The Best Free Moving Apps to Help You Move: Top 5

For better or worse, the Information Age is all around us.

From the moment we open our eyes to the sound of our digital alarm clock, we step into our familiar little worlds shaped by the monumental progress of the ubiquitous zeros and ones.

The world around us is literally bursting with information that craves to be read and heard and understood – yottabytes of breaking news, TV programs, radio stations, books, newspapers, magazines, websites, blogs, social network posts, instant and email messages, and so on.

And yet, probably the best thing about living in the Digital Age is that we are seldom forced to go down a particular road without having a number of alternative paths to choose from.

Let’s say you’re about to move house and you are not entirely sure what you should do to get 100% ready for the Big day. Thanks to the technological progress, now you can take advantage of powerful mobile applications that will help you in every step of your moving adventure.

There are mobile moving apps out there to help you find a reputable moving company, help you organize and manage effectively the time you have until Moving day /a week-by-week moving calendar/, and help you inventory your entire household quickly and easily /a detailed house inventory checklist/.

After doing extensive research, we have compiled a list of the top 5 FREE mobile apps to help you move. We have vigorously tested out and carefully analyzed only the home moving planner apps that are free to install and use because we believe that there’s really no point in burdening additionally your moving budget – you must already know that moving is an expensive affair as it is.

Stop looking for the best FREE moving organizer apps on the market today – we’ve already found and reviewed in detail the top 5 free moving apps so that you don’t lose precious time doing it yourself.

Please feel free to suggest other great mobile apps you’ve used to help you move.

1. Move Advisor

Move Advisor is a brand-new moving organization app that really impressed us with its elegant design, intuitive ease of use, and unrivaled functionality. This ambitious moving helper app took a healthy lead from the very start and never surrendered it until crossing the finish line well ahead of the competition.

Let’s take a closer look at what Move Advisor can do for you during the most transitional period in your life (arguably), and why you should have it on your mobile device at all costs /or better put, at no costs/ while you’re getting ready to move out.

The moment you start the personal moving advisor, you are welcomed by a beautiful home screen that makes you realize that at its core, Move Advisor features 4 distinctive tools, each one addressing an important stage in your busy moving preparation:

Moving Timeline

We have to admit that Moving Timeline offers the most detailed and intuitive week-by-week moving checklist we’ve seen on a mobile app.

In the very beginning, the sophisticated moving calendar tool only needs to know your moving date and how exactly you plan to move /hire a moving company, perform a DIY move, or use a moving container/ before working its magic and providing you with a personal week-by-week to-do list to successfully guide you and ease the hard work ahead of you.

The moving-related jobs you are advised to complete for the week are presented with the help of large and visually appealing self-explanatory icons – simply tap an icon to read more information about the specific task.

Luckily for you, Moving Timeline doesn’t stop where some mobile moving calendars do – not only can you mark a specific task as complete and delete it if you find it irrelevant, but you can also add personal notes underneath each moving task to make it work even better for you, as well as set a custom reminder to finish the job at hand at a later time.

What’s more, the mobile checklist tool Moving Timeline has one unique feature which we found to be extremely helpful – the thoughtful inclusion of an ACTION button below some tasks which lets you complete that particular task faster and easier.

For example, we tapped the ACTION button underneath RESERVE A RENTAL TRUCK and we were given the neat option of visiting the corresponding websites of the four biggest truck rental companies in the country.

Home Inventory

Also, Move Advisor offers a state-of-the-art home inventory tool with whose help you can easily create a detailed house moving inventory. To be honest, we had a lot of fun digitally mapping out an entire imaginary household while testing out this personal moving organization app.

The fun starts as soon as you tap ADD A ROOM. You choose a pre-set room /or even a custom one in which case you get to name it, of course/, and you get to fill up your virtual confined space with all the items found in your real-life room.

And how exactly do you do that? Simply select a household item from the surprisingly thorough list on the top of the screen and drag-n-drop it into the room.

Once your virtual room inventory is complete and the contents of your current room mirror the contents of its real-life counterpart, you save the changes and get the satisfaction of doing it all over again for another room.

The great thing about Home Inventory is the built-in feature to calculate not only the approximate total volume and weight of your shipment but also the number of moving boxes and furniture blankets you will need to pack up your possessions.

