Akram's Ideas
Helpful tips ,checklists and printables, to keep you organized and on track when it comes to moving to a new home.

Tips & Checklist for Moving to a New Home

As you might have heard I’ve moved to a new house!

This process has been long-awaited and I would like to   give a shout out to Misty Peery our realtor. Not only was she an amazing realtor she made us coolest house-warming gift. She hand painted this lovely name plate, which we placed in the front entry.

Akram's Ideas: Burris Painting by Misty Peery
I just love it! My favorite house-warming gift.

Anyways when it comes to moving, especially a big move of any kind the process can be very stressful. Since I’ve moved like 3 times in the last year I thought it would be helpful to share some tips and checklists to help make moving easier.

Moving Tips

During my moving process I researched a lot of moving articles and organization tips. There are a great many resources online, but I’ve decided to share my own quick and easy tips with you.

Moving Timeline

Yes, it’s great if you can plan out your move weeks in advance. This however is not the case. In our last few moves we had about a week to two weeks to move. Not ideal but here are some tips to help you.

  • Day 1 – Get packing supplies, Clean out fridge , plan dinner accordingly, wash all clothes and dishes
  • Day 2 – Pack up rooms and stuff that aren’t used daily (like craft room or spare bedroom)
  • Day 3 – Pack up all decor, from pictures to accessories to dvds.
  • Day 4 – Pack up your closet (leave about a week’s worth of clothes out to wear)
  • Day 5 – Pack up kitchen
  • Day 6 – Pack up all the rest of the house
  • Day 7 – Pack bathroom items and any last-minute items

Moving Boxes and Packing Hacks

When it comes to moving boxes I’ve hardly ever had to buy them. Usually if you are in an office environment you can start asking around for boxes. Many times offices will have paper boxes that printer paper is bought in.

Another great place to ask for boxes is bookstores. Whenever they get a shipment of books they basically throw away the boxes. If you check with your local bookstore they’ll usually will let you know when they’ll have a new shipment and when the boxes will be available , free for you.

You don’t always have to use boxes at all. I learned a great trick on Pinterest for packing clothes. Just punch a hole at the bottom of a trash bag and place it over a bundle of clothes on hangers. This way the are immediately red to hang and you just tear the bag off of them.

Akram's Ideas: Use trash bags to pack clothes
This is a great trick for packing clothes.

Packing items in drawers are also a good trick. I have a several of those plastic drawer carts. Which you can place stuff in and tape shut with painters tape. This will keep the drawer shut in a move, but not leave any tape on the container.

If you have a lot of stuff in dresser or desk drawers, simply remove the drawer from the item and place the whole drawer in a trash bag. Tie tie it tight so nothing slips out. You can then transport the drawers without emptying their contents. Once the furniture is moved in you simply place the drawers right bag into place.

One of my favorite tips for packing plates is to stack them between styrofoam plates. This is great since you’ll probably need some styrofoam plates to use for a while anyways, just buy a large bag and use some for moving.

Akram's Ideas: Use styrofoam plates to cushion dishes
This is a quick and easy way to protect your dishes

Towels also make for good packing cushions when it comes to packing fragile items. As do stuffed animals.

New Home Tips

Now that your are packed it’s time to move into your new home. Here are a few of my tips when it comes to moving in.

Clean the House

If you don’t have to move out of your old place the minute you get your new one, I would spending the first day or two just cleaning your new home.

I’ve even put together a New Home Cleaning Checklist to share with you guys.

Akram's Ideas : New Home Checklist
Click to Download the Checklist

Storage Room

Once you actually have to move into the new house I suggest setting up one room as a storage room to store all the boxes you bring in.Usually a garage or unused bedroom is a great place for this. This way you can slowly unpack boxes in their designated room, without having boxes all over the house.

Akram's Ideas: Room full of stuff
Sometimes all the clutter can be a little overwhelming

Our new house has 4 bedrooms so I used one room as a storage room. We spent time moving the big furniture into the other rooms and now I can slowly unpack boxes at a time. Without having the whole house full of boxes.

First Night Box

A lot of articles and people will tell you need a first night box. The box you open the first night with essentials like toiletries and other personal items.

What we’ve found is that this is kind of unnecessary. In today’s modern times almost everything is open 24 hours. So, if I can’t find my toothbrush, heck it was probably time to get a new one anyways. You can always run to the local Walmart or Walgreens and get a new one.

Nesting

One of the things I’ve learned throughout moving is not to worry about getting everything unpacked at once.

Akram's Ideas: Mailbox Flowers
Adding flowers to the mailbox made it feel like home

Start with the important rooms, which for us was the bathroom and bedroom. Once you have rooms and items you use regularly unpacked and put away, focus on other rooms and decor.

Akram's Ideas: Clean Bathroom
I started with the bathroom and bedroom

Try to do a little at a time and take time to “nest” into your new place and surroundings.

One other tip, as eager as friends and family maybe to see your new place, I suggest waiting a few weeks to a month to invite them over. This will give you time to get settled and add some of your personality to your new place.

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Helpful tips ,checklists and printables, to keep you organized and on track when it comes to moving to a new home.

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Akram Taghavi-Burris

designer, writer, educator, tech nerd, crafter, baker, sewer and vintage collector, who Brings Creative & Crazy Ides to Life.

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