of cords. Saves an hour of guessing at the new place.
• Use your suitcases. They have wheels and they're built to carry weight. Fill them with books and anything heavy instead of a cardboard box you have to carry by hand.
• Furniture sliders for the heavy stuff. A couch or dresser goes from a two-person fight to a one-person push. Saves your back and your floors, at the old place and the new one.
• The garbage bag hanger trick. Group a stack of hanging clothes, still on their hangers, inside a large trash bag cinched at the top around the hanger hooks. Instant wardrobe box, and it's free.
• Stretch wrap is not just for furniture. Wrap it around dresser drawers, loose cords, and even the lids of shampoo or cleaning bottles so nothing flies open or leaks on the truck.
• Mattress bags earn their keep. A few dollars to keep your mattress clean on the truck beats scrubbing it, or replacing it, later.
• Keep a good box cutter in your pocket. Not packed in a box somewhere. You will use it more on move-in day than anything else you own.

Shortcuts If You Are Short on Time

• Leave clothes in the dresser drawers. Pull the drawers out, or just wrap the whole dresser in stretch wrap so the drawers cannot slide open, and move it as is. Nothing to fold, nothing to refold.
• Set up furniture before decor. Get beds, the couch, and the kitchen functional first. Art on the walls and knickknacks on shelves can wait a week without anyone noticing.
• Unpack one room at a time, and let the rest sit boxed. You do not have to be fully moved in by day two. Pick the kitchen and the bedrooms first, everything else is a weekend project.
• The less you pack, the less you carry. A trip to donate or toss things before moving day saves more time than any packing hack ever will.
• Five empty boxes by the garage door. Once you are in and unpacking, keep five empty boxes staged right by the garage door. Anything without a real place or a regular use goes straight into one of them instead of getting shoved in a closet. Once a box fills up, it goes to donate, and a new empty box takes its spot.

Moving With Kids

• Pack their essentials bag like you are prepping for a weekend trip. Pajamas, a favorite stuffed animal, a couple of books, and a charger, all within reach, not buried in a box.
• Set up their room, or at least their bed, first. A familiar sleeping setup on night one makes the whole move feel less upside down.
• Give them a job. Let them pack a small box of their own things or pick their own box labels. It turns the move into something happening with them, not just to them.
• Hold onto routines wherever you can. Same bedtime, same breakfast, even with boxes everywhere. Kids take their cues from what stays the same.

Don't Forget to Update These

• Banks
• Insurance
• Subscriptions
• Voter registration
• DMV or license
• Employer HR department
• Pet's microchip address
• Amazon
• Venmo or PayPal

Nobody remembers those last two until a package or a payment goes to the wrong house.

A few of the links above are affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you shop through them, at no extra cost to you. I only link things I'd actually hand a client on moving day.