In less than 3 weeks, we will be moving into our new home. For most people, moving is a huge pain and a stressful time in their lives. It is for us as well. But being organized and having a plan has helped us tremendously, especially since we dont have any family to help us here. I have been researching on the web, ways to organize our move. I have found a couple fantastic ideas to make things easy during the transition.
1. Create a moving binder.
A binder specifically designated for “the move” will save you time, energy, and possibly money (if you lose receipts, etc). I organized my binder into categories.
1. Checklists- Find an online printable that you can use as a guide to what needs to be done before, during, and after the move.
2. Utilities- To keep track of appointments: who, where, what, and when, this is a good idea.
3. Loan Documents- For easy access & reference, I keep these here until after the move.
4. Receipts- This section is for any purchases that will be made in reference to the move or the house. I purchased our kitchen faucet today and printed out the receipt to put here. If something doesnt fit, or you need to return or exchange for any reason, there is no searching for the receipt.
5. Movers- This section is for your moving company or truck rental contract & contact numbers.
6. Builder- Any contact numbers for your builder, any warranties, paperwork, etc. will go here.
7. Inventory List- You can find these online for free. Just print one out and fill it out.
8. Schedules- This section is for appointments (utilities), moving company schedule, etc… I have lots of appointments during our move time so I used a word document calendar, filled it in, and printed it out and placed it in the binder. Mine has our house closing appointment, walk through, movers times, utility hook up times, etc.. Its a good section to have.
*Most of the paperwork in the binder will later be filed. What is not needed will be sent to the recycling bin.
The binder & tabs were purchased at Staples. I used my labeler for the categories, so I can later remove them and reuse the tabs for a different binder.
2. Create a color coded moving legend.
This tip was inspired by Alejandra (my organizing friend). She moved recently and used this same idea for her move. I created a moving legend, using circle labels to color code each designated area in the house where each moving box will go. I added to Alejandra’s idea with the use of color coded cardstock to place on each door, as a map to show the movers where they need to put the boxes. This helps alleviate any confusion as to where the boxes go. (I need to add a couple more colors for the bathrooms, bonus room, etc.).
**TIP – PHOTO COPY your moving legend so it can be placed through out the house and on the front, back, and garage doors. You do not need to make more than one legend. Utilize your copier/printer!!
The color coded cardstock will be hung on the doors of each room.
The color coded stickers are placed on the label of each box, as well as one at the top of each box.
3. Get like sized boxes!
The cheapest place I found boxes (other than free ones) were at Lowes. They are made well and stack well (which is important when loading them onto the truck). We have boxes galore! They range from .70 cents for the small box, $1.12 for the medium box, and $1.36 for the largest box. When stacking these boxes, there are only 3 sizes, so you can stack the small boxes together, medium together, and finally the large ones together. This will efficiently help you fit things into your moving truck better. You can purchase them at your local store, or order them online here.
4. Create a “MOVING BASKET”
Another good idea is to create a “moving basket” for all of the necessary labels, tape, sharpies, scissors, etc. When you move from room to room, just grab the basket. No more searching for lost items.
5. Use ziploc freezer bags
Ziploc bags are my favorite packing & organizing item. I use them for everything. They are cheap and effective. I purchased a 4 pack of freezer bags at Sams. Freezer bags are thicker and will hold things better. My 5 year old separated all of her little toys into these bags and then we packed them into a larger box. When its time to unpack, everything is already organized! I also use them for bathroom accessories, pens, pencils, etc… Really anything that can fit into them and needs separated, I use them for.
6. Pack with bubble wrap
Finally, bubble wrap is needed for breakables. This stuff is reusable too!!
There are many other tips and tricks online to help get organized for a move. “This site” has a great list of tips organized by a weekly countdown. Good luck moving. I hope your move goes as smoothly as ours has (so far). See you soon!
Tags: moving, organization, organize your move
binders, Blog, labeling, moving, Organize, Other Spaces, packing Posted in
25 comments
25 comments on “How to organize your move…”
Great tips that I hope we will be using soon!
