Moving tips and tricks

[MsSassyBaskets]

I thought there was a nifty thread about moving tips, and I can't find it. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Or does anybody care to share things like checklists, etc. for pulling off a 500+ mile move?

We're lucky in that the big drive can be done in one day, but our stuff will take a few days to arrive... We will need to wrangle a 5-month old and 2 cats and all the things we will need for a few days of living without our belongings in 2 cars. Tips? Tricks? Checklists? Links to previous threads where this has already been done?

[JDAZ11]

Moving tips and tricks

Godspeed. I hate moving. I just had movers here for quotes today. I'm not even moving a mile, and I'm so overwhelmed.

How are you moving? I assume you aren't doing it yourself since you're both driving.

I'm probably no help. A) no kids - makes a huge difference. B) when we moved for fellowship it was so complicated since I moved all of our stuff to parents house. Then repacked some things to ship to the house where we were house sitting. Then got a pod later for the rest. And I was studying for the bar exam -all I cared about were my note cards, ha! And then when we moved here it was all paid for and we didn't pack much ourselves and just flew here. Even missed our stuff arriving by a day - which was great. It was also so nice that we had a house in the fellowship location to move into when all our stuff was picked up.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Deebs]

We're in the midst of this hell, too. My biggest advice is to purge!!! Then, if you pack yourself, label well. I ordered color coded stickers off of amazon for this move. Last essential items have been packed. Each person gets a suitcase that I pack two weeks before the move, and those are the close they wear before, during, and shortly after the move. Toothbrushes, etc all go in there. I have a couple of essentials boxes - one with kitchen, one for bath, and one with toys. They get loaded into cars. I've found the more I prepare, make sure things start in the rooms I use them in, and do little each day, the smoother the actual move goes.

[MarissaNicole]

Moving is the worst. My sympathies to those of you planning or in the midst of it!

Wasn't there a moving sticky back in the day with tips.... like make sure to mark the box with the tp and make sure its accessible as soon as you arrive at your destination!

Wife of a PGY-5

[Howfunitis]

I've moved every year for the past 3 years. Help help help!! If you can find family and/or friends to help or someone offers. Take it. Every year my family drove out to help me pack (could have been that I was pregnant) but that helped a lot. Hubby and I bought maybe 8 medium boxes and a shit load of small boxes from Home Depot. Why? Cause it was so much easier for everyone to carry. Hey weren't to heavy and you could stake in the uhaul. I made sure that our air bed was packed along with a couple of
Boxes in the car for during and after we get to where we need to go.

Also, leave everything correctly and you can definitely color code. This year I'm buying some colored totes to use in our move

Oh and label all 4 sides. Hubby and I have had to move ourselves so we realized labeling and starting ahead with enough time is great. And also every year we pack we through away a lot of papers we accumulate from the year of being there


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JDAZ11]

Oh one thing I did last time we packed ourselves (meaning I did everything) was take pictures of open boxes with numbers visible. Helped when some of the labeling was duplicated etc.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[rufflesanddots]

We're moving at the end of June and splurging on movers for the first time ever. I think I've moved 16 times in the last 12 years, DH has moved a similar amount (the last 4 were moves we did together). Hopefully this will be our last move until the end of med school. I'm looking forward to throwing a lot of our stuff away. Gotta convince DH to let go of some of the books he NEVER reads (like, a book about yoga from the 90s that his mom got him). He gets all pretentious about never getting rid of books. /eyeroll

[MsSassyBaskets]

Well, we've booked real movers this time, so all we have to do is pack. That should make it easier on us... I'm writing box contents on the inside flap, numbering next to that, and taking pictures of the open boxes with lists and numbers visible. I will also color code, but I haven't gotten on that yet... Packing is getting really messy and I need to start one good organized box stack before it gets even more out of hand.

[JustRightKelly]

We moved every year for 6 years then we sold all our stuff and moved into a bus. I guess that's one approach...

One tip my dad passed on to me during all those moves was to make sure you have a bag with TP, PT, toothbrush, underwear and a spare t-shirt tucked into an obvious place so it's ready and available when you get to where you're going. He stresses the TP most

[MrsK]

First thing to do when you unpack, put sheets and pillows on the beds. You will be glad you did at the end of the day when you are exhausted and can just fall into bed.

Also, I usually designate one or two rooms of the house for unpacked boxes (like one on each floor of the house) and put them all in there pending unpacking. I set them up in rows like grocery store asiles so I can walk among them and find what I'm looking for. That way I don't have boxes all over the house. I don't have to worry about the kids getting into them or the boxes toppling onto the kids and, when I'm done unpacking for the day, I can close the door. That way, we can still live comfortably and not be climbing over boxes for weeks.

[Pollyanna]

Making the beds first is brilliant!! We've never done that.

In the same vein as MrsK, we keep most boxes out of the house. We have essentials that must come into the house (kitchen, bedding, clothes,bathroom items), everything else stays in the garage. Then boxes come in one at a time and are purged of things we don't love. When you don't bring all that stuff into your house you realize how much you don't miss it. It becomes easier to purge. You also see how you live in your home and can better decide where to put things.

[Deebs]

You guys must have so much less crap than we do. I can't imagine it all fitting in the garage! Must purge more today!!!!!

[poky]

You guys must have so much less crap than we do. I can't imagine it all fitting in the garage! Must purge more today!!!!!

I was just thinking this same thing. We're moving into a smaller place, too. One of the main tasks we're tackling is figuring out which furniture is making the move, and which isn't. That'll help the most, I think, but there's so much other stuff, too. Gah. Just thinking about it all is giving me hives (figuratively, though it is probably contributing to my dyshidrosis, which is almost as irritating).

[Howfunitis]

I'll only be gone until the end of the year so trying to decide what stays here in storage and what's going with is is frustrating


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Pollyanna]

Well, you can't use the garage for cars so.....In our defense, you can't use the garage for our vehicles anyway. Apparently most folks don't have 12 passenger vans