Moreover, the displayed estimated capacity of the moving vehicle you need can be very useful for you, especially if you plan to rent a moving truck for your DIY move.

What we truly loved about the home inventory checklist tool was the option it gave us to back up our test inventory by email, mail it to any interested person, or send it directly to a moving company of our choice. Keep in mind that the last option alone can save you hours of precious time as you won’t have to have a lengthy phone conversation with your movers and describe each and every item in your home.

Movers Around You

There’s no question about what a crucial role a moving company can play in the success of your moving adventure.

Movers Around You lets you find a reputable and reliable professional moving company near your home so that you don’t have to search through hundreds of movers until you find the right one. You get a list of trustworthy moving companies, along with their contact information readily displayed for your convenience.

The best thing about this search tool for cross-country moving companies is that before you can make an informed decision about which relocation partner to choose for your upcoming move, you can easily take a look at the companies’ overall performance ratings and read moving reviews about their services which were left by satisfied or dissatisfied past customers.

The performance ratings and moving reviews data are supplied by MyMovingReviews.com

Get A Moving Quote

Finally, Move Advisor offers you an easy and obligation-free way to get a free moving quote from a properly licensed and insured moving company so that you can compare different moving costs estimates and choose the offer that best suits your needs, fulfills your requirements, and fits into your preliminary moving budget.

Move Advisor – the clear winner in our list of top FREE moving apps – is available for iPhones, iPads, and Android mobile devices.

Witness the power of Move Advisor (YouTube, 2:54 minutes)

Official website of Move Advisor

Get Move Advisor from the App Store (FREE, both for iPhone and iPad)

Get Move Advisor from Google play (FREE)

Get Move Advisor from Amazon (FREE)

2. Unpakt

Second in our list of FREE apps to help you move comes the Unpakt app. We were really impressed by the ease of use and the functionality of the moving app. Unpakt is dubbed as a “complete online platform for planning, booking, and managing a move online”, and we couldn’t agree more.

In its essence, Unpakt will help you find a reputable moving company, then let you build your own home inventory. Finally, based on the inventory you’ve created and the extra move details you’ve provided, the moving application will recommend you a mover and give you a guaranteed price. From then on, booking a professional moving company is a breeze.

Now, let’s take a closer look at the Unpakt app – the tool to plan, compare, book, and manage your house move with ease.

Step 1: Initial move details

The Unpakt mobile application provides an easy step-by-step approach to finding a verified mover and having your moving price calculated without any surprises. In fact, we loved the detailed breakdown of the guaranteed price but we’ll get to that later.

In the beginning, you only need to fill out the city you’re moving from, the city you’re moving to, the move size, and your move date – that’s all the info the moving app will require for now. After you input the move date, Unpakt will promptly remind you how many days you’ve got left until the day of your move. Not that you wouldn’t know that, but it’s still a useful feature to have.

Step 2: Inventory list

The next screen will take you to a typical inventory list that’s based on the move size you’ve specified. The inventory feature of the Unpakt mobile app gives you the complete freedom to add, remove and modify pre-loaded items usually found in the living room, bedroom, dining room, and kitchen, including the option to add other rooms and add custom items by specifying their name, width, height, and depth in inches.

The free moving app by Unpakt has got you covered when it comes to moving boxes as well – you can add small, medium, and large boxes, as well as specialized boxes such as dish boxes, wardrobe boxes, and file boxes.

Step 3: A few more move details

After you’ve completed your home inventory, the moving app will request a few more move details such as confirmation of the move date, the approximate move arrival time (8-10 am, 9-11 am, 1-3 pm, 2-4 pm), any additional pick-up stops, and whether or not you will need storage for your items.

Step 4: Verified mover and guaranteed price

The next screen takes you to the final step – the verified mover recommended by the Unpakt app and the price of your move based on your move details – specifically, the inventory list you’ve created.

We really liked the brief profile under the proposed professional moving company – the years of operation, the number of trucks, and the number of employees. Also, the performance score, offered by Yelp and based on customer reviews, will give you more information about how reputable that mover is.

