How to Make a Moving Checklist for a Perfect Move

Organize your pre-move time well and you have a fighting chance to pull off a smooth and problem-free household move from start to finish.

Don’t plan the time you have until Moving day and even your best improvising skills won’t keep you from entering a headache-filled world of chaos.

Practice has shown that the only way to have the perfect relocation you’ve been hoping for is to plan and organize perfectly every single day until it’s time to move out.

And to do just that, you will need to create a moving checklist.

Why create a moving checklist

You may have heard from friends who have recently moved to a new home or you may have even read somewhere on the Internet that proper organization is the key to a successful residential move. In its essence, the process of planning a move can be easily likened to a stressful race with time where the moving date confirmation serves as your starting line and the moving day itself is, in fact, the finishing line.

Organizing an entire house relocation from A to Z is never an easy task but luckily, you can get timely assistance by making a moving checklist – a detailed to-do-list that keeps you on the right track by informing you what move related tasks you have for completion and when you are supposed to finish them.

Take a look at the 3 major reasons why you should create a moving timeline checklist in the very beginning of your preparation stage.

Fair task distribution

Also known as a moving calendar, your to-do checklist will help you distribute evenly the essential jobs all the way until your moving day. This smooth task distribution alone will prevent you from wasting valuable time in randomly starting specific tasks, and then halting their progress before they are completed simply because something “more important” appears out of the blue.

Moving stress reliever

Moving stress is not a myth – the pressure that keeps building up during the preparation stage tends to reach its peak on Moving day – the culmination of each local or cross country move. Besides the most common stress factors when moving house such as insufficient money, increased risk for all family members, and fairly uncertain future, lack of sufficient time is a serious stress builder that can wreak havoc on your nerves.

Fortunately, time organization is exactly where the strength of a moving house calendar lies. In reality, each job marked as FINISHED will have a calming effect on you and give you the reassurance you need that you will do the required tasks on time.

SEE ALSO: How to reduce stress when moving house

How to make a moving checklist

You shouldn’t have any doubts that your personal moving house timeline will prove to be hugely beneficial to you throughout the highly transitional period of moving house. Now, the question of how to create a moving checklist becomes more relevant than ever.

Pen and paper approach

The pen and paper approach can seem a bit old-fashioned but its overall effectiveness remains indisputable. All you need is a notepad and a pen (or pencil), and you’re ready to start organizing your pre-move time. For the sake of clarity, it’s a good idea to dedicate one page either for one day (if there are too many tasks you need to complete for one day, usually due to an emergency move) or for one week (in case you have ample time to get ready for the upcoming relocation). Avoid mixing up days and weeks, and make sure you leave enough white space at the bottom of each page for additional personal notes.

Computer assisted approach

One of the drawbacks of making a moving checklist by hand is that the entire process can take a long time to complete. So, if you choose to take advantage of modern technology, then you should be able to speed up the creation of your moving home calendar and subsequently facilitate its maintenance. Just open your favourite word-processing software and begin the required customization and prioritization of your moving packing planner.

Speaking of modern technology, it’s useful to know that there are excellent moving calendar tools for mobile devices which you can use to your great advantage. The best part of it all is that some of these advanced moving planner apps come free of charge, so you should definitely consider using this state-of-the-art approach to organize your upcoming relocation.

READ ALSO: Top 5 free apps to help you move

Customization

The great thing about having a packing and moving calendar is that it can be your very own personal guide on how to optimize your time, for each hour saved can ultimately save you up to days. Once ready, you can refer to that moving planner at any given time to view and control your progress but before the moving checklist can become truly yours, you need to first customize all the tasks found in it.

One good way to personalize your moving planner checklist is to get good ideas about what general tasks you’re expected to complete from already existing moving checklists /see our example moving checklist below/ and then take only the jobs that apply to your specific relocation case. Additional modification of the borrowed ideas might be needed before they are ready to make it into your list. For example, you won’t be much interested in any pet related tasks if you don’t own any animal companions, but you should definitely include the task Pack snooker table if you’re a snooker enthusiast and own an expensive table you would love to move to your new home.

Prioritization

Customization of your moving checklist is important, but its prioritization is equally important, if not even more so. As you’re creating your personalized moving planner calendar, think about the fact that not all move related jobs have the same priority.

By prioritizing your moving calendar checklist, you make sure that the most essential moving jobs will be taken care of first, which in turn will guarantee that no truly important task will be left unfinished regardless of the timeframe you have at your disposal. For example, you surely don’ want to leave the time consuming task of packing up your garage for the day before your moving date simply because you will not be able to pack your storage area in only one day.

Your week-by-week moving checklist

Now that you know why and how to make a moving checklist, it’s time to fill it in with all essential move related tasks ahead of you. Remember that it’s your own personal moving planner so it should only contain jobs that are relevant to your specific relocation case.

