How to Stay Organized When Moving: Bring Order to the Moving Chaos

When you start planning a move, you know that your organizational skills will be put to the test. You’re well aware that you will have to create a smart relocation strategy and handle every detail with utmost care if you’re to have any chance of success. So, you muster all your energy and brainpower and work hard and diligently to organize your move in the best way possible.

Even if you achieve a perfectly organized move though, it may not be enough to ensure your smooth and stress-free relocation experience – for that, you need to not only organize your move well, but also stay organized throughout the entire process.

With so many complex tasks to complete, however, it can be difficult to stay on top of things all the time. How can you possibly keep track of everything? How can you bring order to the chaos? How can you keep your focus amidst the whirlwind of activity and emotion involved in a house move?

It may not be easy, but it is feasible – you just need to know how to stay organized during a move. Here are some tips to get you on the right track:

Use Helpful Moving Apps

In today’s Digital Age, it would be a shame not to take advantage of the organizational power offered by online moving checklists, relocation planning tools, specialized moving apps, and other helpful modern organizational resources.

You can, in fact, organize your perfect move via the Internet – read online moving guides and moving company reviews, research movers online, request moving estimates online, etc.

And you can stay organized while moving with the help of mobile moving apps – there are specialized apps to help you inventory your possessions, manage the time you have until Moving day, make a floor plan of your new home, etc. Moving apps offer an excellent way to introduce order and structure to the relocation process.

So, when wondering how to get organized when moving, remember the power of modern technology – go digital and get one of the best free moving apps that will allow you to streamline your moving preparations with a simple tap on your phone.

Follow a Master Moving Checklist

Without a shadow of a doubt, moving checklists are the greatest organizational tools there are – they provide easy-to-follow to-do lists that allow you to complete your moving preparations in a timely and organized manner. And while you can find all sorts of moving-related checklists – packing checklists, moving day checklists, new home checklists, etc. – what you actually need is a comprehensive moving checklist that will guide you through the entire relocation process.

Such an ultimate moving checklist will help you not overlook anything important or forget a moving chore, organize your time and prioritize your tasks, monitor your progress and ensure that everything goes according to plan.

Our super-detailed, highly-interactive moving checklist will make things even easier for you as it will allow you to keep track of things with just a few clicks of the mouse or a tap of your finger – so you won’t need to worry how to stay organized while moving anymore.

Create a Moving Calendar

As useful as a house moving checklist may be, you can’t do without a personalized moving calendar either – a customized moving timeline will help you stay better organized during your move as it will be tailored to your specific needs and will detail the specific relocation tasks you need to complete before moving day, together with the appropriate timeframes for their completion. The tasks should be carefully distributed in the months, weeks, and days you have left until your move and prioritized according to their importance and difficulty.

A detailed moving calendar will not only help you organize your time in the best way possible, but will also allow you to break every major relocation task into achievable mini-goals, so you can deal with them one at a time. This will help you keep your focus during the arduous moving process and finish your moving preparations in a systematic and efficient manner.

Make a Moving Inventory

A detailed inventory sheet will help you organize your belongings and, therefore, improve the overall organization of your move:

• It will help you get an accurate idea of your moving costs (the movers will give you a price estimate based on your moving inventory), so you can better organize your finances (See also: How to make a moving budget);
• It will help you determine the kind and amount of packing materials you’re going to need, so you can get the necessary supplies in advance and avoid time-wasting and money-wasting last-minute trips to the store (See also: Packing supplies for moving you can’t do without);
• It will help you find out how much time you’re going to need to pack your belongings, so you can better organize your time (See also: How long does it take to move house).

What’s more, your inventory list will double as a packing list and will make the packing process faster and more efficient (that is – better organized).

Bonus tip: Make sure you declutter your home and purge your belongings well ahead of time – you need to know exactly what you’ll be moving in order to make an accurate moving inventory list and organize your move well. (See also: How to decide what to take and what to throw away when moving)

Also, try to get rid of unwanted items as soon as possible – you don’t want them to clutter your space and contribute to the moving chaos in your home. Besides, you won’t be able to focus on your moving preparations while dealing with online sales, garage sales, and charity donations as well.

Create a Moving Binder

If the best way to stay organized when moving is to have reliable guidelines (checklists, timelines, inventory sheets, etc.) to refer to when you lose your focus, then it will be best to keep all these reference lists – and all the moving-related paperwork as well – in one place. In other words, it will be a good idea to create a moving binder.

A moving binder is a big, sturdy binder with labeled dividers that provides you with somewhere to store your important documents, checklists, schedules, inventory sheets, contact lists, insurance policies, moving contracts and receipts, and other relocation-related papers. All your records and papers will be gathered in one place, sorted out and organized in a logical and practical manner, and kept safe throughout the moving process. Just make sure your moving binder stays with you at all times. (See also: Important documents when moving)

Bonus tip: Be careful not to lose the receipts you receive for donating your items to a charity – they’re tax-deductible. Place them inside your moving binder together with your itemized list of donated belongings.

Have an Efficient Packing Strategy

It’s packing – the most laborious and time-consuming task you need to take care of when preparing for a house move – that creates the most chaos in the pre-move period. So, in order to be organized during a move, you need to somehow bring organization to the packing process.