Additionally, you can see your move price guaranteed by Unpakt. For us, the best feature of the moving app is the option to see the detailed breakdown of your price, item by item. At a glance, you can see once more exactly what items you’re moving and how much each item will cost to be moved to your new home.

Of course, you can still edit your inventory if you notice mistakes or if you decide that moving that old dresser is really not worth the money.

Finally, you can review your entire move and book the verified mover online.

Unpakt takes the second spot in our list of the best free moving apps. It is available on the App Store for iOS devices.

Official website of Unpakt

Get Unpakt from Google Play (FREE)

3. Google Keep

We have to admit that we are really impressed by the free mobile app Google Keep. The design is simple and clean (like with most Google products) but the power under the hood is mind-blowing.

The idea behind Google Keep is to “quickly capture what’s on your mind and get a reminder later at the right place or time”. It sounds simple enough… but think about it for a second – isn’t this exactly what you need during a chaotic house move?

When getting ready to move out, you must be thinking about at least a million things at the same time. Now ask yourself this – how many of those things are you likely to just forget to do? A lot!

And this is where Google Keep comes in – the free organization app will help you capture your ideas or thoughts before you forget them.

Create notes and lists

In its essence, you can use Google Keep to create notes and lists while you’re preparing to move out. And while there are too many list-keeping apps on the market, offering both free and paid versions, Google Keep stands out with its elegant simplicity and astonishing feature-richness.

In other words, it’s HOW you create your notes that matters the most.

• Ordinary notes. Of course, you’ll be able to create ordinary notes – just hit the PLUS sign and start typing what’s on your mind. When ready, think of a title for your note (for easier identification later), and you’re done. The only problem? You wish to create extraordinary notes, right?
• Voice notes. Arguably the best feature that Google Keep can offer you is to record voice notes. And before you answer back that you don’t like the sound of your own voice, keep in mind that you don’t have to do it simply because the app will also transcribe what you just said into a written note. Cool, eh?
  This way, you’ll have at your disposal the actual voice recording and the transcribed text for further reviewing. Remember – speaking a voice memo on the go can save you a lot of precious time, especially when you’re really, really pressed for time like during a house move.
• Handwritten notes. Wish to create fancier notes with Google Keep? No problem! You can write notes using your own finger or a stylus, thus getting the chance to either marvel at your own handwriting later on (why not?) or to brag to your friends about just how neat your handwriting is.  
• Photo notes. The functionality of adding photos to your notes and lists can really help you organize a perfect move. For example, you can create a complete inventory of your items before you pack them up – a photo inventory that can help you file a complaint against your moving company in case of a dispute or a damage claim.
  Or you can take a quick photo of each packed box and add it to Google Keep, thus building a detailed packing list of all your moving boxes.
• Checklists. Still not convinced that Google Keep will help you plan your move in the best possible way? Get this: the free moving app can turn any notes into checkboxes, meaning that you can create your own moving checklists with tasks that can be checked when completed. In fact, it can’t get any better than this.

Extra features

Creating notes is one thing, organizing them in a good way is something else. And this is where Google Keep shows its worth too.

Here’s a brief list of what you can do with a Google Keep note once you’ve created it:

• Pin a note to show its high priority;
• Set a reminder for a later time when you’ll have more time to deal with the note;
• Make a copy of a note;
• Share a note with friends or family;
• Synch a note across various devices;
• Add a collaborator to view and edit a note;
• Label or color-code a note for better organization and easier identification;
• Search your notes;
• Archive a note;
• Delete a note.

The bottom line is that Google Keep is an amazing tool to keep you perfectly organized during your house move.

The mobile app is completely free to download and use with your Google account.

Official website of Google Keep

Get Google Keep from Google Play (FREE)

Get Google Keep from the App Store (FREE)

4. Sortly

Described by its developer as “the ultimate organizer app” that is supposed to help you organize all your possessions by creating a visual inventory, Sortly enters our prestigious list of free moving applications at number 4.

Moving inventory

Sortly’s strength relies on creating and managing your personal home inventory – that is, your VISUAL inventory list. Simply select a folder (eg. Move) or a sub-folder (eg. Kitchen) and start taking photos of each item you plan to take with you. You can add up to 8 photos per item to be able to track and identify your possessions much easier.

