No matter how much time you think you need, give yourself more.
Last time we tried packing everything the week before and it was absolute hell, so this time we thought we were being awesome by giving ourselves three whole weeks to pack and prepare for the big day. Trouble was, we started getting complacent and slacked off halfway through, and thus we didn’t finish cleaning up until 6am on Wednesday! We had left a lot of cleaning and painting until the last minute because we figured it’d be easier with an empty house, but in reality we could’ve had much more done weeks ago.
If you don’t need it, don’t move it.
Probably our biggest godsend was that in what preparatory cleaning and packing that we did do, we got rid of a lot of stuff! Probably a couple dozen bags of garbage, along with a good 10-12 bags of clothes and some furniture donated to Goodwill. Looking around our new place, we’re still not quite sure where it’s all gonna go, but we’re still far better off than had we brought even more junk that didn’t get used once since our previous move!
Splurge for the bigger truck.
Sure, the 26′ truck would’ve costed another ten bucks and is a little harder to drive, but it would’ve eliminated a second trip AND allowed for our moving guys to muscle everything themselves … instead, that second trip was probably $40-50 between gas and mileage, and we had to do all of the heavy lifting ourselves. Oops…
Paying people to help is money well spent.
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again – I’ll never not pay someone to help us move ever again!
Admit that some things will fall behind.
And lastly, something that I’m sure I’ll be coming to terms with even more this weekend as I spend more time putting things away and unpacking than I do writing – some things will fall behind when taking on such a herculean task as moving, and you either have to be ok with that or be prepared to pull your own hair out trying to keep the balance. I wish I would’ve realized this a little earlier this time – maybe I could’ve written some stuff in advance to make the transition a little easier, but at this point all I can do is take a deep breath and slowly start to pick up the pieces one at a time.