A Comprehensive Moving Timeline

The endless boxes, the packing tape, and that last-minute rush to declutter and deep clean –  whether you’ve moved across the country or just down the street, we’re all familiar with the headache that’s involved with packing and moving.

If you’re preparing to move into your new home in the coming months, planning ahead can make the process much smoother. And we’ve got your back on how to stay organized and stress-free.

Here’s our week-by-week moving to-do list to help you declutter, prioritize key jobs so you don’t forget anything, and strategically pack away your household’s life belongings without inconveniencing the family. Print the guide, mark the duties on your calendar and you’ll get to moving day without any hiccups. Happy moving!

Three Months Before the Move

Start sorting

With time on your side, start purging household items you don’t plan on taking to your new home. The last thing you want to do is waste valuable space in the moving van on items you’ll end up throwing out shortly after settling in.

Dedicate a weekend or two to comb through various rooms in the house, from the garage to the basement, to pick out what you don’t need anymore, what can be tossed and what can be donated.

Make big decisions

Now’s the time to think carefully about how you’d like to manage your move. Lots of questions need to be addressed, especially these major ones:

• Do you plan on moving with the help of relatives or will you hire professional movers?
• Do you need a storage unit?
• Does your home need to be professionally cleaned before you leave, or can you do a DIY deep clean?
• Do you need a babysitter or pet sitter on moving day?
• Do you need to book time off work?

Do research

If you hire movers, cleaners, and sitters, begin researching online for those companies with glowing reviews. You can even ask for quotes from a few service providers, so you know you’re getting the best deal. Make a shortlist of relatives you can tap to help with childcare, too.

As you declutter, you may have decided big pieces of furniture, from your living room couch to your dining room table, need to be retired and won’t be coming with you to your new abode. Don’t toss these out just yet – you’ll still need them! But start looking into finding a new home for them.

10 Weeks Before the Move

Create a moving budget

Between saving for a down payment and buying new furniture, you may be wondering how you’ll come up with the extra cash to afford the move. Putting together a moving budget is a wise move to help you estimate how much this step in the homebuying process will cost you, and help you reign in the spending.

Take stock of expenses, such as:

• Professional movers and a moving van
• Moving supplies
• Childcare and pet care
• Gas
• A professional cleaner
• Meals and snacks for the family in the days leading up to moving day

Plot out your moving timeline master checklist

Hunker down one night to make a master checklist of all the tasks, big and small, that need to be completed before moving day arrives. Take a detailed room-by-room inventory of all your possessions to figure out what may need special handling, what can be packed away early, and what you need on hand until the very last day.

Consider who you need to notify about your change of address – this includes utility companies and your family’s doctor’s office.

Create a moving folder to keep your notes, receipts, and any other documentation in one place.

8 Weeks Before the Move

Buy supplies

Order boxes, packing tape, label makers, permanent markers, garbage bags, and any other supplies your family will need during the moving process. Keep in mind, there are specialty containers to store items like pots and pans, plates, or wine glasses.

Wardrobe boxes are a godsend – they’re tall, sturdy boxes with a metal hanging bar so you can move clothes directly out of your closet without having to remove the hangers. They even have plenty of room underneath for storing shoes, bedroom linens, or bulky sweatshirts.

Hire all your service providers

Make a booking with the movers, cleaners, and childcare providers of your choice to ensure you secure a spot. This is a key strategic move, especially if you’re moving during the summer months when demand is highest.

If you’re asking friends and family to help, ask them if they’re free so they can block out their calendars for that weekend.

6 Weeks Before the Move

Pack up seasonal items

Breaking up the moving process is your best plan of attack so don’t procrastinate! An easy way to start is to focus on the seasonal items you know you won’t need before the move. That could be your Christmas decorations, ice skates, and snowboards, or your patio set, bikes, barbecue, and holiday serving platters. If you have a bookshelf full of novels and knick-knacks you don’t use often, start packing them away into boxes.

If you’re moving in the middle of summer, get a head start by packing up your family’s winter wardrobe or vice-versa. You’ll thank yourself later when half of your closet is already dealt with and ready for moving day!

Carefully label the boxes so you’ll know precisely what’s in each one and how they need to be handled.