• Get the necessary packing supplies ahead of time – brand new, quality packing materials, as well as free moving boxes and alternative packing materials;
• Come up with a practical packing schedule that will work for your specific needs and circumstances – specify and prioritize your packing jobs and decide when to tackle what;
• Start packing as early as possible so you have the time to take proper care of your items and never let a day go by without packing a few boxes (See also: How to get motivated to pack for moving);
• Make sure you know where to start packing (storage areas, rarely used room, non-essential items) and what to pack last (everyday necessities and items you’re going to need right until moving day) – follow a detailed packing timeline, so you have all your belongings packed and ready for moving on time and still have access to everything you need in the days leading to your move;
• Pack your items by type, by destination room, or by some other feature that makes sense to you, so the packing process is logical and systematic (See also: The best room-by-room packing checklist for your move);
• Take photos of your belongings before you start packing them for moving and at several times during the packing process – the pictures will help you reassemble furniture, reconnect cords, and recreate your home décor when unpacking after the relocation, so they will contribute to a more efficient and better-organized move (not to mention that they will also provide evidence about the pre-move condition of your items, should you need to file a claim for damage against your movers).

Bonus tip: Don’t forget to pack an essentials box – a survival kit that contains all the things you will need during the last couple of days before your move, the trip to your new area, and the first several days in your new home. Having your essentials packed up separately will not only allow you to survive for some time without the rest of your belongings, but will also help you finish your last moving preparations quickly and easily and will greatly facilitate things on move-in day (as you’ll have everything you need at hand). Just be careful not to let your open-first box be loaded on the moving track – it must travel with you.

Use a Good Labeling System

One of the best strategies for staying organized when moving is to have an efficient labeling system.

Not only will proper labeling let you know what’s inside a box (and make unpacking faster and more efficient), but it will also help you keep track of your items and ensure their safety during the move (as the movers will know which boxes to handle with extra care). It will also speed up the unloading process, as it will be clear where an item should go.

So, make sure you label all your boxes with their contents and label all your items and packing containers with their destination room and necessary handling instructions. It is also a good idea to color-code the boxes, so you (and the movers) can tell at a glance where each carton belongs. The number coded system (where itemized lists correspond to numbered boxes) may be very helpful as well – it will save you plenty of time when packing.

You can find more tips on how to label boxes for moving here.

Designate Different Areas of Your Home for Different Purposes

Keeping your items and your living space in order is another great example of how to stay organized when moving house. To reduce the chaos in your home in the days before your move and prevent mixing up your items during the hectic moving preparations, you’re advised to designate separate areas where to store different categories of items – grouped according to their purpose and fate. Have special places (in the back of the garage, attic, guest room, etc.) where to keep:

• items to be sold;
• items to be donated or given away;
• things to be used up before moving day;
• pre-packed moving boxes;
• items to be packed in your essentials box; etc.

What matters is to keep all items from a certain category together and to keep anything you don’t need at the moment out of the way – this way your things will stay organized, your home will stay organized, and you will stay organized throughout the entire moving process.

Related: What movers won’t move – a list of non-allowable items

Hold Weekly Family Meetings

The only way to achieve an organized move is to keep close track of things so you can take quick and efficient measures if something goes awry.

If you’re moving alone, you’ll be the only one responsible for completing the necessary relocation tasks and so you’ll only need to check your own progress.

If you’re moving with your family, you need to coordinate your efforts and make sure everyone is on the same page – it is a good idea to discuss your moving plans with all your family members at the very beginning of the relocation preparations and distribute the moving tasks among everyone, depending on each person’s abilities and available time. Then, you’re advised to hold weekly family meetings to check on your progress, see if everyone has completed their chores on time, discuss issues and concerns, and search for solutions to challenges and problems.

See also: The epic family moving checklist

Keep Key Contacts at Hand

In order to stay organized when moving to a new home, you need to be able to contact anyone related to your move at any time during the relocation process.

It is, therefore, advisable to have at hand the names, numbers, and email addresses of all the people and organizations you may need during your relocation – your moving company, the moving truck driver, the utility companies you’ll be using at your new home, the hotel you’re going to stay in on the way to your new area, the auto services along your intended driving route, etc.

Have these key contacts saved in your phone, but make sure you have all important contact information written on paper as well, as your communication device may run out of battery or get damaged during the move. Keep the list of contacts inside your moving binder, so it travels with you (it may be a good idea to include a small map print out showing the route to your new home, too).

Stay Focused

Even if you know how to get organized for a move, it won’t do you much good unless you manage to keep your focus and your motivation during the entire relocation period:

• Set clear goals, so you can focus on one thing at a time and not get overwhelmed by the magnitude of the relocation process;
• Reward yourself for every completed task, so you have something to look forward to while dealing with boring and exhausting moving preparations;
• Keep your energy up – eat healthily and get enough rest – so you can work quickly and efficiently;
• Avoid procrastination, so you don’t fall behind schedule;
• Eliminate distractions, so your work has your full attention.

And most importantly – envision your final success, so you can keep stress and fatigue at bay, knowing that your efforts will pay off.

See also: How to stay focused during a move

Staying organized when moving is a challenge you can successfully overcome with the help of various moving planner tools, practical moving checklists, and smart relocation strategies.

All you need to do is plan ahead and stick to your plans – as long as you pay attention to the details and stay focused on your goal, you’ll be able to keep things under control and keep your move on track. Once you find your center, you’re sure to win, you know.

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