How to Have the most seamless move
Welcome back to the blog! Today I am going to be giving you my top 5 moving tips. My boyfriend & I just recently moved from a one-bedroom apartment in to a 2-bedroom apartment that is closer to the city. We absolutely love it! While I’d love to brag about our upgraded apartment, what I’m really here to do is give you my personal moving tips. This is my 5th move in 4 years so I feel like I can say I am a pro-mover at this point!
With all of these moves, I have learned a thing or two about making a move as seamless as possible. It should be no surprise that a few of my tips involve prepping a few weeks to a couple months in advance so you can be sure your move is as quick & painless as possible. Let’s go ahead and get into the tips because when you’re trying to move, you just want it to be over ASAP!
Tip #1: The no-buy rule
One of my first tips is to stop spending! This tip isn’t about saving money for your move — it’s about limiting the amount of sh*t that you have to stuff in boxes! I’d recommend at least one month out from your move you limit all purchases to the bare necessities. This means bare groceries, toiletries, household items, etc. This also means to stop buying fun & luxury items. You don’t need to redo your closet before your move. Stop online shopping for clothes, hair accessories, shoes, pretty much anything that you won’t absolutely need for the time being. You can wait on that new pair of pants or sports bra! I am a big shopper so this was tough for me, and if I am being totally honest, I didn’t follow it perfectly. The whole point of this rule is to make yourself more conscious about what you’re buying & how much stuff you’re accumulating. Every purchase you make is another item you have to move. While one or two pieces of clothing might not seem like a lot, every little bit counts when you’re moving!
I do have a few exceptions to this rule. The first exception is anything that you’re replacing. For example, I wanted to buy new pots & pans that were non-toxic. This was something I didn’t really want to wait to buy. The reason why I allowed this purchase was because all of the old pots & pans were either getting trashed or donated. There were a few upsides to buying new pots & pans before the move. One pro of buying it before the move was that we had an extra box that we could move it in! Like I said, every little bit counts when you’re moving. So once we started using the pots and pans, we held onto the box it came in so moving it would be a piece of cake! The second pro to buying it before we moved was we were able to just toss the old ones and not worry about it. If we waited until we moved to buy them, we would have had to move the old pots and pans, buy the new ones, unpack the new ones, get rid of the old ones, and get rid of the new ones’ box. I know this seems tedious & unimportant, but I’m saying it again — every little bit counts!
Tip #2: Start saving boxes 2-3 months out
This is something I always wish I started earlier. You don’t realize how much crap you have until you start putting into boxes. We started saving boxes about a month or two out from our move and I thought we’d be able to get most of our stuff in them no problem. —Wrong! I had barely packed up half the kitchen and we were completely out of boxes. Mind you, we were moving out of a one bedroom apartment! Save big boxes, small boxes, shoe boxes, boxes with out tops — the more the better.
I also want to mention that we didn’t pack everything in boxes. We put things like clothes, blankets, and pillows into big 30-gallon trash bags. A bonus tip for these is to not overfill them. Even though they’re pretty large, I wouldn’t recommend filling them to the brim with items like clothing. The heavier they are, the less you can carry at once, and the more likely you are to rip them. And yes, this did happen to me. I made the mistake of thinking I could drag them as I went down the stairs. Little did I know, there was a nail poking out on one of the ledges which ripped a little hole in the bottom of the bag so when I finally went to pick it up, the classic bottomming-out happened and my boyfriend’s clothes went all over the grass. I’m honestly just happy that it wasn’t my clothes.
Tip #3: Dust as you pack
This one is pretty self explanatory but it’s important. When I say dust as you pack, I don’t just mean dust the furniture, I mean dust everything! Dust your picture frames, knick knacks, jewelry holders, decor… It seems silly but it goes a long way. Especially if you’re moving yourself, you don’t want to be carrying dusty furniture and boxes. It’s not only gross but it can make it harder to hold on to! Plus, dusting as you pack will make the unpacking process so much easier!
Tip
#4: Unpack your bathroom & clothes first.
Tip number four is less about packing and all about unpacking! Sometimes you don’t really have a choice for what boxes you get first or which boxes you can get to asap. The most important part of moving for me is making my new place feel like home ASAP. Your new home can’t feel like home until you have everything that you need readily available. In this most recent move, I started with the kitchen because it had the most boxes & the biggest boxes, but I think this was a mistake. When you’re moving you’re pretty much eating out for 2-3 days straight because you don’t have any food, don’t have time to grocery shop, and have a bunch of other crap to worry about besides what you’re next meal is going to be. My point is, you don’t need most of the kitchen stuff anyways so you might as well start with what you’ll need first (like your bathroom stuff & clothes).
My biggest pet peeve when moving was having to dig through trash bags, hampers, and boxes to find my underwear, work shirts, and skincare products. This tip is especially important if you don’t have time off to move. Typically, people move over the weekend and you don’t want to get to Monday morning and you’re late to your new job on you’re first day because you procrastinated unpacking your clothes & you couldn’t figure out what the hell you were going to wear because all of your clothes were still in boxes. Be nice to your future self and unpack these essentials first thing so you can set your new life up for success!
Tip #5: Enjoy it!
I know, it’s cliche and dumb and moving sucks! But it’s also exciting! It’s an opportunity for a fresh start and you can build your new place just the way you want to. I promise, focusing on everything that sucks about moving will only make it suck even more. This past move, I tried to count my blessings rather than counting the things that weren’t that fun. We moved in the middle of July in North Carolina. That meant we were moving it 90+ degree weather. But did I focus on that? Absolutely not! I can’t change the weather and I can’t change a lot of the circumstances of moving so here is what I focused on instead. I was thankful that I was able to move to a bigger apartment that was in a more fun area. I was thankful it wasn’t raining. I was thankful I didn’t have to move by myself. I was thankful that we didn’t have to pay hundred (or thousands) of dollars for movers. Essentially, I tried to pinpoint the positive things about the move and what the move was bringing, rather than harping on the annoying B.S. that comes along with moving. At the end of the day, its a few hours or days of suck for at least a few months of enjoying your new home.
Bonus tips:
Pack a day bag
This can be really handy, especially if your move is going to take longer than a day. You can totally avoid losing your skincare products, work clothes, and other essentials by doing this! Pack like you’re packing for a trip — pack the essentials & a few extra pairs of clothes for the next few days.
If you’re renting, do the inventory form as soon as you get the keys.
In the past I have put this off to the next day or the day it’s due and it is so not worth it. Even though you’re excited & want to get all your stuff in the place as soon as possible, doing the inventory form first thing will save your butt! You’ll have enough space to look around, you won’t miss anything that might be damaged on the floor, and you won’t risk not getting it turned in on time. These always take longer than you think they will so it’s better to do this sooner rather than later.
I hope these tips were helpful & gave you some tips you may not have heard before. If you’re reading this, it probably means that you’re moving soon so I wish you the best of luck & for a speedy and easy move! As always, I’d love to hear your feedback and if you have any other moving tips, I’d love to hear them! Message me on TikTok, Instagram, or Pinterest @trainwithtorik or email me at trainwithtorik@gmail.com. See you next time!