Failing to do an important task or forgetting to pack an essential item during a house move can be really frustrating, to say the least.
During the preparation period, and especially on Moving day itself, we often get reminded that we are only humans born with fallible memory, not robots equipped with a central processing unit that is incapable of forgetting a thing, EVER!
However, even amidst the chaos and the stress created by the home moving process, it’s important to stay organized and to make sure you do not forget to pack essentials that you will definitely need in the new home.
So, to help you keep your memory refreshed when packing for a move, here are the 10 most common things people forget to pack when moving to another home.
1. Important documents
Don’t forget to pack important documents, especially ones that you will need immediately after the move is over. Prepare a binder and place inside it all the super essential documents found in your home:
personal documents (passports, birth certificates, marriage certificates, driving licenses, diplomas, professional qualifications),
car documents (vehicle registration, auto insurance policies), and
other crucial documents.
Keep that binder with you at all times – that is, do not hand it over to the movers. It’s your responsibility to transport all the essential documentation, so pack the binder into the essentials box and keep a close watch over it.
Also, check whether you have gathered the required school records for transferring your school-age kids to another school, as well as the necessary medical records for registering with a new healthcare provider in the destination town or city.
Whatever you do, just do NOT forget to pack your essential medication when moving out.
Believe it or not, medicines are other commonly forgotten items to pack when moving to another house or apartment.
The reason for the failure to pack certain medical products is that they are often left out in medicine cabinets and closets, especially due to the lack of sufficient time for a thorough in-home walk prior to leaving the old home for good.
Remember to get all your medications out of the medicine cabinet and pack them in the essentials box. Do sort out your medicines because there’s really no point in packing the ones that you will never need or use again.
Inspect each medical product and set aside for recycling the ones that
1) are past their expiration date,
2) have illegible labels and you don’t remember what they are for, and
3) you have already stopped using.
Double check whether you have packed all the prescription medication that you need regularly (daily) – it’s easy to imagine how forgetting to pack such vital medication can turn out to be detrimental to your health and well-being.
Surprisingly, what not to forget to pack when moving includes various valuables items around your home. Sure, you won’t forget to take with you any valuables that happen to be right under your nose. But what about any items of value or importance that you may have hidden in secret places around your place? It’s time to retrieve those too!
Sit down and think about whether you do have any valuables hidden away from curious eyes. Do you have a safety deposit box? A portable safe? Do you have a hiding spot somewhere in your residence?
Such high-value items include money, jewelry pieces, and small family heirlooms.
So, before your movers come knowing on your door, ensure that all of your valuable and expensive items are safely packed into the essentials box you will be carrying with you.
Don’t ever make the mistake of entrusting to professional movers the valuables you can move by yourself. As for the larger valuable items you own, such as antique furniture or priceless pieces of art, purchase additional moving insurance for peace of mind.
Check whether you have items dropped off at your favorite dry cleaning place.
Interestingly enough, things not to forget to pack when moving include items that are not present in your home at the time of packing.
In other words, remember to collect any pieces of clothing you may have left at the local dry cleaner’s before you’ve moved hundreds or thousands of miles away.
It’s relatively easy to forget clothes at the dry cleaning place. Why? It’s because your mind will be preoccupied with and even overwhelmed by so many other tasks that you have to finish in order to have a chance of having a successful house move.
Note that forgetting to pick up your items from the dry cleaner’s usually happens when you drop off clothes that are either out of season or that you only use on special occasions. Either way, those are your own pieces of clothing, so you have to pack them with the rest of your clothes.
Include the Take clothes from cleaner’s task in your moving checklist. In case you’re not sure whether you have any items left at the usual place you go to, just phone them up and check.
5. Paper plates and disposable cutlery
One of the most common things people forget to pack when moving is disposable plates, cups, and cutlery in order to try and have a decent meal until they regain access to the regular china dishware and glassware in the new home.
Upon arrival in the new residence, you may be tempted to order pizza or take out Chinese food until you get your silverware back. In such cases, it’s handy to have those paper plates and disposable cutlery so that you don’t have to wash anything – especially when you still don’t have any dishwashing liquid or sponges.
Also, disposable cutlery, plastic cups, and paper or plastic plates can serve you well during the house move itself when you’ve chosen to drive to the new home.
Either way, make a mental note to pack the dispensable substitutes of your chinaware and glassware into the open-first box, then throw in a pack of paper towels to keep things from getting too messy.