Find below an example week-by-week moving timeline to help you get some good ideas, some of which you are expected to personalize and prioritize as you’re borrowing them.

8 weeks prior to Moving day

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  Start searching for a reliable and affordable removal company to assist you during the toughest stages of your residential move. Begin the hunt for your relocation partner by browsing through genuine moving reviews and testimonials left by former customers.

• Set a moving budget to monitor your expenses. Before you can create your financial plan, however, learn how much your removal company will ultimately charge you by requesting an accurate moving cost estimate.

• Inventory your home and do your best to optimize the number of all household belongings and personal affects found in your house or apartment. Don’t forget that the fewer items you have decided to take with you, the less money you will pay to transport them.

• Decide what you will do with any items that you’re leaving behind. Organizing a profitable moving sale is one good option to boost your relocation budget, but if you think you can make somebody happy with something you no longer need or want, then you should do the honorable thing.

6 weeks prior to Moving day

• By now, you should have chosen a reputable local or long distance removal company and reserved your moving date. One of your top priorities is to organize properly the most time consuming process of your move – packing.

• Unless you have requested the additional service of packing from your hired professionals, this is the right time to start gathering the required packing materials. Cardboard boxes are usually the main expense here, so consider acquiring cheap or even free boxes before rushing to purchase them. Start packing as early as you can.

• If you have a school-age child, start searching for a suitable educational facility in your new city. Make sure you obtain your son or daughter’s school records in order to register them with the new city school.

• 6 weeks prior to Moving day is a good time to think about finding a new health care provider in your destination. Pay a visit to your current family physician, obtain your and your family’s medical records and, ask them if they can recommend a colleague of theirs in your new city.

4 weeks prior to Moving day

• Now that you have the correct type and amount of packing materials, you should have already boxed up the most difficult rooms to pack, such as storage areas – garages, sheds, attics, basements. Continue packing up your household items by leaving the easiest rooms and the smaller possessions for last.

• Pack a survival kit – a few boxes with absolute essentials that you will have with you at all time in order to survive a day or two without your other belongings. Some basic hand tools, a change of clothes, vital medication, plastic utensils are only a small number of what you should place inside your Open First box.

• If you own a pet, roughly a month before Moving day is the right time to take them to be examined by their licensed vet. After all, you want to be sure that your animal friend is healthy enough to meet the new challenges. Obtain their vaccination records and all other relevant and required paperwork.

• Cancel all your subscriptions to services and memberships at clubs and organizations on time.

3 weeks prior to Moving day

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  If you plan to drive to your new destination, find time to have your car checked by an authorized car service so that no unpleasant surprises catch you up during your relocation trip.

• Less than a month until the moment of truth is about the right time to contact your utility companies and arrange for the disconnection of your municipal services, such as electricity, water, gas, central heating, Internet, phone and so on.

• Contact important institutions and inform them that your postal address is about to change soon and provide them with your new one. Informing your friends and relatives about the new address is easier than even – a single post on your preferred social network should do the trick.

• Think about how to transport safely your most loved plants because your selected professional removal company won’t usually do it for you for safety reasons. Plants are notorious for not surviving household moves so think about whether to move yours at all.

2 weeks prior to Moving day

• Give your removals a call and make sure everything goes according to plan. Think things through if any of the original conditions have changed and act accordingly.

• If you live in a block of flats, speak with the building manager to reserve the lift for your moving date.

• If you have a baby or a small child, you must make sure there’s someone to look after them in a room far from the moving day madness. Arrange for a friend or hire a babysitter if you yourself plan to be 100% involved in the move.

• Start using up your food supplies so that you don’t have to transport perishables as well.

1 week prior to Moving day

• Pay up any household bills you may have and keep the receipts somewhere safe, preferably inside a special moving file together with other important move related documents.

• Assess your packing progress. If you have followed your packing timeline strictly, you should be near the finishing line by now. If you think that you won’t make it on time, ask friends to give you a packing hand. Refer to our specialized quick packing tips to considerably speed up the process.

• Consider disassembling some of the larger furniture pieces by yourself. If you don’t think you can do it on your own, either get a friend to help you out or wait for the arrival of relocation specialists.

• Return any books or DVDs you may have borrowed from friends or the library.

2 days prior to Moving day

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  You can almost see the finishing line, can’t you? Contact your removal company again to receive confirmation of their arrival.

• Finish up all packing activities, and consider hiring professional packing assistance if you have fallen behind schedule.

• Defrost and clean your refrigerator. Let your large kitchen appliance dry out completely before it gets packed up by you or by your removal crew.

• All moving preparations should be completed by now. Check your personal moving calendar again to make sure you haven’t accidentally missed an essential task.

• Go to bed early the day before Moving day to have the physical energy and mental strength to survive it all.

Can you think of other essential tasks one should include in their moving calendar? Share them in the comments below.