
If you're moving items without help from a moving company, you may decide whether or not you want to pack liquids in your moving boxes. Many moving companies ban liquids from boxes altogether. It's very important to move as few liquids as possible during a relocation. If you're getting help from friends during the packing process, hang a sign on your personal bags to alert everyone that these bags must remain accessible throughout the moving process. Show family members your personal bag to ensure everyone knows these items must remain unpacked throughout the move. Place your personal bag somewhere safe where it will not be packed in a box. Keep the list somewhere accessible, like on a phone or tacked to the refrigerator. To ensure that a personal bag has everything you need, write a list early in the process of everything you'll need on the first night. Just before moving day, plan to pack items like medications, your toothbrush, toothpaste and other essentials that need to stay out until the very last minute. Waiting until later in the packing process could leave you digging through packed boxes just to find what you need for your personal bag. The personal bag should be packed early in the process, before everything you own starts to disappear into boxes. Personal BagĪ personal bag will contain overnight items that one will need on the first night in the new house, before any real unpacking can be done. Linens, pillows and blankets create natural padding for delicate or fragile items, so set them aside as well. Get ready for the packing process by setting aside boxes and baskets.


Schedule a pickup days in advance, then sort everything into piles to be donated to charity. Some charities will drive to a location to pick up large donations. This will make the packing process easier. While sorting, you'll have the opportunity to start placing like-items together in groups. Sorting becomes important during the decluttering process, because it's a key part of deciding what goes and what stays. During the decluttering process, start packing away anything (like seasonal items and holiday decor) that you won't need between now and the move. Organize closets, shelves, the pantry, storage boxes, filing cabinets, holiday items, seasonal items and your garage. Go through each room of the house and systematically get rid of everything that hasn't been used in the last one or two years. Packing up clutter instead of disposing of it makes it harder to stay organized after a relocation. Make the arrangements early to avoid a last-minute scramble.ĭecluttering is crucial before beginning the packing process, because clutter makes moving expensive and cumbersome. Make packing and loading easier on yourself by hiring a babysitter for moving day. This makes it easier to determine which boxes go where when unloading the truck, and also makes it easier to unpack when the time comes.

After drawing the layout, list each category of item that will be found in each room. To ensure that items will be organized in your new home, draw a layout of the house before unloading the moving truck. Having enough packing tape, boxes, bubble wrap, sandwich bags and other supplies makes it possible to keep working until everything is complete. In order to have time for this kind of consideration, start months in advance. Taking a measured and thoughtful approach to packing means that extra time and energy goes into each box. Get an early start on the packing process.