Go through your storage areas and check, again, if you may be forgetting to pack something worth moving to the new home.
Not surprisingly, things people always forget to pack when they move are items that have been placed in various storage spaces around the home such as garages, basements, attics, tool sheds, and even walk-in closets.
You don’t have to do the same mistake – instead, make sure you go through all the storage areas in your current house or apartment, sort out the stored items in them and then prepare for packing the things you do want to take with you.
As you may already know, the storage areas in a home are the very first rooms to sort out and pack simply because they happen to be the toughest ones for packing. Why? The challenge of packing storage rooms comes as a direct result of the excess odds and ends found in them.
Even though those miscellaneous articles have been placed in temporary storage, there will surely be some important and essential items you’d love to pack and move to the new home.
Also, if you’ve rented a self-storage unit somewhere in the area, remember to take care of those stored items as well.
Believe it or not, chargers for the essential electronics you own are one of the commonly forgotten items to pack when moving. Those charging devices either get left plugged into the outlets or they get mixed up with the bunch of unwanted items and never make it to the new residence.
In order to avoid the unpleasant moment of realizing that the battery of your phone, tablet, or laptop is dead and its charger is missing in action, double-check that you’ve packed them safely together with its corresponding electronic device.
It’s best to pack your laptop charger inside the laptop bag, together with the portable computer. As far as phone chargers and tablet chargers – which often are identical, pack them into the essentials box or bag as you’ll be surely keeping your smartphone with you throughout the house move.
Forgetting to pack your shower curtain could have “catastrophic” results.
It’s inevitable that you’ll be using most of your bathroom items until the last moment possible, items such as shampoo, shower gel, hair conditioner, toothbrush and toothpaste, etc. And that is exactly why it’s possible that you may just forget to pack them when the heat of Moving day increases by at least a few degrees.
Also, the shower curtain is probably the number one forgotten item to pack when moving house. The reason for that “prestigious” title is clear: your shower curtain will simply be hanging there in the bathroom and you may not even realize that it’s one of the essential bathroom items to pack and move.
That’s right, you’re going to need your shower curtain as soon as you decide to take that first refreshing shower in the new home.
Another common bathroom item you may forget to pack when moving is the bathroom mat. So, avoid frustrating or awkward moments in the new-home bathroom by doing one final check of your current one before it’s time for you to move out.
Guess what – sometimes the things you forget to pack when moving are the very things that you see every single day. Like your household plants, for example. You tend to your leafy friends every day and you take real pleasure in staring at their beauty in awe, and yet, you may just leave them behind by accident as you’ve always considered them part of the home you’re about to move out of.
You should know that most potted plants are too fragile to survive a long-distance move, and professional movers will not move plants either – household plants fall into the category of items forbidden for transport. So, it’s important to decide what you will do with yours before it’s too late.
Will you leave them to the care of a friend or neighbor?
Will you donate them to the local school, hospital, or nursery home?
Or will you just take a calculated risk and move them to the new home by yourself, especially if you’re only moving a short distance?
Follow our guide on how to pack and move plants so that you protect the flowers and plants you do decide to take with you.
10. Miscellaneous items
As you can imagine, there are also other things not to forget to pack when moving house. In addition to the above-mentioned most common things people forget to pack, here are some other worthy candidates for the ultimate prize:
Not leaving behind any important keys is the key to not having a nervous breakdown.
Gardening tools. Located outside the house, your gardening tools may just stay in the place where you keep them, waiting for you to pack them and move them to the new home. Double-check your storage areas outside your home for forgotten items.
Hand tools. Have you packed up all the hand tools you have in your home? The best way to move hand tools is to arrange them in a convenient toolbox. Leave a pair of pliers, a hammer, and a set of screwdrivers for moving day – you might just need them.
Keys. It’s relatively easy to forget to take all of your keys during a house move. Make a quick list of all the keys you have and then check whether you’ve got each set of keys ready to take with you. Keys that can be forgotten include new-house keys, car keys, safe keys, cabinet keys, and so on.
A utility knife. It’s a good idea to remember to pack a utility knife so that you can start unpacking those taped boxes as soon as they are delivered. Using a pair of scissors will also work, but utility knives will definitely speed up the process of unboxing your items.
Important: Without a doubt, packing for a move will be the most time-consuming and labor-intensive task on your moving checklist. Do yourself a favor and follow a detailed PACKING TIMELINE to
eliminate costly packing mistakes,
use your packing time effectively, and
make sure no essential item is forgotten to be packed.
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