Moving!

I am not an expert on many things – but I would say I have advanced working knowledge of a lot of random topics.  Moving is one of them.

My family was military so we moved a lot in my youth.  Many of the times the movers arrived, packed the house, and put it on a truck.  Like magic… During that time, I learned how to clean a house properly when moving out.  Seriously, they don’t mess around and my father even had a white glove at one point.  I think my mother took care of that somewhere along the way.

When I lived on my own, I moved no fewer than 20 times.  I’m not kidding.  I have learned how to pack so I can carry it, what needs to be packed first, and what can wait until the last minute.  I also know how to clean as I pack so it makes final move-out simpler.

Now that I’m married with an instant family of step-children, we’re embarking on our first move together.  This week will be all about pre-packing, planning, and setting up the schedule.  It’s come to my attention that this is not common knowledge.  Who knew?  So here’s my process and if it helps you, then great!

First:  Pre-packing can go on from the moment you know you’re moving until you start the actual dedicated packing.  This involves putting away any items you know will not be used in the next 6 months.  Whether that’s winter clothing, holiday items, or certain appliances you don’t use regularly – put them in boxes and bins that can be moved as is.  Stack these things out of the way but easily accessible, this is important in a moment.

Next:  Planning is something a lot of people do not do when they move.  Why?  I have no idea!  It’s VITAL to making things work smoothly and on schedule.   Here are the steps:

1. Find your new place.  Make sure the layout works for your flow and function.  Think about all the areas you and your family need – are they all there? 
2. Measure the rooms.  If it’s an apartment, they will let you back in to visit your place before your lease starts.  Tell them you just need to go in and take measurements.  Some places have floorplans with those measurements already – ask!!  Note plugs and light switches.
3.  Measure the doorways.  Finding out a treasured piece of furniture isn’t going to fit on moving day not only is a schedule killer, but an emotional drain when you have to make a spot decision.
4. Figure out flooring.  If you will need area rugs or other protective coverings, get those first and put them in place first.  Once furniture is in place, this sucks.
5. Draw a layout of your new place, using the measurements (usually I find that ½ inch or 1 inch = 1 foot to be a decent sized drawing.  Use pen and paper or PowerPoint or if you have it, an actual floorplan software.  Note doorways and windows.  Mark the plugs and light switches.
6. Measure your large pieces of furniture.  Anything that cannot be taken apart in small pieces counts.  Electronics, bedframes, dressers, sofas, etc.  Awkward pieces especially need full measurement to account for getting them through doorways.  I suggest saving these measurements for any future moves.
7. This is the point where you decide stay or go for large items.  If they go, sell them, store them or give them away now.  No sense letting them be in the way when it’s move time.
8. Arrange boxes the relative size of the pieces your keeping on your room layout.  This will help you decide where things should go and WHAT ORDER they need to enter the room.  Fill from the point furthest from the door.  In bedrooms, leave rooms for beds to be assembled.  More on this in a second.
9. Figure out how many people are needed to move the large stuff or hire movers.

Finally:  Planning is complete so it’s time to set up the schedule.  If you can start moving in a week or more before you have to vacate your current home, this is ideal.  Having time to go back into your empty place and make sure you got everything and it’s in good condition is preferable.  I’ve had those barely moved out in time moments and they suck.  Your schedule will be flexible, but the basic order of events seems to work best like this:

1. One week or more prior to signing lease and obtaining keys:  Pack anything you won’t need for the next two weeks.  Go through each room and bring it down to the base essentials.  Keep one box open for things you will need up until the last minute and load what you can in there.  Any cabinets or surfaces now vacated should be thoroughly cleaned and not used again.  Stack boxes with clear labels of their new destination.  Mark A, B, or C on them to indicate level of importance of contents.  A boxes need to be unpacked upon arrival, B within a week, C within a month.
2. Once you sign your lease and obtain keys:  Move all pre-packed items.  Remember those initial boxes of basically storage items?  Those should all be marked C and moved in your car as available to your new place.  They can stack in a closet or corner and be safely out of the way.  Breakables that aren’t needed should be included in this process.  (This is a great point for friends who have offered to help.  It's a manageable amount of work that can take only an hour or so a night and be followed by dinner or drinks.)  If any of the main packing can be taken at this time, do it!  Clean the vacated areas and if possible, arrange for carpet cleaning now.  This is also the time to clean your oven.  You can go a week without baking, right?
3. Roughly 3+ days before you need to be out of your place, move the large items.  Either with movers or friends - get that stuff into your new place.  You can sleep there now and start to function from that home base.  The last few days in your new place should be all about cleaning and making sure nothing was left behind.  The earlier you can move the large items, the better – in case there are bigger repairs needed in your old home.
4. The first week in the new home:  Nights one and two  – unpack as many A boxes as you can.  Spend the remaining nights unpacking and arranging items in your B boxes.  Don’t touch the C boxes until you have all the previous boxes gone and the house arranged to function.  You’ll find as you tackle the remaining things that you are able to purge some things and better utilize others when you have clean space to work from.

So that’s the basic schedule.  There are a lot of minutiae not covered in there to get all the specifics of cleaning accomplished and final walk-through’s etc.  Some key notes are:

When either house is empty, note on a piece of paper any damage found.  If it’s the new place, you’ll need to turn that in to your landlord or if you’re buying, put it on your to-do list.  If it’s the old place, you need to figure out if it’s considered normal wear and tear that will be taken care of by the new tenant / landlord or if you need to replace or repair something.  Especially important if you will not be there for the final walkthrough because of work or some other commitment, you want to have a list to match against anything they find.  Another GREAT idea is to take pictures so you have proof.

Happy moving!  Next edition of this will be cleaning tips to get out faster…