Life Transitions: Organizing a Move

Moving. You may dread it or avoid it. You might love it and look for opportunities to move.

In this post, I’ll answer a question from a follower related to moving. I’ll give additional strategies if this scenario is different from the timing of your move.

Dear Janice, We just bought a new house and we get the keys in a couple of weeks. It is close by, we have no deadline for vacating our current house and we plan to do most of the moving ourselves. What do we pack first? Is there a specific order in which we should move items? Signed: Want an organized move

Dear Organized Move, You made a good start by asking the questions! Overall, I urge you to take this time to move only those items that you have used within the past year or for which you can identify a specific time to use in the near future. Delete all items that don’t meet this criteria either through donation, recycling, consignment or trash. Then I would suggest the following order for packing:

Off-season items: if it’s summer, pack the winter things or vice versa. This may include clothes or seasonal activity gear. Holiday items: so while a set of Christmas dishes might be in the kitchen or dining room hutch, if you’re moving in June, then those can be packed. 

Books: except for ones you’re currently reading or expect to be reading in the next month, they are an easy item to pack.

Memorabilia: unless you plan to entertain in the next few weeks, wall decor, displayed collections and related home decor items can be among the first items packed.

Linens: sheets and towels that won’t be used in the next few weeks can be moved early on.

Non-essential kitchen items: With everything else going on, you probably won’t be baking fancy cakes or cooking complicated dishes. So you can pack everything except a few basic cooking supplies plus dishes, silverware and glassware.

Craft supplies: Even if you are an avid scrapbooker, quilter or woodworker, you probably won’t work on any projects in the next few weeks, so those materials are a safe bet to pack.

A couple of additional tips:

• Colored labels on boxes helps easily identify which boxes go in which rooms. An additional visual is to use colored duct tape to put together boxes. 
• Give yourself permission to “live with boxes.” Everything can’t be unpacked at once so decide which rooms and items you need access to first and unpack accordingly.
• Maximize space before you move. I have a large attic. Before the moving truck arrive, I lined the attic with shelves so I could easily unpack and store items immediately.
• Make a decision now about when you’ll move the furniture. Given your situation, you can either box items now, move furniture and critical living items the day you get your keys, and then move the remaining boxes. Or you can box items now and start moving those when you can get in, then once you have a majority of the boxes in you can move the furniture and critical living items. There is no right or wrong way, it’s just what works best for you. But making a conscious decision up front will reduce stress later.

I hope you have an uneventful and stress-free (as much as possible) move!

Don’t have the luxury of a leisurely move? Many of the tips above still apply, however, you will want to check with your realtor to know which items should stay in the house for staging.

Many other strategies are based on decisions:

• how much of the packing and moving you will do yourself versus outsourcing to a company
• how many days to schedule for moving activities on each end of the move
• which boxes or rooms must be unpacked first
• which new routines need to be established immediately

Are you dealing with a life-disrupting situation? You don’t have to go through it alone! I partner with ambitious people in the midst of a life-altering event to achieve calm and control so they can live their life again. Are you ready to feel focused and on top of things? Great! Let’s schedule a no-obligation exploratory call to see how I can help you make that happen.