When you think of a house move, do you usually visualize the proverbial moving truck being loaded or unloaded in front of a residential building, together with the unmistakable sturdy movers, heavy cardboard boxes, and friendly-looking dollies? Chances are that you do.
But if you give it another thought, you will probably realize that there must have been an overwhelming number of move-related activities before that stylized house-moving point was reached.
That’s right – an endless array of things to do before moving into a new house, begging to be completed by whoever’s moving house.
If you happen to be the person who’s facing a residential move, then you must know what to do before moving across the country to guarantee yourself a successful end to your moving adventure.
Refresh your memory with the following detailed visual list of 15 things to do before moving:
1. Create a budget to monitor your expenses
Create a moving budget to be in complete control of your moving expenditure.
Even before you can get mentally ready for the overwhelming number of things to do before moving out, your very first task ahead of you is to get a rough idea of how much your move will cost.
In other words, you’re going to need a realistic moving budget so that you are well familiar with your financial strengths and weaknesses all the way until you’ve settled in your new home.
Don’t think twice about setting a preliminary budget plan – just do it. You may not realize it right away but the creation of such a relocation budget will help you have a trouble-free move in 3 distinctive ways:
A well-planned moving budget will make you see whether you have enough financial stability to pull off the upcoming relocation without falling into any kind of debt.
A good relocation budget will enable you to monitor closely your moving expenses and will hopefully alert you when a specific task has gone over its set limit.
Each essential task you mark as complete in your personalized and prioritized relocation calendar will help you handle the fabled stress when moving house.
Organizing your time efficiently is near the very top of the important things to do before you move house.
Not surprisingly, if you fail to take advantage of each and every hour you have available to do the things you must do before moving out, then you can easily and irrevocably jeopardize the success of the entire relocation operation.
Make every minute count with a specialized to-do list containing the essential jobs to complete until the Big day arrives. To make the most out of your pre-move time, your moving calendar should be:
personalized – include only moving tasks that are relevant to your specific relocation instance. For example, you don’t need the entry Take pet to see the vet if you don’t own any pets; and
prioritized – obviously, some calendar entries will be more important than others so you need to take care of the more fundamental ones first.
Stick to your personalized and prioritized moving checklist and you will notice how your time efficiency increases and how your relocation stress decreases with each completed task.
Feel free to get great ideas from the greatest MOVING CHECKLIST of all time.
3. Find a great mover to help you move
Find a reliable and reputable moving company to guarantee the success of your house-moving adventure.
Without a doubt, one of the most important things to do before moving into a new house is to find qualified professional movers to help you with the toughest aspects of your local or cross-country move.
Provided that you have sufficient time, you probably realize perfectly well that you can manage some of the moving jobs on your own /finding moving boxes, packing, labeling, and a slew of other organization tasks/.
However, when you reach the point of having to disassemble your furniture, lift and carry heavy household items, and load a moving vehicle properly, then all of a sudden you may find yourself in dire need of experienced professionals.
There are exactly NINE critical steps to hiring the best movers so that you can select the right type of professional relocation assistance in your particular case:
Choosing a favorable date for your move will bring you much more benefits than you suspect.
Once you have set up your finances, organized your time, and found a trustworthy moving company, your next task from the list of things to do before moving is to decide on a moving date that will actually prove to be beneficial for you on several levels.
More often than not, you won’t really have any control over choosing your move-out date simply because it will be chosen for you by the real-life circumstances that have necessitated your residential move in the first place.
However, if you do happen to have the flexibility to have a say about your fast-approaching moving day, then you must use that excellent opportunity to make it work in your favor.
Bring down your moving costs by scheduling your move during the off-peak moving season (September – May) when most movers tend to lower their standard rates considerably.
Opt for a day in the middle of a month, avoid weekends and national holidays, and reserve the moving date as soon as you can.
Make the transition as smooth as possible for all family members, take into consideration previously planned events (vacations, trips, visits, etc.) and special circumstances – for instance, the disruption of your child’s school year.
Inventory your home and optimize your household items until you’re left only with what you really want and need.
Our list of things to do before you move house continues with another must-do moving task that plays a major role in determining the success rate of your moving adventure – inventorying your home and simultaneously reducing the number of things you’re taking with you to your new residence.
In fact, this fundamental process is so important that you shouldn’t make the costly mistake of skipping it altogether.
Of all the things to do before moving to a new city, the job of inventorying and optimizing your possessions is one of the very few ones that will enable you to
save money – fewer goods to transport = less transportation costs,
save time – fewer items to pack = faster and safer packing,
and save your nerves – decluttered home = decluttered mind
all at the same time.
Your detailed home inventory checklist will enable you to:
figure out exactly what you’re dealing with as far as the number of household items and personal belongings are concerned;
decide which possessions you haven’t used in years so that you can maybe get rid of them forever;
use your house inventory as an actual packing list later on when the time comes to pack up your home for a move.
6. Sell unwanted items to boost your moving budget
Sell your no-longer-wanted items to feed two birds with one bag of seeds – save on transportation costs and earn some extra dollars to help your cause.
