Preparing Yourself for Moving Day

Moving can be stressful for so many reasons. First, there’s the timing aspect: you want to be ready to move as soon as your new home becomes available. But if you’re selling your current house, aligning those stars can be tricky in terms of timing.

Then comes the move itself. You’re uprooting your life, packing up all of your furnishings and belongings, transporting them, and unpacking and organizing them in your new home. I’ve found that when an undertaking becomes daunting, making checklists helps. To begin with, you can stay on top of tasks and make sure you’re not forgetting any vital steps. And also, I’ve found that checking things off as you go along can provide you with a sense of forward motion and accomplishment.

Here is a basic checklist to follow if you are moving to a new home. You can modify it to suit your personal situation, but here are a few guidelines to get you started:

-   Set your moving date. Once you have this date on your calendar, you can start to plan around it.

-   Hire a moving company. Do this in plenty of time to ensure that the company is available on the day you want to move. Get estimates – this will often entail having a company representative visit your home to assess your furnishings. Determine whether the movers will pack everything or whether you will pack some boxes in advance.

-   Keep all moving paperwork in a folder so that documents you need are at your fingertips. If you are moving for a job, make sure to keep track of receipts for any expenses that will be reimbursed.

-   Transfer, discontinue, or initiate services at both your new and old addresses based on your move-in date. Don’t forget gas and electric, water and sewer, garbage collection, telephone, Internet, and television services as well as notifying lawn care companies and home security firms.

-   Change your address with your employer, credit card companies, your car payment lender, cell phone carrier, insurance providers, and all subscriptions. Don’t forget to notify your friends!

-   Arrange to have your mail temporarily forwarded in case anything takes a while to catch up with you.

-   Sign up kids for their new schools. Transfer school transcripts and medical and dental records. Register to vote at your new address.

-   Go through your belongings. Toss, sell, or donate anything you no longer need. Make storage arrangements if necessary. Separate your valuables to transport yourself and if you’re packing your own belongings, invest in plenty of boxes, packing materials, and tape to get started. Either on your own or in tandem with your moving company, make inventory lists of your belongings so that nothing gets mislaid or overlooked.

-   Put together a box or bag of items that you will need the day you move (tools like scissors and box cutters are helpful, as well as cleaning products and toilet paper for your new house). Be sure to include any medications, clothes, and toiletries that you will need. Don’t forget some basic first aid supplies and make sure you haven’t forgotten your pets’ needs or overlooked a child’s cherished stuffed animal.

-   Make sure to take time off for the day(s) of the move.

-   Keep all important documents with you and plenty of cash for the day of the move.

-   Clean your old home as it empties out … including the refrigerator!

-   If possible, do any necessary cleaning at your new home before your belongings arrive.

-   And finally, confirm, confirm, confirm. Make sure you and the moving company are on the same page, as well as the sellers of your new home and the buyers of your old home.

This is just a cursory list of some of the main tasks involved in a move. You can easily take the framework I have laid out and tweak it to reflect your move. For instance, a cross-country move involves more steps than a local move. But with a basic to-do list in mind, you can make your move manageable and dial back the stress that many people associate with moving homes.