Also, the free moving app lets you customize all the photos you take with highlights and resizable arrows so that, for example, you can pinpoint a specific item from a shot of various objects. If you want, you can include important details for each photographed item such as tags, notes, product information, serial numbers, warranty dates, and so on.

Another neat feature when building your visual inventory list with Sortly is the option to set reminders to alert you about when you should return borrowed items or when the warranty periods of various items are about to expire.

Moving checklist

As a bonus, the moving organization app Sortly also offers a moving checklist that starts 8 weeks before your moving day. That week-by-week checklist is supposed to help you organize your time by listing tasks and more info about each task. As with all decent moving checklists, you can mark a task as done or render it irrelevant.

It all sounds great, but the missing functionality of creating an additional task or adding notes to an existing one left us a bit puzzled. To make things worse, Sortly’s checklist feels really incomplete – only 2 tasks for “Week Before” and another couple of tasks for “Moving Day”.

Just for comparison, our moving checklist, often regarded as the Greatest Moving Checklist of All Time, includes close to 100 moving tasks before, during, and after the move.

Extended features (Premium account)

As far as we understood, Sortly can also create custom labels, QR labels and then read those labels with a built-in barcode scanner. In addition, the moving app supports cloud backup and sync, as well as web access.

However, all of these features are premium and will cost you.

A Sortly Premium account costs $4.99 a month or $47.99 a year.

The good thing about this moving organizer app is that it is offered for free and you can actually try it out and see whether or not it will be of any use to you.

Sorty is available both for Android-running mobile devices, and iPhones and iPads.

Official website of Sortly

Get Sortly from the App Store (FREE, iPhones and iPad versions)

Get Sortly from Google Play (FREE)

5. OfferUp

At #5 on our list of the best apps for moving, offered free of charge, comes OfferUp – the biggest mobile marketplace for local buyers and sellers.

It’s important to understand that decluttering your home prior to packing up your things and moving them to the new home will make you a winner on multiple levels.

• You’ll save money because fewer items to pack will mean fewer packing supplies AND less stuff to transport will mean lower transportation costs thanks to the reduced total shipment weight;
• You’ll save time because you’ll have fewer house items to pack and transport;
• You’ll reduce the overall moving stress because a decluttered home will also mean a decluttered mind.

And this is where the mobile application OfferUp comes into play.

Sell your unwanted items with OfferUp

It makes all the sense in the world to sell the things you’ve decided NOT to move to the new home. This way, you’ll earn fresh cash that you can use towards your moving budget. Of course, donating some of your stuff is another option you should consider.

OfferUp lets you list an item for sale in as little as 30 seconds. After a welcoming screen asks you to specify your location (ZIP code), the mobile app will know your exact location and will help you sell the things you don’t want in your community or neighborhood.

In reality, posting an item for sale is indeed super easy: you’ve got only 4 steps that take mere seconds. You take a photo of the item you wish to sell or you select the image from your phone or tablet (you can select up to 11 photos per item). Next, you add a title, select a category for the product, mark its condition, and write a brief description (optional).

Finally, you set the price for the item you want to sell, and then, you simply list it.

Buy things for the new home with OfferUp

Once you reach the new home, you can use the moving app OfferUp to buy whatever you need for the new house or apartment at a discount. Remember that old dresser you chose to leave behind since it was not worth moving in the first place? Now it’s the perfect time to get another one.

Tap on the free moving app OfferUp to browse local items for sale with thousands and thousands of new postings every day. What we do like about the free app is that it shows you what’s for sale right in the neighborhood so that you can go and see the item in person and save the transportation costs.

Of course, OfferUp also has a “Ship to me” tab if you like an item that is far from your immediate area.

It seems like this time you’ll skip the hassle of organizing a garage sale.

Offer up is available for free from Google Play and Apple’s App Store:

Official website of OfferUp

Get OfferUp from Google Play (FREE)

Get OfferUp from the App Store (FREE)

Disclaimer: In August 2018, it was announced that MoveAdvisor had been acquired by its parent company MyMovingReviews. Read the full press release here.

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What do you think about our list of the top 5 free moving apps?

Can you recommend another good moving organization app that you’ve found useful?

We’d love to read your comments and suggestions below. 

Thanks!