Even if your preliminary calculations have determined that your budget will be more than sufficient to cover the moving costs ahead of you, one of the most critical things to remember when moving house is that additional money is always welcome because you will be definitely faced with a score of immediate post-move expenses.
Therefore, there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t use the presented house moving opportunity to earn some extra dollars. Sure, but how?
While compiling your thorough house inventory, make notes of the items you will not take with you for one reason or another. Any belongings you don’t like anymore, possessions you no longer need, or forgotten items you haven’t even used in years are just another proof that it’s high time you did something about it.
Organize a profitable moving sale to get rid of all the stuff you’ve decided to leave behind and pocket some extra cash;
Attempt to sell your unwanted possessions online at one of the largest Internet marketplaces such as Craigslist and eBay, as long as on specialized local websites such as Facebook Marketplace, Carousell, and OfferUp;
Learn where and how to sell your used furniture to avoid increased relocation costs;
Do the right thing and donate to charity some of your belongings, or give them to close friends to make them happy.
Bubble wrap – take advantage of the best protection for all your fragile and valuable items when packing for a move.
Of all the things to do before moving out for the first time, there is one well-known task that you should not postpone even for a single day. Yes, it’s packing.
However, before you can initiate the most time-consuming job of a house move, you will need to obtain all fundamental packing materials beforehand so that you won’t be forced to interrupt your packing process in the middle of it.
Make sure you get:
Moving boxes. Considered the king of packing supplies, look for alternative ways of getting FREE MOVING BOXES before you decide to purchase brand-new cardboard containers from a local moving company or an office supply store. While hunting for boxes at local retail stores or businesses, look for clean ones in good condition that won’t easily break under the weight of what’s stored inside them.
Packing paper. Specialized soft packing paper is ideal for keeping your items safe during transit but it doesn’t come free of charge. You can use super-cheap newsprint for certain non-valuable items but be mindful of the side effect of using newspapers – possible ugly ink stains.
Bubble wrap. It’s an indisputable fact that the air-filled bubbles provide the ultimate protection for any items wrapped in them. Purchasing enough quantities of bubble wrap will prove to be a wise investment on your part, especially for your more fragile and valuable possessions.
Packing tape. You need high-quality packing tape to reinforce and seal your packed moving boxes, so don’t settle for less.
If packing for a move were an art, you would be given the unique chance to complete your artistic masterpiece.
As you can imagine, there are so many things to do before moving into a new apartment, moving into a new house, or moving into a rental home that effective time management becomes crucial for the overall success of your endeavor.
And speaking of time management when moving house, this is about the right time to start thinking about packing up your home for moving.
Pay attention to the following major principles to increase your packing speed, packing safety, and overall packing efficiency:
Pack a few boxes a day beginning from the moment your relocation is confirmed and don’t rely on exhausting packing marathons leading up to your moving date.
Take care of your storage areas first /basement, attic, garage, tool shed/ as their packing usually takes more time than originally planned. Always start packing from your most challenging rooms and move to the easier ones.
Allocate one room as your packing station and be careful not to litter it with too many packed boxes and packing supplies.
Pack quickly by tackling your bulkier and heavier household items first before moving to the smaller bits and pieces.
Consult our revolutionary guide on how to pack up your home in exactly 60 steps.
A minute to label your packed boxes now will save you hours later when you start unpacking in your new home.
When being caught up in the packing process, don’t forget that one of the most frequently forgotten things to do before moving into a new home is to label packed boxes the right way.
Sheer moving inexperience may lure you into thinking that labeling your ready containers is nothing more than a waste of time. However, that is definitely a wrong approach simply because failure to use a working labeling system will force you to waste valuable time when your goods are finally delivered to your new residence.
In order to save hours of precious post-relocation time and strong headaches, be smart and think of a smart labeling system to label your moving boxes:
It’s best if you use permanent and waterproof markers of different colors or color labels/stickers to mark the destination rooms on your packed containers. For example, you can designate green for your new kitchen and red for your new house bedroom.
Instead of color codes, you can also use numbers for each box and then link them to a detailed packing list kept separately in a safe place.
Non-color or non-numerical labels/stickers are also okay as long as they contain vital information such as their destination rooms, contents, and specific handling instructions, if any.
Label your moving boxes on at least 3 sides so that the markings are easily visible from anywhere.
Why not present the entire house move to your younger child as an adventurous game?
What to do before moving out? This one is easy – set your priorities right.
If you have children, they should be right on the top of your list of relocation priorities. Babies and toddlers do need their daily routine to remain the same because familiarity brings comfort and calmness into their little worlds.
Young kids are usually good at registering the elevated levels of stress and anxiety of their parents, and as a result, they may become more and more restless as Moving day draws nearer and nearer. Therefore, do your best to keep their daily regime as unchanged as possible and make sure you watch them closely throughout the house move.
And as if the stress and obstacles of organizing and executing a residential move were not enough, moving house with school-age children and teenagers will present a whole new set of challenges for you. School, friends, and fear of the unknown now take center stage in your older children’s lives and you will have to find the right approach to talk to your kids and win them over as your allies.
