My only random tips from multiple moves, though it sounds like you’ve got it covered:
Throw out anything you haven’t touched in 3 years and anything you haven’t worn in 2, at a MINIMUM. Now is the time to clean it up. The actual recommendations to de-junk are 1 year of not using.
Send someone ahead to tell the movers where to put things. Tip them when done.
Get a couple of wearable back braces and grippy gloves for you and your wife, even if all you’re doing is lifting boxes. Save your back and fingers.
Get some furniture sliders (they go under the legs/feet of furniture. They help SO MUCH.
For your future self, re-evaluate any furniture or items over 200lbs from going up stairs. Eventually you’ll want those moved or someone will have to move them. Do you need that old dresser from the 40s in the upstairs guest room? Do you need it at all? Why are you moving an old tube TV? Etc.
If you take anything in your own cars, Do not overload the seats. Frequently braking will throw top heavy items forward and you can crack or break auto-windows when that happens. The same for vehicle headliners getting torn or scratched up. That being said, carry your own highly breakable items.
It always blows my mind how much stuff people accumulate. I was a digital nomad for a decade plus and the discipline stuck even though I’ve now been in the same place for the last few years. I could still probably get away with stuffing everything into a couple of bags and moving country with a few hours notice.
Do you have kids? My wife and I were pretty good about not being weighed down with stuff until we had kids. Went from being able to fit my life into 2-3 large boxes to needing a full moving truck.
We’re in the process of closing on our new house so will be going through the move thing in about a month or two (need to do some stuff on the new house before we move in). Some great tips here that I will dig up when the time comes. It’s been 8 years since our last move, which seems to be my expiration date for housing—8 year stints in the last two places, each.
Nope, no kids. That would definitely add to the accumulation of stuff by orders of magnitude. I doubt I could keep a stuff-light lifestyle if I had kids :)
We’re going to try to do the same, but I’m skeptical of how successful we’ll be. Like you, we aren’t moving far (about 1.5 miles) and we’ll have a lot of time to gradually move stuff over because of the fixes we’re doing on the new house. We’ll just have to cram all the stuff we move over gradually into the master bathroom, which is the only spot in the house that won’t be touched much, due to refinishing of floors and painting. Garage needs to be left open for the painters.
I think all that time will be dangerous. Super easy to just throw a box or two in the back of the car each time we go over. Of course, we’ll do the hard work of throwing stuff out on the other side, right?!
Yeah that’s true, however our new place is a lot bigger and we are trying to avoid filling it with rubbish. Lockdown is probably helping as well as buying new stuff for it is taking longer as well otherwise we may have already filled it with new stuff.
I lived in my last house (basement, attic, and all) for 19 years. Between kids, hobbies, and a taste for some of the older bigger furniture styles we had a lot of stuff. Then I moved half way around the world into a small two bedroom apartment. We have a lot less stuff. We both miss tools and hobby supplies that we don’t have space for here.
Not really adding anything, I just want to go on record that I absolutely despise moving. It is one of the reasons why I no longer own a pick up. When you own a pick up, everyone that knows you and their immediate family, acquaintances and even occasional strangers, want you to move shit for them. Can someone please develop Star Trek Discovery level teleportation?
Just want to say thanks for all the advice, in our new place now, went well apart from the car breaking down thus morning and removals turning up with a too small van so needed 2,
My wife and I have sworn dark and terrible oaths in the name of chthonic gods that we will unpack posthaste on this next move, after taking a full year on the last one to unpack the final boxes from the previous move.
I have boxes that are at least 5 years old that have never been unpacked, and before you say I should get rid of the stuff, know that it includes my complete set of FoxFire books, and also my tuxedo in those boxes.
I came across a couple of boxes tucked into a corner of our basement this summer that were there, undisturbed, from when my wife and I moved into our house. In 2004. Sadly, they’re “heirlooms” from my wife’s side of the family, so they will remain in boxes until there’s no family pressure to hang on to them any longer.
