How to Organize a Memorable Moving Away Party in 10 Steps

Moving day is almost at your doorstep and one important task that you still haven’t checked as DONE in your detailed Moving Checklist is to say goodbye to your friends.

Of course, you would very much love to see your good friends one more time before having to go away. After all, nobody knows for sure when you’re going to see your pals again – it could be soon after the move is complete but it could also be several years before you meet them once more.

On some rare occasions, you may never see some of your friends again.

Did you know that the best way to say goodbye to your friends before moving away is to organize a moving away party for your pals?

That’s right – a friendly get-together that will give you the chance to spend some quality time with your buddies before having to move away to another part of the country, or maybe even abroad.

These 10 steps will show you how to organize a moving away party – a fun farewell party that you will remember long after you’ve moved away.

Is it a good idea to throw a going away party?

Throwing a house-cooling party before you move away is a wonderful idea. In fact, unless there’s a good reason against it, you should definitely do all in your power to host a farewell party for your pals before you go.

But why is organizing a moving party a good idea, you may ask?

Here’s why:

• You will see your friends once more, for you never know exactly when you’ll be able to do so again after moving away;
• You will have some fun with your pals – this is especially important prior to the stressful Moving day;
• You will spend quality time with your pals, thus creating precious memories that will remain with you during the difficult post-move period;
• You will have the chance to tell your friends how much they mean to you and how much you value their friendships;
• You will exchange contact details so that you can continue to keep in touch with your buddies after the relocation.

View the moving away party as an excellent opportunity to bring some fun into a rather stressful house move as it is.

While it’s true that farewell parties often turn out to be bittersweet experiences – after all, you’re saying goodbye to your best friends, the mere fact that you’re spending time among wonderful people should be enough to want to organize a moving away party at all costs.

How to Say Goodbye to Friends When You’re Moving

Step 1. Set the date of the farewell party

Let’s assume that you have already made up your mind to host a moving away party. Unless you’re really pressed for time and you know you won’t be able to finish packing on time, then there’s no question that you should invite your best friends over for an informal get-together before circumstances force you to part ways.

Since preparing to move out is a tedious process that can stretch over many days, you shouldn’t lightly miss any opportune moments to have some fun, should you?

The first step to organizing a great farewell party is to set the date. Your going away party should happen just a few days before you have to move out. In most cases, it’s a bad idea to organize the friendly party the day before the move-out date and it’s a really bad idea to set the party date on Moving day itself.

Of course, the date should also be convenient for your friends. So, give yourself more negotiation time by never waiting until the last minute to set the date for the going away party.

Step 2. Decide where to host the moving party

As a rule of thumb, a moving party is held at the place which a person is leaving – be it an apartment or a house. That’s the usual setting of those types of events and all guests will assume that’s the case too.

You should also consider hosting the moving away party at your current home – you know the place well so you’ll know just how to make it work when it comes to having some fun with your pals there.

However, you might have a good reason for not wanting that informal get-together at your current place. Maybe the whole living space is so cluttered with cardboard boxes and so messy with all kinds of miscellaneous stuff that your friends won’t feel comfortable there. Or maybe you will feel uneasy having your pals over when the place is a complete mess. 

The good news is that you have other options too. When it comes to moving away party location ideas, you can choose to organize a farewell party at a favorite bar. You can throw the moving away party at the bowling alley where you and your friends often hang out to play.

If you seem to be running out of good options, you can even ask a close friend if you can have the party at their place. After all, desperate times call for desperate measures.

Step 3. Make a decision about who to invite

You should start working on your guest list as soon as make up your mind to host a going away party. Without a doubt, your ultimate decision on who to invite to your friendly gathering will determine to a large extent how entertaining the whole event will turn out to be.

This is exactly why you should review the guest list and revise it a few times until you’re absolutely sure that the remaining individuals are the ones you’d like to be around just before having to move away to another town or city, usually to another state altogether.

It’s a strictly personal choice whether you prefer to invite just a few of your closest friends or you’d rather have a large gathering of good friends, neighbors, co-workers, and some of your friends’ friends too.

Having a more intimate party with the persons you care about the most makes more sense under the circumstances, but there are no set rules about how to go about organizing your own farewell party.

At times, the more-the-merrier approach could work out well for you as well.

Step 4. Send the party invitations

The next step when organizing a moving party is to prepare and send out the invitations.

It wouldn’t be a real moving away party without any invitations, would it? Besides, you’ll probably want to make sure that only the people you have invited personally will come over to your place.

Remember to send out your invitations relatively early in order to give your friends more time to include the party date in their plans. Bear in mind that it’s unrealistic to invite your pals without any due notice and expect all of them to turn up the next day, ready to party like there’s no tomorrow.

As far as the invitations go, it’s up to you to pick the best way to inform your friends about the upcoming get-together event. You can go with fancy paper invitations if you really feel like it (and have the time too), or you can go easy on yourself and choose digital invitations to announce the farewell party.

