How To Prepare For Your Move : What To Pack And When

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Moving can be pretty stressful. The idea of taking every single thing you have and moving it to a new location can be a daunting task. You can ease your stress a bit by taking it one step at a time and packing certain items several weeks before your move, then packing other things every week up until the day before your move. See below for helpful tips to make your move a little less stressful.

Two Months Prior

These items should be packed up as early as possible before you move. If you don't have two months before your move, that's OK; just pack up these items first and get them out of the way.

• Attic items (you know, those things you haven't seen since you moved to your current home)
• Seasonal decor (holiday decorations)
• Books (including cookbooks, scrapbooks and photo albums)
• Decor, artwork and collectibles
• Coats and other seasonal clothing you know you won't be using in the next month or so

One Month Prior

These are other items you probably aren't going to need over the next month. 

• DVDs, video games and CDs
• Board games and puzzles
• Sewing machine, sewing supplies and craft items
• Fragile items such as vases and extra glasses or stemware
• Dining sets 
• Kitchen gadgets that you don't use daily (extra slow cookers, rice cookers, blenders, etc.)

Two Weeks Prior

Two weeks prior you can pack up an entire room that you may not necessarily use daily such as the office, basement and spare bedroom.

• Office supplies
• Extra linens (including bedding and towels)
• Electronics and power cords
• Extra cleaning supplies
• Jewelry and accessories

One Week Prior

This will be where you do the most packing, but you have most of the non-essential packing stuff out of the way.

• Clothing
• Excess furniture (the stuff you can live without for a week)
• Rugs
• Throw pillows and blankets
• File cabinets and important documents
• Pantry items
• Any remaining appliance (besides maybe the toaster and coffee pot)
• Most of your dining and serving ware (use paper plates and cups when possible)

One Day Prior

Most of your belongings should be gone by this point. Beds, mattresses and furniture should all be out or at least stripped and ready to move out of the house. If you plan on sleeping one last night in your old place, use sleeping bags and a blow up mattress.

• All toiletries (keep out just what you will need for the following day)
• Curtains
• Pet supplies such as food, bowls and treats
• Essentials to get you through a day or two at your new place (if you plan on moving a long distance, sometimes the truck isn't there the same day as you so it's important that you have a few days worth of clothing and toiletries to get you through until the truck gets there)

Packing can be stressful, but if you space out the packing it can ease the stress a little. Be sure to use new boxes (so they hold up), place heavy items such as books in smaller boxes so they aren't as heavy, and invest in clothing boxes (with a rod included) so you can just hang up your closet clothing and hang your items up in your new home. Talk to a moving company, such as Affordable Transfer Co Inc., about what other types of moving boxes they may have to make packing a little easier.

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15 April 2016