The Ultimate Moving Checklist For Planning Ahead

Regardless of whether you’re moving to another state or just across the street, moving can be stressful. To manage any moving day anxiety, you’ll need a strong game plan and a comprehensive moving checklist to effortlessly navigate each step of the moving process.

Let’s take a look at a few of the major tasks you’ll need to handle before the big day arrives. We’ll craft a timeline that details when you should tackle each task so you aren’t left scrambling the day before moving.

2 Months Before Your Moving Date

You still have plenty of time to get your high-level chores in order with 2 months to go before your move. At this point, you should focus on the big-picture tasks versus the smaller ones.

Decide how you want to move, what you want to get rid of and what you want to bring to your new home.

Say Goodbye To Extra Stuff

The key to a low-stress move is to travel as lightly as possible. Two months before your moving date, think about what you need and want to bring with you.

Renowned professional organizer Marie Kondo has tips on decluttering before the move. She recommends working through these categories in the following order:

1. Clothing
2. Books
3. Miscellaneous goods (including office and kitchen supplies)
4. Sentimental items

As Kondo suggests on her website, “When tidying a subcategory, such as bathroom supplies, bring every item from separate bathrooms together to review.”

You don’t have to throw everything away. You can donate to your local thrift store to make your move lighter. You can earn a quick buck with a garage sale or sell your items through online marketplaces.

Consider donating or selling items that you can easily replace or that you haven’t used in the past year. There’s nothing worse than moving stuff that ends up sitting in a storage unit because you didn’t need it.

Make Lists And Organize

Now that you’ve removed the extra stuff, start organizing the items you want to bring with you. Create a list of everything you need to pack and organize it by room.

Sorting out everything you plan on moving by room increases the chances of the right box ending up in the right room, making unpacking quicker and easier.

The more organized your labeling system, the less you’ll need to worry about lugging a heavy box of dishes from the basement back up to the kitchen because it wasn’t labeled properly.

Decide How You Want To Move

Decide whether you want to use professional movers, get help from friends and relatives or do it yourself. You have options regardless of what your budget looks like.

If there’s a line item in your budget to hire professionals, start collecting quotes from local companies and reading through online reviews.

Be sure to get separate quotes from movers: one that quotes what they’ll charge to pack your stuff and the other with the price to pick up and move your packed belongings. The quotes will likely be very different.

Start The School Enrollment Process

If you’re moving with a school-aged child, you may need to enroll them in a new school or day care. Start this process as early as possible. Depending on the type of school you’re interested in, you may encounter a lengthy waitlist, especially in a