We all know about turning on the utilities at the new place and filling out the change-of-address form for the postal service, but when you make a long-distance move, some other things come into play that can make getting from here to there a bit trickier. Here are eight tips pulled from my recent experience of moving from the East Coast to the West Coast — from packing the moving van to handling the inevitable meltdowns.
- Declutter before you pack. If you don’t love it or need it, there’s no sense in bringing it with you — that space in the truck is money!
- Leave dresser drawers filled. For the first time ever, rather than emptying the dresser drawers, I simply left the clothes and linens folded inside and wrapped up the furniture. Does this make them heavier? Yes. But as long as the drawers are filled with lightweight items (definitely not books), it should be fine. And if not, you (or your helpers) can carry the drawers out separately. The benefit is twofold: You need fewer boxes, and it will be easier to find stuff when you move in.
- Pack soft items in black trash bags. Glamorous? Not in the least. But this has to be the smartest packing idea we tried. Fill heavy-duty black garbage bags with soft items (duvets, pillows, stuffed animals), then use the bags as space fillers and cushioning inside the truck. To keep items clean and protected, we doubled the bags and tied, then taped, them shut. Use a permanent marker on sticky labels applied to the outside to note the contents.
2. Paint before you move in. If you plan to give your new space a fresh coat of paint, it makes a lot of sense to do this before moving all of your stuff in.
Aside from the obvious (it’s easier to paint an empty house than one full of furniture), you’ll feel a great sense of accomplishment having “paint” ticked off your to-do list before the first box is even unpacked.
While you’re at it, if there are other messy, disruptive items on your list (anything to do with the floors definitely qualifies), getting to as many of them as possible before moving day will be a big help.
4. Put ‘Buy houseplants’ at the top of your to-do list. One of the unexpectedly sad moments of our move was when I realized we couldn’t bring our houseplants along. This may not sound like a big deal, but when you’ve lovingly nurtured a houseful of plants for years, the thought of starting back at zero is kind of depressing. We gave away all of our plants but ended up keeping some of our favorite pots — something that has made picking plants for the new space much easier (and cheaper).
Once you’re in your new place, you might be tempted to put off buying new houseplants, but I urge you to make it a priority. Why? Houseplants clean the air (especially important if you’ve used paint or flooring that has volatile organic compounds, or VOCs), but most important, they will make your house feel like home.
Even if the new place sounds great (and is great!) meltdowns and emotional moments are a totally natural reaction to such a big shakeup in life.
So when the moment comes (and it will) that someone (or more than one someone) in the house needs a good cry, roll with it. Then get yourselves up and find something fun to explore or do in your new town.
7. Expect to shed some more stuff after you move. No matter how much decluttering you do before moving, it seems to be a law of nature that there will be items that simply don’t fit in the new space.
Even if everything physically fits, there’s bound to be something that just doesn’t work like you thought it would. Try not to hold on to these things purely out of frustration.
Sell them, gift them to a dear friend or (if you truly love the items) keep them — but only if you have the storage space.
Moving is never fun and it is almost guaranteed that there will be at least one melt down. Probably from the kids, but I have been known to snap as well. Mostly when I am trying to pack everything in the moving van so that it will fit. To combat this kind of stress, I would recommend being organized and purging your house of unneeded items before packing. Less stuff equals more room.
Painting before you move in is a really good idea. We went and checked out the house we are moving into a month ago and the paint is awful. We haven’t let our kids see it yet but I have a feeling they will be really disappointed if they see the way the house looks now. We are going to be doing a long distance move so I’ll have to see if I can plan a trip before hand to clean it and repaint it! Hopefully this makes the move less painful for everyone!
The decluttering and packing up of every room is what has me stuck on. Looking at it has me wanting to use the tools that my uncle’s moving services left in his garage. Well, it I would need to get for my long distance move that is coming up for next week.
I remember when I almost moved across the country because my mom got offered a job out there. It was nerve racking. I can only imagine how stressful it must be for people who move long distance. I think another thing you can do is probably to check if the moving services will help with long distance moves. I’ve heard some companies only do thing locally.
Ya, taking some time to plane for the move will surely helps the persons to avoid pitfalls along the way. One must have to consider the difference between local move and long distance move during the pre moving process. Your blog shares some friendly tips for happier long distance mover. Apart from these I also want to share some tips in the following which may helps the person during relocation.
1)It is good to pack the belongings for long haul.
2)All the belongings must be insured properly.
3)Inspect all the outdoor furniture.
4)Avoid packing of food and liquid.
5)Naming the boxes is one of the finest way to differentiate the boxes. Etc
Thank you so much for sharing such a lovely post.
That’s a superb tip to look for really good recommendations when looking for a long distance move. I appreciate the efforts you people put in to share blogs on such kind of topics, it was really helpful. Keep Posting!
Moving long distances does seem like a tricky thing to do. If I had to move long ways I would be stressed out that I should forget something. So, I liked that you talked about how you should be prepared to declutter when you are moving.
I like the idea to pain the new space before you move all of the large and heavy materials. It looks like one of the large industrial plants where we live is planning on moving to a different county. It seems like a huge ordeal, but I think that having the new location prepped will help to cut the workload in half.
I received a great tip. When you are packing up your boxes, use a different colored tape on the important ones so you know what to unpack first when getting to your next location
My husband got a promotion in a city that’s pretty far away, and I don’t want the move to be stressful. I appreciate the tip about getting rid of things you don’t love or need so that you can have more space in the truck. If I declutter before we go, that might make it easier on us and the long distance movers we’re going to hire.