House Moving Checklist and Tips

For about a month, we have been in contract with a buyer contingent on selling their house. Last week our buyer received a solid contract on their house. We started celebrating and then realized we need to save our energy. We have a ton of work to do.

Moving is a project!

Luckily, I was a project manager in a former life. Orchestrating a team, or in this case my family, to complete a task on time and in budget is what I do best. While I have yet to create a project plan, but I have created a checklist.

Moving is not as simple as selling your house. While keeping the house clean with five little kids is at best annoying, the real challenge is underway. How will our family move on time, within budget and while creating little family stress or turmoil.

I knew we needed:

• A checklist
• To determine how we would move
• A ton of free/cheap boxes

Fortunately, our move is local. We are moving 4.3 miles from our current home so distance is not a factor. However, we have a handful of things to take into consideration. We had a list of phone calls to make. We were unsure of our closing date, but I contacted all necessary parties immediately. I wanted to understand what information they needed from me in addition to their availability at the end of the month. Many of the customer service representatives I spoke to told me that 48 hours is sufficient notice. Others asked for two weeks.

When you contact your internet and utilities companies, ask what their time frame is for notification. Make sure to update your checklists with these dates so nothing is missing on moving day.

Moving can be a logistic nightmare. Consider how you will move. I figure there are a couple of moving options:

• Moving company boxes and moves the house completely
• You help moving company box and they move the house
• You box and moving company moves the house
• You move everything but the heavy items
• Pods or other portable storage unit
  
• Storage Units
  
• Moving truck
  

I can probably tell you one friend that used each of the above scenarios. Everyone is different and this applies to moving as well.

Consider your budget, your availability and your interest in being involved in the process.

We most likely will go with both the Pods and a moving truck option. For this reason, our garage is already full of boxes. We are staging our house for when the Pods arrives. We want to have all but the necessities packed and the only task on moving day is putting the final boxes and large items into the moving truck.

Consider all the options above and carefully consider your move. What is your best moving option?

I went to an office store the other day to pick up a few boxes to get us started. Almost $6 for a large box! I decided this was not the way to go.

Some prefer all the boxes to be uniform. For these families, purchasing boxes are an option. For those, like me, on a strict budget, I needed to figure out how to get a ton of boxes for little of no money.

My friend recently moved. She offered us her moving boxes. That gave us a great head start. However, I knew we needed more. I went to our local grocery store at about 7:00 am. This is when the night shift is just finishing their stocking.

There were boxes galore!

I asked nicely, "Excuse me. What do you do with your boxes?". Our grocery store explained that they load them into the dumpster to crush and recycle them. For this reason, they had no issues with me taking boxes.

I made friends in the bakery and produce departments. I found the cookie, apple and banana boxes are my favorite. Just this morning I talked to the manager of our store. He told me if I provided him with my name, he would save all the boxes from the night shift and I can pick them up first thing in the morning. Tomorrow I will not have to go department to department asking for boxes. I will go directly to the back of the store where they are waiting for me.

Contact the manager at a local grocery or home improvement store. If they recycle their boxes, they will eagerly give them away. As of today, I have nearly 100 boxes and have yet to pay for any.

Our kids asked us today, "So, when are we moving?" I said, "Perhaps at the end of the month." We are not 100%, but we are well on our way to prepare for moving day.

When the sign went up in our yard, our neighbors said, "We will miss you!". When I asked for boxes, the bakery said, "Will you still shop here?" When I dropped off extra games at the food pantry and explained why, they said, "But you will still be in the parish?"

In the midst of packing our house, we are reminded that home is where your family lives and friends go with you everywhere.