Hold a garage sale

During your decluttering and initial packing, you may find a treasure trove of things that are still in great condition, from kitchen appliances to home décor and gently used clothes. It’s worth the time to pull together a garage sale with the proceeds going towards your moving fund to buy boxes, bubble wrap, and pizza for everyone helping on moving day.

4 Weeks Before the Move

Start deep cleaning

Now that you’re just weeks away from the move, you can start decluttering and packing up around the house. We’re talking about the medicine cabinet, guest suite and bathroom, and odds and ends at the bottom of your nightstand drawers. Don’t wait until the very last minute to get these jobs done. You can even strip the guest bedroom of its linens, give the bedroom a thorough deep clean, and keep the tidied up room off-limits, so it’s one less area to worry about later.

Do an overhaul of your fridge, freezer, and pantry

You may find expired canned goods or freezer-burned peas that need to be discarded. Get creative with using up all the remaining food, from soups and pasta to frozen pizzas that you can heat in the oven – with less kitchen equipment, you’ll need to make easy meals to get your through moving day.

Change your address

Contact your bank, your company’s HR department, and your doctor’s office to give them your new address. Head online to arrange a change of address with the post office, too – you can have your mail forwarded to your new address for the first three to six months until most of your accounts are fully transferred.

If you have newspaper or magazine subscriptions, this is the ideal time to give them a head’s up that you’re moving so they can schedule the change, too.

Contact your service providers

With moving day just around the corner, call your cable, Internet, utilities, and phone providers to let them know they’ll need to disconnect your current services and set them up at your new property. They’ll advise you on how to proceed with these steps.

Figure out what to do with your valuables

Your wedding photo album, your family’s birth certificates, important financial documents, expensive jewelry, watches, and other keepsakes – these are invaluable mementos you may not want to group together with the rest of the boxes in case something goes missing.

You may decide to move your jewelry box and other family heirlooms into your bank’s safety deposit box. In other cases, you could place precious items into a few boxes and keep them at a family member’s house for safekeeping until you’ve officially moved.

Book time off work

If you’ve decided to use vacation time to move, be sure to schedule this with your employer.

1-2 Weeks Before the Move

Pack everything up, except the essentials

From here on, you’ll be living out of suitcases! Take this week to pack up the rest of the household, from picture frames on the fireplace mantle to the rest of your kitchen equipment and the last pieces of your wardrobe. Once again, label these boxes carefully so you’ll know which ones you need to unpack first.

The only things that should be unpacked at this point are the essentials: keep just a few pots and pans, plates, bowls, and cutlery so you can feed the family. Designate a suitcase for each family member so they can keep a week’s worth of clothes, pajamas, and toiletries with them.

The rest of your house, aside from the big-ticket items like your TV, couch, dining room table, and bed sets, should be packed up during these final few weeks!

If you’re hiring movers to do the packing, they typically won’t show up any earlier than one week before your scheduled moving day.

Keep important documents

From your mover’s estimate and contract outlining its responsibilities to your financial records for closing day, make sure you have all documents related to the move at the ready.

Head to the donation bin

After sorting through your family’s life possessions, you’ll likely have a collection of boxes and bags of items that need to be donated. Load up the trunk and offload these items at the nearest Salvation Army.

Days Before the Move

Defrost the freezer

If you’re taking the refrigerator, make sure it’s empty, cleaned, and fully defrosted at least 24 hours before moving day so you can avoid a potential mess.

Finish deep cleaning

Your home may be looking pretty sparse right now. If you’re doing a DIY deep clean, this is a great opportunity to break out the rubber gloves, mop, vacuum, and bucket full of disinfectants and other cleaning products.

Room-by-room, conduct a deep cleaning, wiping and sanitizing the bathrooms and kitchen, and give the floors and walls some TLC.

You want your home sparkling and move-in ready for the new tenants. Deep cleaning the entire home can be a daunting job, but you can get the whole family to pitch in and pick a few Spotify playlists to get the job done faster. Bribing loved ones with the promise of pizza and a cold beer post-deep clean usually does the trick, too.

Moving Day

Move out

You’re at the finish line! Pack your suitcases with the rest of your day-to-day belongings, dress comfortably for a day of loading the moving truck, and bid farewell to your home. With everything packed and ready to go, you and the movers can focus on getting large appliances out of the house.

One final sweep

As the movers pack the last of your belongings into the van, do a final check of your home to make sure nothing is left behind.

You can breathe a sigh of relief now – your move is underway!