Moving isn’t my first choice of activities 😉 Don’t get me wrong, it’s full of excitement over the next chapter of your life, but the nuts and bolts of moving are rarely fun. Here are 6 tips that make moving as smooth as possible!
1) Time Flexibility. Somehow no matter how well you plan, you always feel rushed and behind as your “moving day” approaches. So why not scratch “moving day” from the equation. One of the things I loved about our choice to go with PODS Moving and Storage for our big move was the time flexibility. We had our PODS containers delivered a week before we needed to leave our sold home. This gave us time to move out at our own speed and really think things through. This flexibility also helped us on the other end. Our new home wouldn’t close escrow for a couple more weeks and then we needed to remodel. Our possessions were able to be kept safe in the PODS containers at their storage center during our house-less period and during allllllll the delays that often come with the remodeling process. If we didn’t have the storage option and timing flexibility that PODS offers, I honestly don’t know what we would have done! Timing flexibility is key!
2) Don’t move what you don’t need. I made the mistake on our last move to move a bunch of stuff that I wanted to give away or sell at a garage sale. I didn’t make this mistake twice. I used this move as a reason to sort and cleanse. While packing we filled one room with allllll giveaway items and made multiple trips to the Salvation Army. You are going through all your items anyway, so it’s the perfect time to donate things you no longer need, versus bothering to move them!
3) Pack in Place. You can start packing a month ahead of time, but you will still need access to your items. So pack all of your boxes and bags, but leave them open and in their designated rooms. This way you will still know where everything is. I needed plenty of time to pack my closet, but I of course needed to still have access. So I left the packed items in the closet ready to go, but ready to be accessed when needed!
4) Pack a Suitcase. Once you are coming down the 1 week stretch, pack a suitcase like you are going on a trip, toiletries and all. That way, when you get to your new place, you won’t be searching through boxes to find essentials. You’ll be living out of a packed suitcase while getting settled in your new place!
5) Paper plate it and leave out all of your non-breakable cups. If there’s ever a time to indulge in one-time use disposable goods, it’s during a move. You need time to carefully pack your kitchen. So do it early and take your time with it. Buy paper plates and leave your plastic non-breakable cups out. Last minute you can toss all of your plastic cups and such into a bag. Kitchens always take the most time, so don’t leave it to the end!
6) Don’t do it all yourself. Let friends help with your move if they offer, and hire assistance. We wanted to stay cost conscious so we did most of the packing ourselves. But we did hire assistance for a half a day to load all of the heavy items into our PODS containers. PODS has a list of packers and loaders that can assist you with any part of your move. We used a company called Hire A Helper . They were very familiar with loading PODS containers and made quick work of getting our heavy refrigerator and washer and dryer safely loaded up!
Soooo hopefully these tips will help you with you next move! This time I finally felt like I found the perfect ingredients for a smooth move and it had a lot to do with our choice to go with PODS Moving and Storage. So while I certainly don’t want to move again anytime soon, I would certainly replicate all the choices I made this time around!
Happy Moving!
*This post is sponsored by PODS Moving and Storage, but all of the opinions are my own!
