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Tips for Organizing for a Move
By Nicole Symon MONEY RESEARCH COLLECTIVE
Preparing for an upcoming move involves hard work and planning. But you can get organized ahead of time to make the process much easier. If you’re preparing for an upcoming move, try these organizational tips.
Why organization matters when you’re preparing to move
Moving is a stressful process, but preparing ahead of time can make your relocation much smoother, reduce stress and make it easier to settle into your new home.
If you enter the move with a bit of organization, you’ll see the following benefits:
It helps you avoid forgetting or losing things
A key worry for many people when moving from one home to another is forgetting or misplacing things. You don’t want to leave anything behind, but keeping track of all your belongings is challenging.
Organizing your home will help you know exactly what you have and where each item is, making it easier to pack. It will also help you reduce the amount you actually move since you may find items you don’t want to keep anymore. If everything in your home is in its place before you pack, you can simply label boxes by the objects they contain and the room they belong in. Once everything is organized and properly packed, you’ll know you didn’t forget or lose anything.
It reduces the stress that moving causes
It’s no secret that moving is stressful. And there are plenty of things you can’t control. You may not be able to plan for a rainy moving day or a late truck arrival, but you can have your belongings organized and packed strategically. Organize what you can so that you’re prepared for last-minute surprises. If you organize your home ahead of time, you’ll be free to focus on other aspects of the move rather than stressing about the disarray.
It makes it easier to get settled in your new home
Organized moving doesn’t just help while you’re packing up your belongings and leaving your previous home. It also pays off as you get settled in your new home.
Instead of digging through boxes and wondering where your essentials are, your belongings will be organized and ready for use in your new home. For example, boxes labeled by the room or furniture they’re stored in can go directly to the corresponding spaces in your new home to make unpacking easier. You’ll be able to settle more quickly and begin making your new digs feel like home.
Get organized for your next move with these 10 tips
Getting organized for a move can feel overwhelming. To make the process more manageable, apply these 10 tips.
1. Start the decluttering process early
Don’t wait until the last minute to start decluttering your home before a move. You’ll need time to sort your belongings and decide what to keep. Start decluttering a few months before your moving date to ensure you can go at your own pace.
As you evaluate your items, ask yourself:
- Do I currently use this item?
- Have I used it in the last six months?
- Will I need this item in my new home?
- Would I repurchase this item?
- Do I have any other items that serve the same function?
- Would anyone in the household notice or care if this item was gone?
- Could I borrow this item (or a similar one) from someone else?
These questions will help you decide which items to keep and pack for your move and which you can safely let go of. Don’t be afraid to be ruthless. The more things you get rid of, the less you’ll have to pack and unpack during your move.
Sort your items into piles to keep, donate and discard. You can donate unwanted clothes and household goods to organizations like Goodwill, the Salvation Army and Habitat for Humanity. To get rid of more valuable items, host a garage sale or sell them on resale sites like eBay and Poshmark.
2. Pack room by room
When you’re ready to begin packing, don’t just randomly place items in boxes. Packing without a plan can get things packed improperly or lost in mislabeled boxes. Instead, go room by room, packing the items from each room together. This will help make unpacking at your new home more manageable, too, since similar items will be in boxes together.
Each box you pack should only have items from a single room in your home. Even if you have extra space in a box, avoid stuffing it with items from other areas of your home. Boxes with mixed contents are more difficult to label and organize correctly.
Don’t forget to pack less-used spaces of your home like the garage, basement and attic. These areas may take longer than other rooms in your house, especially if you use them for storage. You might even start by packing up these rooms, as long as they contain items you won’t need immediately before or during your move. Pack rooms like your bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchen last.
3. Use sticker labels and a color-coded moving system
While you’re packing each room, label the boxes as you go. Don’t just scribble the name of the room or the box’s contents with a marker, though. Use sticker labels and a color-coding system to take your packing organization to the next level.
You can buy color-coded Tag-A-Room sticker labels from office supply stores. These stickers include a different color for each room and state the room’s name in clear text. Place them on the corresponding packed boxes from each room, and you can see at a glance where each box came from and where it should go in your new home.
Labeling each box with color-coded stickers as you pack does add time to the packing process, but that time will pay off when you’re unpacking. Not only will you know where each box goes in your new home, your movers or anyone else helping will, too, without having to ask you. Simply create a guide to your color-coded moving system, and make sure everyone has a copy. Color-coding eliminates the decision fatigue you might feel on moving day if you don’t have to decide every box’s location as it enters the house.
