Trying to prepare for a cross-country move can be pretty overwhelming with all the things you have to do. Even if you are not the type of person who keeps plenty of clutter in their home, organizing a relocation can be pretty daunting. That is why WOW Organizing Services LLC has prepared a simple guide to help you stay organized during a cross-country move. We will go over how much time is needed for planning, why a moving binder might be a great idea, the benefits of decluttering, and a few other organizational tips.
How to stay organized during a cross-country move?
Here are the most important things you will want to do to organize your cross-country relocation:
- Give yourself enough time to plan
- Create a moving binder
- Declutter before packing
- Utilize a color-coded labeling system
You may also want to enlist some help from your relatives, friends, and family members. While adding a few more people into the mix might sound like an organizational nightmare, their help will allow you to save a lot of time on your relocation efforts. You will want to start contacting your inner circle as soon as possible, though, as:
Proper planning takes time
Organizing a cross-country move is a matter you want to approach seriously. If you wait to plan the relocation at the last possible moment, you may make rushed decisions that might “bite you in the rear” soon enough. To avoid any such complications, you will want to start your planning process ASAP. The more time you spend planning, the easier it will be to organize everything. Not everything will go according to plan, of course, and you always have the option of utilizing moving organizer services if you find yourself in a bind. But if you start early enough, you should be able to handle everything on your own.
Furthermore, by starting your planning early, you will have the ability to amend or even change plans on the fly. There will be no room for change when you are down to a couple of days to plan everything; you will have to commit.
With early planning, you will also be able to plan for other events that accompany the relocation, such as a goodbye party. Goodbye parties are a great way to say farewell, after all, and they are well worth the added time and effort of organizing them.
A moving binder will help you stay organized during a cross-country move
Undergoing a cross-country relocation usually means having to deal with paperwork. Depending on your situation, you may have to transport stacks and stacks of essential documents. The easiest way to keep things in check is to organize all those documents using a moving binder or two. Ideally, you will want two binders—one for your old home and one for your new one. Alternatively, you can use dividers and separate all the documents within a single binder. And if you need any further assistance, remember that you can always get a free phone consultation from our founder Ann and have her answer any questions you might have about our organizational services.
You will want to include numerous tabs in your binder, such as:
- House plans
- Moving checklists
- Receipts
- Information about your movers
- Information on your new neighborhood/city
- Financial documents
- List of items to purchase
Once you set your moving binder up, it will become much easier to find the right document when you need it. You will be introducing some order to the cross-country relocation chaos.
Apps as an alternative
If you are more technologically inclined, you can also utilize one of the various organizing apps for your phone or tablet. The only issue with most of those apps is that there is some learning curve to them. None of the apps are true “plug and play” and every one of them requires some setting up to achieve peak performance. At the same time, a moving binder can’t be simpler. You just take the documents and put them in their respective place. But if you took our advice and started early, taking the time to fiddle with organizational apps can really help you with your relocation.
Before packing, declutter
There is no sense in packing all of your belongings if some of them will sit in the garage or attic unused. Thus, you want to take some time to sort through your items and determine which are making the trip with you and which are not. The decluttering process can be pretty tricky, as you will have conflicting feelings about most of your belongings.
When it comes to decluttering, you have a few good options in front of you. You can hire professional home organizing services, or you can divide your belongings into three “piles” – bring with you pile, maybe pile, and discard pile. If opting for the latter, go through each item and assign it to one of the piles. Once everything is sorted, give yourself some time to think about the things on the “maybe” pile and categorize them into other two piles accordingly.
Color-coding for easier organization
Once you arrive at your new home, you will first want to start unpacking and settling in. Having a color-coded labeling system for your boxes is the easiest way to stay organized during a cross-country move. Each color represents one room, and the number denotes which box to unpack first. A piece of advice from triple7movers.com is to create a “master list” of all the items in each box, further enhancing your organization. Remember to keep things simple by writing “tools” or “toys”. Don’t go for elaborate descriptions unless you have a lot of time on your hands. It is better to keep things as simple as possible most of the time.