Consult our complete guide on moving with children to learn what challenges await you and how to best deal with them.
Do your best to provide a good level of safety for your animal friend and if possible, spend more time with them just before and right after the move.
If you’re a proud pet owner, then you shouldn’t forget about your pets’ needs as well.
Dogs and cats are extremely sensitive and will sense the upcoming changes way in advance, so similar to the case when moving with younger children, you should do whatever it takes to preserve their routine as unchanged as possible.
If your pet becomes too stressed out or agitated prior to moving day, discuss with your qualified vet possible antianxiety medication for them during the mandatory medical checkup. Most importantly, devote more time and attention to your animal friend to help them cope with this transitional period much more easily.
Avoid losing important pieces of mail by changing your address roughly 2 weeks before you move out.
One of the things you should remember is that every time you move house, your postal address changes too. This is logical, of course, but amidst a whirlwind of things to do before moving into a new home, you may as well forget about changing your address… and lose an important piece of mail in the process.
To keep receiving your mail without any problems whatsoever, it’s recommended that you change your postal address roughly 2 weeks before you move out so that your COD (Change of Address) request can be processed in due time. The good news is that you are given 4 ways to change your address when moving so that you can pick the one that happens to work out best for you.
Online. Changing your address online is very convenient since you can do it from the comfort of your home when you do find some free time to do so. To change your address online, visit the official USPS Change of Address page to get started.
In person. When you do find free time in your busy moving schedule, visit the nearest post office and fill out the PS Form 3575 to initiate the change of address procedure.
Over the phone. If you prefer to change your address over the phone, you can do it by calling 1-800-ASK-USPS and following the pre-recorded instructions.
By mail. It makes sense to be able to change your address by mail, doesn’t it? Download the USPS Printable Change of Address Form – PS Form 3575, fill it out, and mail it to POSTMASTER, United States Postal Service with First Class Postage.
Transfer your home utilities on time to avoid having to unpack your stuff in the dark when you arrive in the new house.
You should know by now that some things to do when you move are more important than others, and that’s exactly why the tasks in your personalized moving checklist should also be prioritized. In other words, complete the most critical tasks first while you have the time.
One very important thing you should do before moving away is to transfer or change your home utilities (electricity, water and sewage, gas, cable TV, Internet, telephone, waste removal, etc.) to the new home you’re moving into soon. After all, you wouldn’t want to arrive in the new place and find out there’s no electricity or running water, would you?
Create a list of utilities to change;
Re-evaluate your utility services;
Decide whether to change or transfer your utilities;
Contact your current utility companies;
Pay any outstanding balances;
Get back any utility deposits;
Find utility service providers in your destination;
Contact your new utility companies for additional information;
Do a final meter reading before you move out.
The task of transferring or changing your home utilities is not too complicated but you still need to plan it well and include it in the list of things to do before moving to another state.
Trust a top-rated auto shipper to transport your car across the country.
Naturally, there will be many decisions to make when getting ready to move out, and one of them is what you should do with your car or your extra car for that matter.
If you only have one personal vehicle and you’re driving it to the new home, then you should concentrate on getting it ready for the road trip and packing it properly for the journey ahead. However, if you’re flying to the new home or you have another car as well, then one of the things you should do before moving out is to figure out how that vehicle is going to make it to the new house.
Most often, you’re going to need to hire a car shipping company to transport your car to the place you’re moving to. When looking for car shipping services, your top priority should be to find an auto shipper with extensive experience, a high level of professionalism, and of course – a decent dose of affordability as well.
Bear in mind that finding a dependable auto shipper is critically important for the entire car shipping affair, but you’ll also need to invest a good amount of time into preparing your car for transport. Follow the link below to learn everything you need to know about shipping a car to another state.
Click here if you’re moving abroad and you’re interested in how to ship a car overseas.
15. Take care of all organization details
Only one concept will really guarantee the outright success of your move: O*R*G*A*N*I*Z*A*T*I*O*N
What to do before moving out? What an excellent question!
In addition to all the essential things to do before moving to a new house, there is a score of other equally important organization tasks to complete before you can say that you’re ready to move out.
Obtain school records of your children. This way, you will be able to register them with the new school problem-free when you move to a new city.
Get medical records for all family members. Visit your family physician, dentist, specialized doctor and vet, and request the relevant documentation to find and register with new healthcare providers in your new city.
Notify friends and institutions of your move. You can inform them of your move over the phone, through an e-mail message, or with the help of your favorite social network.
Cancel your subscriptions. There’s no reason now to keep that membership card for the local gym, or to keep having the morning newspaper delivered to your door anymore.
Go to bed early. Of all the things to do before moving out, you may view this task as the least important one. Only it’s not. You will definitely need any reserves of mental strength and physical stamina to make it through the most exhausting, stressful, and never-ending day of your relocation.
Still not entirely sure you’re ready to move out?
Fear not, for we have exactly what you need – a complete and unabridged moving checklist with more than 120 one-sentence tasks to guide you in the right direction as far as relocation organization goes.
You can also download the super detailed moving checklist free of charge as a printable PDF version here.
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