Organizing for a Move - What to Move First

 
We close today on our new house! We are so excited! We have both cars packed and will go directly to the house after closing.

We thought very carefully what we wanted to move first. We are planning to move our furniture and big stuff next Saturday, a week away. We decided to pay an extra month's rent so we could move gradually. I realize not everyone has that luxury, but if you can do it, it takes a lot of stress out of moving day. We will be able to place the large items and won't be faced with stacks and stacks of boxes to unpack.

So what are we going to move first? Items that will help us get organized:

- Shelves for the garage. We purchased 48 x 18 x 74 steel shelves that will line one wall of our garage. One will go in the front of the garage for tools, etc. One will in the laundry room closet to create a pantry. We found these at Lowe's on sale last week, saving us $50! Each shelf holds up to 350 pounds and is adjustable. We felt like this was an inexpensive and relatively easy way to create garage storage. When we start bringing our boxes over, we'll already have a place for those things that will live in the garage.

- Shelf and cupboard organizers and expanders. As you can imagine, I have all kinds of organizing units that expand storage capacity in kitchen cabinets, under the kitchen and bathroom sinks and that hang on the wall. (I'll do a blog post or two on these - I got some new ones to maximize our storage in our little retirement cottage and I LOVE them!.) By setting these up first, we'll only have to unpack once because they'll be in place when we put away dishes, toiletries, and other items.

- Shower rods and shower curtains. Since our house is new, we didn't have shower rods in our bathrooms. It will be nice to have the shower ready so we can use it the first day we actually move in, without a lot of hassle.

- Tools. To put all these things together, we'll need screwdrivers, drills, and more. One of our shelving units will need to be cut down with a hack saw to fit into our pantry closet.

- Miscellaneous essentials - disposable cups/plates/silverware, paper towels and toilet paper, and some food so we don't have to stop unpacking to go get food. I've doubled a couple of recipes the last two days and will take those over for easy meals.

Once we get these organizational items in place, we'll be ready to start bringing over boxes to unpack! The process should go smoothly with all this prep already done. Hopefully, we'll have all the small stuff unpacked and put away by next Saturday. Can't wait!

More on organizing for a move:
Getting Organized for a Move - Measure, Measure, Measure!
Ruthless Closet Purging - Getting Organized for a Move ... Or Not
Three Steps to Downsizing to a Smaller Residence