The Ultimate Moving Checklist for a Smooth Transition

A survey revealed that 45% of its respondents agreed that moving was the most stressful event in life, even more stressful than divorce or having children. It’s no secret that planning a move comes with a lot of hurdles and obstacles. Why is moving so stressful?

Moving is stressful for several reasons. You’re picking up your entire life, creating chaos in your daily schedule, and rearranging them both. However, there are also a few ways to ensure your move is as stress-free as possible.

One of those ways of reducing stress is creating a moving checklist. If you have a well-prepared moving out checklist when moving and follow it step by step, then you can expect to have a much more enjoyable moving experience. In the guide below, you’ll find our own checklist for moving.

Continue reading to use our checklist to help reduce the stress of your move.

Create a Digital Moving Folder

Creating a folder for all your moving documents is a great starting place and helps you stay organized from the beginning. A digital folder is great because it allows you to place all of these important documents in one place and eliminates the need to keep track of various paperwork. Although, you can also choose to place hard copies of these documents in a binder if desired.

Some documents to consider placing in this folder include the following:

• your checklist for moving into a new home
• moving quotes
• phone numbers for movers and realtors
• insurance records for movers and your home
• receipts for tax deductions

During the move, if you need to locate any of these items, you’ll know exactly where to look.

Select a Moving Date and Plan Early

It’s ideal to start the moving process a couple of months before your move date. Don’t wait until the last minute to start preparing for the move. This causes a lot of unnecessary stress.

Although it might seem too early to start planning the move, it’s not. There are many things you can start right now. For example, if you need to use an elevator for the move, then put in a request for a permit to use the elevator and a parking permit as well.

You might also need to schedule this time off from work, ensure your furniture will fit in the new place, and start shopping for movers. Get anything done that you can do now to save time and stress once it gets closer to the move date.

Declutter the Entire House

The last thing you want to do is spend time and money on moving items you no longer want or need. To prevent this from happening, you should declutter your home in the early phases.

Create three piles of items. One pile is for items you want to keep, another is for items you want to sell or donate, and the last pile is for trash. If it helps make things easier, you can declutter room by room.

Once you have your piles, you can then clear your home of all the things you’re not keeping and focus on packing the items you want and need.

Take Inventory of All Belongings

Now that you’ve decluttered your home, you can take inventory of all your personal belongings. Taking inventory is important because this will ensure all of your items make it out of the old home and into the new one. When taking inventory, you can focus on creating a list for each room in the house.

To help simplify things, you can have each family member create an inventory for their own room. You should also take inventory of how many boxes are in each room and what contents are in each box as well.

Pack Room by Room

A great way to reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed during the move is to pack room by room. Don’t try to tackle the entire house at one time. Instead, choose one room to start with and don’t move on to the next room until that room is fully packed.

If you start the moving process early enough, then you’ll have enough time to do this with ease. Collect moving supplies and then start with the rooms you use the least. Guest rooms, spare bedrooms, and dens are good rooms to start with.

Save the kitchen and main bathroom for last.

Label All Boxes

As you begin to pack room by room, don’t forget to label all of your boxes. Take inventory of the items you put in each box and then write down the name of the room the box belongs to. Keep those boxes in their designated room.

For example, when packing the living room, all of the boxes should stay together in the living room. You can also consider using color coordination to help you stay organized. You can label all of the kitchen boxes using blue markers or tape and choose different colors for the other rooms.

Search For a Moving Company

Now is the ideal time to start narrowing down your top picks for local movers. Hiring the best movers near you is essential because you want to have some peace of mind throughout your move. Reputable and trustworthy movers will offer you a fair quote and exceptional services.

While searching for movers, be sure to look at the different services offered. Not all movers offer the same moving services. It’s beneficial to find movers who can not only move your personal belongings to your new home but help pack and unpack as well.

The more the movers are able to do, the less you have to do on your own.

Find a Safe Place For Children and Pets

On moving day, there’s going to be a lot going on in your home. You’ll have movers, friends, and family in and out of the home throughout the entire day. Heavy furniture items and boxes will be moved from the house and onto the moving trucks.

With that being said, it’s always a good idea to find a safe place for children and pets. It’s a dangerous environment for these little ones, and it’s difficult to keep an eye on them when you have so much going on. To make things safer and easier for everyone, schedule a babysitter and petsitter in advance.

Contact Utility Companies

It’s easy to forget the little things while in the middle of a move. You don’t want to show up to your new home with no running water or electricity, though. You also don’t want to continue paying for utilities in a home you no longer live in.

Make sure you contact your utility companies before moving and make them aware of your move date. Already have the utilities set up to stop at your old home and begin at your new home on a specific date.

Put in a Change of Address

You also want to remember to put in a change of address with the post office. You’ll need to change your address with several different companies, which can become overwhelming. This is something that you might do gradually.

To make sure all of your mail is sent to your new address (even if the companies send it to your old one), put in the change of address with the post office. The post office will stop the mail from being sent to your old address and redirect it to your new one.

Cancel or Change Local Memberships

Do you have any local memberships at your old home? For example, you might have a gym membership or a membership with a delivery service. Start going through this list as early as possible to ensure you don’t forget one.

Cancel these memberships or give them your new address if applicable.

Prepare a Personal Bag For Each Person

As you begin packing each room, you’ll begin to notice some things are difficult to pack in a box and keep there. This is why you need to prepare a personal bag for each person in the home. A personal bag contains items that are used or needed on a daily basis.

These items might include toothbrushes, toothpaste, hairbrushes, a child’s favorite blanket or stuffed toy, deodorant, and so on. Give each person their own bag to keep items like these in so they can easily access them when needed.

What’s on Your Moving Checklist?

What items will your moving checklist have? If struggling to create your own, use our moving checklist as a reference and add your own items if needed. The best way to reduce the stress associated with moving is to plan early and have a checklist like this one to keep you on task and organized.

With the right moving checklist in hand, you’ll move with ease. To find more helpful posts similar to this one, continue to check back here on a regular basis!