5 Must Haves for Moving

Moving is not fun, in fact it's quite stressful and overwhelming. I'm fresh off the heels from a move, so I thought I'd share a list of must have items for moving. I wish I had this list at the beginning of my move instead of learning it along the way!

||1} Moving boxes- yes it's obvious but what you need to be told is this... BUY MORE THAN YOU THINK YOU NEED! Here's the thing, everyone will tell you this, and you'll be like "yeah yeah I know". No you don't! I don't know how many trips we made to Home Depot and Sam's club for boxes. We found that the medium sized boxes were what we used most. I wish I would've just started with a big bundle of them from Amazon. I know buying boxes is an added expense, but where I lived it wasn't easy to collect quality used boxes. I also liked the idea of having perfect sturdy boxes for my valuables. TIP: Save them after you move. As I type this, every single box we purchased for our move is now nicely broken down and stacked on a shelf in my office closet. This way, we'll have them for our next move!

||2} Rope for the moving truck- this is something I had NO IDEA that I needed. I thought the truck just came with stuff to strap stuff down with. It does not. I have never used a moving truck because I never moved further than 30 miles before. Usually moving day consisted of friends with trucks and a few back and forth trips. Luckily for me, a friend that was helping us load the moving truck had rope with them.

||3} Packing paper- I had read that newspaper isn't the best thing to use for packing your dishes because it can transfer. I did purchase some packing paper, and I have to say I went through 2 packages of this stuff! I used it for everything. I wrapped my office label printers with it, game consoles, dishes, glasses, knick-knacks, my essential oil bottles, etc. This was one of the best purchases I made as far as moving supplies go.

||4} Retractable Sharpie- using a retractable Sharpie was a game changer. We didn't have to keep track of a marker lid while already juggling a million things. I highly recommend getting a few of these.

||5} A moving binder & a basket- I looked on Pinterest to find printables for my moving binder. I used this one. I printed the pdf pages and 3 hole punched them into a binder. This was my lifeline and ended up being incredibly useful (and still is 2 months after we moved). I kept a copy of our lease agreement for the house in it as well and all receipts from U-Haul and moving expenses. I kept the binder in a basket like this one. I use that basket all the time already as a "portable office". I keep all my bill paying necessities in it, a financial planner, grocery circulars for meal planning, etc. Anyway, while we were moving I used the basket for grand central station. It housed the moving binder, sharpies, extra packing tape, scissors, box cutters, a mini screwdriver set, and everything I thought I'd need all together as we moved. On moving day I added a toilet paper roll in it, TV remotes, and phone chargers. This was my lifeline during the move and I still refer to the moving binder for random things that come up.

I hope that these tips help you and make your move as stress free as possible!