When it was official we were moving to our new home, I was right in the middle of my first (very nauseous) trimester, and had twin three year olds helping me daily, and I had a LOT to pack. I knew we needed to come up with a plan to make the move as simple as possible.
First I created a packing plan. I broke down how many weeks we had until the move (5 weeks in our case) and then printed out a calendar. I prioritized items that could be packed first and the items we would need until the very end. I listed everything out week by week. Things like pictures on the walls, decor, guest bedroom items, extra linens, etc could all be packed in the beginning. Weeks two and three included items like books in the den, seasonal items, clothes that we wouldn't need for the upcoming few weeks, less used kitchen items and craft supplies. The final week was the last of kitchen items, toys, the pantry and fridge items, clothing and toiletries.
Breaking down the items into smaller chunks made it much easier to tackle and it was spread out over the five weeks. I would pack five to six boxes at a time rather than try to cram everything in to a few days.
The next thing I did was create a moving notebook. I am going to do another post about the notebook and I will link to it here when done.
Once I finished my packing schedule and moving notebook, I made my packing kit. I put everything in a small bin and that bin followed me everywhere for the five weeks up until the move. Here is what I included in my packing survival kit:
- Labels (plain white, found at Target)
- colored stickers (found at Target)
- Scissors
- Sharpie
- Packing tape
- Gallon size and quart size zipper storage bags
Supplies
Create a labeling system. It can look however you choose, the key is it is consistent. I labeled the room the box needed to go to in the new home in the top left corner of every label. I put the description of the contents in the bottom right corner of every label. I placed the labels on the same place of every box. This made it easy for anyone picking up the boxes (movers, family, etc) to know where to take the box. Plus it was helpful with unpacking in finding items we wanted to unpack first or needed to find quickly.
Anything that was fragile, I added a bright green circle sticker in the middle of the label. This again was an easy way to let people know to be careful when picking up a box with a green circle without me having to tell them.
We made sure everything possible was in a box (93 boxes total). We got our boxes at U-haul. They will take back any boxes you don't use for a full refund. The boxes were great quality. We passed them on to three other families after our move and they were all able to use them for their moves.
A few tips on boxes:
- Get lots of different sized boxes.
- Comforters, pillows, blankets, winter coats should go in the largest boxes.
- Books, plates, heavy items should go in small boxes because they get heavy quickly
- Wardrobe boxes are amazing for moving clothing in a snap.
- Make sure to get plenty of tape and however many boxes you think you need, buy a few more. We made three trips back to buy more boxes.
Setting aside a little bit of time before the move will make it so much less stressful and so much more organized. You will be happy you did!
Happy Packing!
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