How to Stay Organized When Moving

Moving can be incredibly chaotic. If you aren’t careful, you could find yourself surrounded by piles of unlabeled boxes, broken glassware, and misplaced belongings. Stuffing everything in boxes shouldn’t take too long, but what about when you begin unpacking? If you don’t take a little time to “shape up” before you ship out, you will undoubtedly end up stressed and overwhelmed. Use the tips below to learn how to stay organized when moving.

How to Stay Organized When Moving

Create a binder for important information.

This may seem like overkill, but creating a binder for all your moving information will save you time, stress, energy, and maybe even money. Organize your binder into several categories: checklists, receipts, loan information, utilities, inventory, etc. Then, add documents to each section throughout the process of your move, so that you can stay on top of all this important information:

• Checklists: Make a list of things you need to do before, during, and after your move.
• Receipts: Keep all receipts relating to the move in one place for easy access in case you need to return or exchange something.
• Utilities: Place utility contracts, paperwork, and contact information in this section. Be sure to make utility appointments early.
• Inventory: Make a list of all your boxes (the next step will help with this), including how many boxes will go into each room.

You may also want to add sections for loan documents, apartment information, your moving company, your builder, etc.

Label and color-code your boxes.

When packing, organize items based on where they will end up. Label each box with a large Sharpie, writing down what the box contains. Then, use stickers to color code the boxes by room (yellow = kitchen, green = living room, blue = master bedroom, etc). Be sure to tell your family (or movers) how the color code works, so that they know where to drop off the boxes. You could also create a “legend” with all of the stickers and their correlating rooms. Then, hang the legend on the front door, at the top of the stairs, etc. to avoid confusion.

Build a box (or two) of essential supplies.

After an exhausting moving day, you may not want to immediately unpack all your boxes. Until you have the time and energy to unpack, you will need to survive on a small amount of essential supplies. For this reason, we encourage you to build a “survival kit.” Dedicate one box to these important items, so that you won’t have to dig through a number of boxes to find them:

• Change of clothes
• Toiletries
• Medications
• Trash bags
• Dishes and silverware (disposable perhaps)
• Box cutters
• Scissors
• Lightbulbs
• Flashlight
• Toilet paper
• Paper towels
• Cleaning supplies
• Shower curtain
• Bath towels
• Sheets
• Curtains
• Coffee and coffee maker
• Snacks

Now that you know how to stay organized when moving, are you ready to get started? If you’re planning to rent a storage unit and you live near Springfield, Missouri, consider contacting Eastway Storage. We offer a variety of storage unit options including climate-controlled storage. Give us a call at 417-864-7867 to learn more, or click here to check out our sizing and pricing. We look forward to hearing from you!