4. Keep non-essential items in a storage facility
There may be items in your home that you don’t use or don’t need to access regularly. Rather than packing those items up and unpacking them at your new home, consider putting them in a storage facility.
Some non-essential belongings you should consider putting in a storage unit include:
- Holiday decorations
- Baby items
- Outdoor furniture
- Old paperwork
- Antiques or specialty items
- Bulky items like extra mattresses
By storing these things, you won’t have to worry about finding space for them in your new home right away. There are many self-storage companies nationwide, so you shouldn’t have trouble finding one in your area.
5. Consider hiring a professional moving organizer
If you don’t feel equipped to complete an organized moving checklist on your own, consider hiring professional organizers to help you. Working with professional organizers isn’t the cheapest way to move, but it can alleviate the stress and effort of organizing your home yourself.
Professional organizers will help you go from room to room, decluttering your home and packing up your belongings. They can also help you decide whether to keep certain things and suggest how to organize your packed items effectively. On average, you’ll pay between $55 and $100 per hour for professional home organizer services. Consider whether the service these professionals provide is worth increasing your moving costs.
Professional organizers work alongside your movers — they don’t replace them. If you’re interested in hiring movers, that’s a separate cost to consider.
6. Store your cleaning supplies where you can easily get to them
Once you’re done packing and your boxes are ready to go, you’ll want to clean your home one last time to leave it sparkling for the new occupants. Make sure you can still find your cleaning supplies by packing and storing them in an accessible location. This will also make it easier to clean your new home before unpacking everything because your cleaning supplies will be easy to find first.
If you are moving a long distance, some cleaning supplies and chemicals are not recommended for travel. Read the labels carefully so you know what you can pack and what you need to discard.
7. Pack your essentials last
During your move or when you get to your new home, you don’t want to sort through dozens of boxes to find one item you need. Instead, pack your essentials last and in a separate box. Your essentials box should include things like:
- IDs and credit cards or cash
- An extra set of clothes for each member of your family
- Trash bags
- Water bottles
- Charging cables
- Prescription medications
- Pet essentials
- Baby essentials
- Tool kit
- Paper towels and toilet paper
Make sure the essentials box is easily accessible throughout the move. When you get to your new home, this box will get you through the first few hours as you unpack.
8. Put together a moving binder
Using a moving binder is one of the best moving tips. Your moving binder will help you organize all of the information and paperwork you need to keep track of during your move. Include binder tabs that fit your situation. Some ideas include:
- Your moving checklist
- Dates, times and other details of your move
- Contact information for your movers and professional organizers
- Loan information
- Information about your storage rental
- Receipts related to the move
By putting all this information in a single binder, you can easily reference the details of your move at any point during the process. You won’t have to worry about forgetting anything important or losing documents related to the move because they’ll all be at your fingertips. Find inspiration online for other ways to personalize your moving binder. You can even include a guide to your color-coded moving system.
9. Carefully pack and know the whereabouts of your expensive items
Hopefully, all your belongings will arrive safely at your new home, but take extra care to protect your valuable items. Start by carefully packing these items with plenty of protective padding to get them through the move without damage.
You can get moving boxes and materials designed to protect large, valuable items like mirrors and TVs at most stores that sell packing supplies. For fragile items, use strong, small boxes with the heaviest things at the bottom. Add soft packing material to the bottom of the box, and include dividers if the box contains multiple items.
Once you pack these expensive items, make sure you know where they are in your moving truck. You can even keep them with you in your vehicle for added security. If you’re working with professional movers, alert them of which items require special care. The cost of movers often includes some protection against damage to your belongings, which can give you extra peace of mind.
10. Keep important documents in a safe place
While you’re tackling your list of tasks to do when moving, it’s easy to lose track of your important documents. Set these documents aside in a safe place before you dive into packing. You can even include them in your moving binder to ensure quick and easy access.
Keep your documents with you during the trip rather than packing them with the rest of your belongings. You don’t want to risk losing them in the move.
Get organized to make your move as seamless as possible
Your upcoming move doesn’t have to be stressful and overwhelming. Stay organized with packing tips, like using a color-coded system and packing each room individually to make your move as seamless as possible. Utilize an organized moving checklist to ensure you don’t miss any critical steps, and your new place will feel like home in no time.