Moving Day Tips from UNITS NoVa

Published: November 08, 2020

Planning for a move can be incredibly stressful, especially if you’ve never done it before. When should you hit the road to get to your destination? How long should you expect it to take you to pack? When you do get to your new home, what do you unpack first? These important scheduling tips will help make your next move go more smoothly. 

Leave Enough Time to Pack

When you’re packing up your home, make sure you have enough time to do it right! While professional movers might be able to sweep through your home in a few short hours, you’ll need a few days–between 1 for a small, one-bedroom apartment and 5 to 7 for a larger house with several bedrooms and several family members–to do it yourself. Start packing at least a week before your move if you know that you’re going to have time to do it right. If you’re cramming in your move between work, school, and other normal activities, give yourself a couple of weeks to get completely packed up. 

Leave Yourself an “Important Items” Box

There are several things that you’ll need as soon as you arrive at your new home: toiletries, sheets and blankets for your bed, and clothing for the first couple of days, for example. Pack these items in one box or suitcase that goes with you, not in the moving truck. Then, when you arrive at your new home, unpack that box first so that you’ll be as comfortable as possible in your new home. 

Prioritize Unpacking Order

If you have children, chances are, you’ll want to get their bedrooms unpacked as soon as possible so that they will start to feel more at home in the new house and be able to settle in. You’ll also want to be sure that your bed is set up and ready for you to sleep in as soon as possible. Next, you’ll probably want to unpack the kitchen: you’ll want to be able to prepare your own meals early in the moving process so that you don’t have to rely on takeout for too long. 

Schedule Your Help

Moving boxes is one challenging part of moving, but it’s not the only one! Anyone can help pack items up in boxes and help carry them out of your old house and into your new one. It’s a little harder to unpack items for someone else, especially in the kitchen or bedrooms. Schedule your moving help so that you don’t have more people hanging around than you have a use for–and so that you do have help when you need it most. 

Time Your Departure

Depending on how far you’re moving, you may have a long drive in front of you. Try, however, to avoid staying up too late the night before and jumping out of bed at the crack of dawn the next morning. Instead, get a good night’s sleep the night before and get started when you’re ready. You’ll find that a good night’s sleep makes it much easier to tackle the challenges ahead. 

Know When to Quit

You just want to be unpacked and settled into your new home–but you’re also exhausted. Instead of trying to get it all done in one day, know when you’re tired and need to quit. Using a portable storage unit can make it easier to unpack at your own pace, rather than needing to have a truck unloaded and boxes all over your floors for days. 

If you’re planning your next move and need help packing up your possessions, contact us. Our portable storage units will make it easier for you to handle the packing and unpacking process at a pace that works for you.