Moving Checklist | Template
Process
The way I've approached moving, and learned from it, has made me focus on a few specific things. First, is to nearly 'move' as much as you can as soon as possible. I, and everyone I've helped moved before, has underestimated what it takes to move. All of the packing, deep cleaning, and breaking down of big furniture you can do far in advance. Also, ensure the finalization of moving out and moving in. Apartments often need 2 months' notice in advance, for example. It's good to do three if you can and if you've already decided by then. Some people wait to see their new lease price offer, which might only come in 2 months in advance. Apartment moving in has move in dates. Your rent will probably end up overlapping in order to have time to move from one place to another in a couple of days, which brings the third focus: budget. Buget money for the overlapping rent or mortgage and closing fees, budget the cost of moving of boxes an extra gas or post office or U-hauls. Changing your utilities over, you might want to have your utilities run over for both places while you move. This way, your fridge and air conditioner or heater (depending on your location and weather around that time of the year) are available while moving at both residences. Buget the time it will take to move. So, fourth, budget your energy and strength. Moving leaves you sore over the next day. Not much is worse than having no energy, arm strength, or time to move on your last day and having to 'figure something out'. This is where asking friends a week or two in advance to help you move can really make a difference. Pizza is the typical appreciation gift. Healthier options are great too. Like a crudité board, plenty of water, maybe juices or electrolytes to help with the sweating, and a full meal like a light casserole, etc. Anything non-heavy since this is basically a 'post workout'. Keep in mind that your helped movers may need help one day themselves, and you can repay the favor.
This is assuming that I'm moving out of an apartment, for example, and into another. In the process of buying a house or condo or selling one, that is a much more paperwork heavy process. Even just moving in with new roommates or with your parents again for a while means taking care of your affairs at what will soon be the old residence and getting the new one prepared. I've found this a good time to record your address. I started recording my addresses of residence when asked in special paperwork or identity confirmation cases to select my previous residences. It's been useful since I tend to forget thigs like apartment numbers, or even housing numbers if your back house A for example, and also, I tend to forget the zip codes and even extended zip codes for total accuracy. You can use the address record template here.
Keeping a list of things to buy for moving out or moving in like lightbulbs, cleaning supplies, wall patching kits, paint, bait, etc. will be useful. Remember to air out the living space if the new home has not been occupied for a while.
Also, things like forwarding your mail, or having a hold at your mailbox if the new one is getting fixed in the age of broken into mailboxes is something to consider.
A U-Haul might be useful.
For moving overseas, or far away, the post office flat rate boxes are amazing. They are good for the heaviest of compact objects. For example, books.
Overall Timeframe
- Decide whether or not to move.
- Do paperwork for both residences as needed. Moving in with roommates or even parents, make sure you have your agreements sorted out.
- Give notice to move in advance. If you have a landlord you communicate with regularly such as a house rental, letting them know far in advance can be helpful for them to plan accordingly. For example, if you know in six months, you will move, let them know informally via text or whenever you see them that you'll probably move (this is to be safe in case something comes up and you change your mind), and then formally two or three months before over email/text. Another way is to informally inform the landlord about 3 months prior that you will likely be moving out, then two months before, state whether or not you've for sure decided to move out and ask if there is any check out list.
- Asking to Leave Your Lease Early: usually, breaking a lease is a bad thing. You get charged greatly for it. You are expected to pay for the entirety of the lease. You may even encounter a fee, but if you know you can move into the new residence before the ending of the lease, you could always ask what works best for the landlord or management. For example, let's say your lease is up January 1st, 2025, but you can move into your new place as of November 15th, 2024. If your current monthly payment is $1,000 a month, but given real estate increases, the demand for a place like yours is now $1500 a month, instead of getting $1000 for December, assuming there is a large move in market, it might be better for your landlord to let you end your lease early and set up a move in for someone else December 1st who will pay 500 more. This is assuming a good market for them where they could nearly grantee renting it out. I bring this up as we recently passed, as a fast-growing city, an enormous increase in the amount people were willing to pay for current residences. In my case, it nearly doubled and move in dates were being agreed to in 3 days rather than 3 months.
Major Strategy
There is a lot to consider when preparing to move. Once the decision to move residences is made, details such as time frames and to-do lists come to fruition. The following are some considerations to make that can make the moving process a bit more efficient, cheaper, and possibly even enjoyable:
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Finish Securing the New Residence | Clean and Pack | Inspect, Move, and Setup While You Go
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Planning
Plan ● Clean ● Pack ● Move
- Identify how much time you have to move, how much time it takes to get from the first residence to the second (and back while considering avoiding bad traffic times),
- Decide on the timeframes, deadlines, and priorities for the steps to moving.
- Timeframes such as, how much overlap you have overlap between when you can move into to the new place and when you need to be moved out of the old one,
Note: Start packing as soon as possible and start cleaning even sooner.
- Once you plan on moving, start saving all delivery boxes. Save money by using left over Amazon, Hello Fresh, etc. boxes for packing. This way, you don't need to spend as much money on buying new moving boxes. Even if you think you can move with mostly some tote and trash bags, saving the boxes you'll already have is useful since they're protective, fitting for anything geometric, and stackable.
- Consider using tote bags, old boxes of supplies like for blenders, etc.
- Packing things like toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc. into a cosmetic bag then everything else can be boxed or bagged and labeled. In the two months, theoretically you can still pull out your uncommon items. Just fold the tops of the box in overlapping fours instead of taping.
- I've seen people who kept their appliance boxes. For example, blenders have weird enough shapes and sharp enough blades to hold themselves.
- Start deep cleaning asap in order to minimize last minute cleaning.
- Is your home address the same as your physical address and as your mailing address? These are not always the exact same. For example, if your condo complex occupies multiple streets.
Plan ● Clean ● Pack ● Move
To-Do List
Clean the Bathroom
- Scrub the shower/tub, toilet, and bathroom sink in advance. When you get closer to the move out date, clean them again, but now this will take far less time and elbow grease. Most of the tasks being done in advance once is meant to cut down on the energy it will take when it is time to move. That's when stress is highest, arms are tired for days from carrying boxes, and time is short.
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