You can sometimes find boxes, bubble wrap and plastic bags at yard sales or on Craig’s List.
Hope the rest of your move goes smooth as silk!
I have no plans to move anytime soon but someday we will. I need to bookmark this so that I can be more organized and have it be less stressful. Thanks for the tips
This will help us alot.My parents rent so we move alot and we are always looking around for the things we need to box up the house.
This is SO helpful. We are moving in August, so I will definitely be using these tips! Thanks!
Love this whole strategy! We won’t be moving for another year, but this will be so handy! Thanks for sharing.
Colour coded tagging is just the best.
It’s been too long since I’ve stopped by your neck of the woods!!
You are really always so inspiring!
Hopefully your move goes super smoothly and all that’s unable to be organized and planned out, still falls into place 😉
xoxo
I love ziploc bags as well. I use them for packing away items, especially in my classroom when I have to pack up every year.
Sue
The Very Busy Kindergarten
I love this post, makes me want to move house just to use the colour coding (closet control freak here!!) x
Good luck on your move….!!
Soo glad I found you via Pinterest! We are building a house and will be moving in the fall – this will be sooo helpful! Thanks for sharing!
We are prepping for a move at the end of Summer. These tips are soooo helpful! Thank you!!!
I have one product to add that I will never ever again move with out…a roll of 6″ wide shrink wrap style plastic wrap. It comes on a paper tube handle and seriously, I used it for everything! Bundling like items together, keeping padding wrapped around picture frames and other breakables and not having to deal with packing tape in a million uses. We actually bought several packages of card board file boxes from Sam’s and with two wraps of the plastic, not only did it keep the lids on, but the boxes stuck together when stacked and were super secure in the truck. Seriously, once you try this stuff you will think of a million and one uses for it!
Awesome idea! I just adore your blog. My husband and I are currently in mid-move. I have a binder going, but not nearly as organized! Looks like that’s about to change! Love it!!
http://missnowmrsblogger.blogspot.com
I commented on a previous post, organizing the office, and I stated I’m a military wife. They “say” the military does it all for you and it’s suppose to be stress-less on the family… BULL! YOU ARE A GENIUS! As I have to move every 2-4 years, in the past with only a few weeks notice, this blog post will FOR SURE come in handy when we prepare for our upcoming move. I can NOT tell you how horrible moving companies pack up our house. Thing from the bathroom end up in the same boxes as things from the kitchen or a kids’ bedroom! THIS system, will force them to have no choice but to follow it! It’ll most likely make it easier on them as well! I MOST OF ALL love the color coding system for each box/room. THIS IS PERFECT as the movers almost NEVER put our boxes in the right room, nor do they label them correctly. I am following this system to a perfect T so that my next move will not give me 3 or 4 anxiety attacks! THANK YOU!
You are welcome!! Im glad I can help. 😉
The moving basket is a wonderful idea! Your color coding is fabulous. I think labels are great so you don’t have to write directly on the boxes. It makes them more re-usable if you move again.
Do you have a system for prioritizing each box? For example, the boxes that need to be opened first could be labelled “A”, boxes of lesser importance could be labelled “B” and so on.
I have to say this looks wonderful! For everyone who would like to know about prioritizing what boxes to open. I would take a binder similar to the moving binder and make a table of contents with the colors matching your stickers. Then under each section in the binder you have a chart, first category is the a number 1,2,3, etc( of the box) the second would be a brief description of the contents, third would be priority. Then on the boxes you would put your colored dot a number .
Thank you so much for this!
I have a question though, what do you mean by “inventory list”? Can you give an example/source of the one you used?
I’m moving in a few weeks, and your post will be so useful!
Everything in your home, room by room. 🙂 The item, quantity and how much its worth. Great for insurance purposes.
Great list! I’ve started a binder for our move in a couple months. One thing I love…colored duct tape. I have at least 6 different colors and have been using it for the labels on my boxes, super easy to see which room it goes in.