An original (and very modern) way to invite friends to a moving away party is to create a private Facebook event page and give access to it only to the individuals from your guest list.

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Step 5. Decide on the party theme

Once the invites have been sent out, it’s time to think about the actual organization of the moving party.

You shouldn’t get too stressed out about trying to organize a perfect farewell party because 1) it’ll only be your best friends so you don’t have to worry about achieving perfection (practically impossible anyway) and 2) you’ll be under a lot of stress already due to the fact that you’re moving away to a strange new place.

The best thing about throwing a moving party is that there are no set rules and you can approach the exciting occasion in many different ways. Oftentimes, a bit of improvisation can bring excellent results as well.

So, improvise! Be creative!

One way to make a moving party more fun is to choose a party theme that you know your guests will enjoy. For example, if you all enjoy sports (or one sport in particular), then you can go with a sports party theme. Or if your destination state happens to be Texas, then you may choose to have a cowboy/cowgirl party theme which should be quite entertaining. 

Step 6. Prepare suitable snacks and drinks

The next step in hosting a memorable going away party is to make sure there are some tasty snacks and a variety of drinks for the guests.

Now, the mere thought of having to provide food and beverages for the party can make you pretty anxious. The thing is that you don’t really need to worry about that too much simply because your friends won’t expect the treat of the century anyway. And besides, you’ve got several options to solve the snacks-and-beverages dilemma.

If you enjoy cooking and you can spare the time, your friends will surely appreciate some delicious homemade delicacies. If not, it should be perfectly fine to order in from a local pizzeria or another restaurant.

Providing drinks for the moving away party should not be a problem at all. Just ensure that there are enough beverages to choose from, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, and everyone should be fairly happy in the end.

Step 7. Think about fun activities to play

Having as much fun at the moving party is crucial, so you should make an effort to be prepared in terms of fun activities that everyone will enjoy.

One sure way to make the setting much nicer and cozier is to play nice music in the background. But since nice can mean different things to different people, one good idea is to accept song requests from your pals and play those songs using an online music streaming service such as Spotify. This way, nobody should get vexed about the choice of music at the farewell party.

Or you can go one step further and hire karaoke equipment from a local music store and voila – you can turn the moving away party into an unforgettable karaoke party.

Of course, you shouldn’t forget that games can be exceedingly fun at your going away get-together. Board games can be super entertaining (Scrabble, anyone?) but you can think of your own games to spend the evening in fun and laughter.

One thematic game that you can play at your going away party is to turn an ordinary cardboard box into a memory box. Have each one of your pals write down on a piece of paper their favorite memory they have had with you and insert it into the box. Then, you can read out those pieces of paper for a nostalgic trip down memory lane.

Step 8. Prepare going-away gifts

One of the best ways to make your farewell party memorable is to give a small going-away gift to each friend.

Of course, that part of the get-together is highly optional and you can feel free to skip it if you don’t have any good ideas about what to give to your pals.

On the other hand, if you do happen to know what will make your friends happy, then you should definitely go ahead with the idea.

The good news is that you don’t have to buy any expensive gifts at all. In fact, inexpensive ones should also work fine as long as they are meaningful – ones that will keep reminding your buddies of you and your friendship.

Here are some moving away party ideas for sentimental gifts: photo albums – either digital or non-digital – with cool moments from one of your amazing adventures together, custom-made bracelets with meaningful messages on them, or stuffed animals that will have a deeper meaning attached to them.

Writing a card with a personal message for each friend should work out great as well.

Step 9. Make a farewell party speech

The thing is that some of your friends might expect you to make a speech at one time during the farewell party. And why not? Emotions will be running high during the moving away party so you might as well make it even more emotional by preparing a short going away speech.

If you wish, you can even improvise the speech without having it written down in advance. All you need to say to your pals is how much you love them, that you will miss them terribly after you’ve moved away, and that you will try your best to stay in touch with them after the move becomes a fact.

You can also choose to include in your farewell party speech one or two of your favorite moments spent with each one of your friends. Your friends will definitely enjoy the moving stories and should feel touched by your caring effort.

Step 10. Promise to stay in touch

Last but surely not least, the moving away friendly gathering is the perfect opportunity to exchange contact details with your pals – though you should already have them, of course.

But more than that, the real message of the occasion is to make promises to each other that you will continue to keep in touch after the move.

Nowadays, the convenience of having an Internet connection everywhere you go makes it super easy to stay in touch with the people you love and care about despite the great distances between you. So, don’t let there be any lame excuses for letting meaningful friendships fall apart simply because you had to go away.

Moving away from your friends is probably the toughest aspect of a house move. Oftentimes, moving to a new home is like a rollercoaster of strong emotions that can leave you drained and disheartened. In such highly transitional periods, it can make a huge difference knowing that you can rely on a relocation partner that will take the heaviest burden off your shoulders.

Use our Moving Cost Calculator to get in touch with top-rated professional movers in your area.

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