Moving Made Easy and Stress Free!

The Sold sign is up, the paperwork is off to the lawyer and you’ve got weeks until closing day, time to put up your feet and wait for the big day to arrive. Maybe not! If you want your move to be stress free, and even save yourself a few dollars, the following hints and the Fitzpatrick Team moving day checklist may be worthwhile to you.

 

Plan your move early.

Procrastination has no place around a move! Its an unwritten law that packing will always take longer, and use up more boxes than you think. You don’t want to be scrambling on moving day when you should be loading. If you’ve hired movers, remember they are on the clock and time is money, so you want to be ready well in advance.

You want to take stock of what you’ve got, and draw up a bit of a game plan for the packing and the actual move. You probably want to start with packing up the off season clothes and gear. Then move on to the knick knacks, the books, china and the things you likely won’t use until the move is complete. Save the kitchen and bathrooms for last. Make a list of the clothes you’ll need until moving day. Then have a few extra boxes on hand for the last couple of days to fill with the kitchen supplies, and the things you’ve forgotten over the past weeks.

If you have house plants, don’t water them for the last few days, let the soil dry out a bit, the plants will be lighter and less of a soggy mess to clean up.

 

Purging:

Getting an early start on the packing means start by sorting through everything a month before the move. Now is the time to purge, and either donate, sell, or dispose of the stuff you’ve collected over the years.

Clothes you haven’t worn in over a year, should probably be bagged up and set aside for a charity. Take a good look at the furniture you’ve got. Are you going to be replacing some of it sooner than later? It might be cheaper to donate or dispose of those items rather than move it, then replace it shortly after.

 

Packing supplies:

The Fitzpatrick Team provides a bundle of boxes, packing tape, and clean newsprint paper to get you started on your packing. It’s also a good idea to get some other size boxes to pack as well. Smaller boxes are ideal for heavier items, that way you can't overload it too badly. Save bigger boxes for bulky or light items like bed clothes or pillows.

Don’t forget to label what’s in the box and what room it should be delivered to at the new house. Nothing more frustrating than looking through a dozen identical boxes to find the items you need!

A handy tip, consider renting a dolly to help schlep all those boxes. It’ll be easier on your back and make the move that much more efficient. Use old blankets, or rent furniture quilts to wrap your furniture in and protect them while on the truck. If you have hired movers, they will supply those.

 

Organization:

Have your check list of which boxes go where for your arrival. If you are using a mover, they will likely suggest you stand at the door and direct traffic. You might feel this isn’t very useful, but from experience we can tell you it will speed the process.

Another helpful hint with electronics: take some masking tape and label the various cables and connections before your take it all apart. It’s really amazing that after a few minutes they all seem to look alike. If you want to avoid hours of messing with connections or worse yet, calling in someone to hook it all up again, then this will be time well spent.

Lastly, load the kitchen boxes last, that way they get unloaded first, and you can quickly get the hub of your new home organized. See our check list and make sure you have a box of supplies such as toilet paper, Kleenex, cleaning supplies, rags etc to get started at the new house. You’d be surprised how often a house is “cleaned out” when the previous owner moves out. It’s nice to know that you’ve got basic cleaning and toiletry supplies on hand for that crucial first day.