As you may remember, we recently moved to a new home and we are so happy to finally be done with all of the boxes and extra clutter that comes along with that. Moving can be such a time consuming (and sometimes frustrating) process. When we found out the date for our upcoming move, we started the process of decluttering and packing. Everyone does that, right? But, I wanted to share with you some not so obvious moving tips to help make the transition a little smoother. Some of these we used and some we will be keeping in mind for next time.

1. Make a floor plan.
This may sound silly, but by creating a floor plan of your new place, it will be much easier to direct movers or friends/family who are helping you. Not everyone will know what rooms you are using for what purposes. You don’t want the family room boxes and furniture in the living room and little Billy’s bedroom mixed up with Susie’s because that would be a huge pain in the booty. Draw it by hand, whip one up in your favorite graphics program or use floorplanner.com.

2. Label and color code boxes.
Most likely, when you are getting ready to move, you are writing something on the outsides of the boxes to help you out. If you aren’t, you are doing yourself a disservice. Each box should be labeled with the room that it will be going to, as well as what items are inside. Each room can also be assigned a color (kitchen = yellow, master bedroom = blue) and all of the boxes for that room would be marked with the coordinating color tape or paint.

3. Bag clothes.
This one saved us a lot of time. Instead of boxing up our clothes, we grabbed some clean trash bags and placed them over the tops of the clothes right over top the hangers.

4. It’s what’s inside that counts.
Really think about what is going to go in each box and try to keep like items together. A large box wouldn’t really be a great choice for heavy items such as books, because it would be harder to move around. And you definitely don’t want to stuff your toothbrushes in with the toilet brush.

5. Pack a necessities bag.
Chances are that when you get to your new place, you won’t get everything unpacked in one day. It is important to have the things you will need, like a change of clothes, toiletries and a towel for showering. Don’t kid yourself. You know you are going to be pretty ripe smelling after working so hard.

6. Use available space.
I refuse to pack the contents of our dresser drawers into boxes, just to put them right back in once we get to our destination. Let your drawers be the boxes and save yourself time and money. Also, don’t forget to fill up other empty spaces, such as a slow cooker (load your spices into it) and trash can (cleaned and sanitized so it is ready to go at the new place.)

8. Stop utilities and change address with USPS, banks, insurance, credit cards, etc.
This one is probably pretty obvious, but at the last minute when you are running around trying to get everything finished up, it is something that is easy to over look.

9. Send moving announcements.
After everything is said and done, don’t forget to let your family and friends know your new address too. We have yet to do this. Oops. I’m horrible at mailing things, like my Christmas thank you cards. Don’t judge me. The first step is admitting you have a problem, right?

I hope that these tips help you when you get ready to make your next move. We would love to hear any ideas you may have for making the house to house change easier too!