A packing checklist that survives moving day
Most packing checklists are lists of rooms. The useful version is a list of decisions — what gets packed last, what never goes in the van, and what you will need before the boxes are unpacked.
Room-by-room packing checklists are easy to write and hard to use. On the day, you are not thinking "which room am I in", you are thinking "what happens next".
Here is the same job organised by time instead.
Six weeks out: decide what is not coming
The cheapest box to move is the one you do not pack. Before anything else, do a pass whose only output is three piles: keep, sell, gone.
Be ruthless about the things that have already moved house once without being unpacked. If it survived the last move in its box, it is not furniture, it is ballast.
This is also the moment to photograph anything valuable, because an inventory is far easier to build before everything is in boxes than after.
Four weeks out: pack what you do not use
Books, out-of-season clothes, the spare bedding, the loft, the garage, decorations, the good crockery. Anything you can go a month without.
Number each box as you seal it and note roughly what went in. Not a full itemisation — six lines and a photograph of the open box is enough to find things later.
Two weeks out: pack the things you use weekly
Most of the kitchen except one pan and two plates each. Most clothes except a fortnight's worth. Most of the bathroom except what is in daily use.
This is where labelling discipline pays off. If you are still writing "kitchen misc" on boxes at this stage, that habit is going to cost you a weekend at the other end.
The week before: the four boxes that are not like the others
The open-me-first box. Kettle, mugs, tea, loo roll, hand soap, a towel each, phone chargers, painkillers, a knife, a roll of bin bags. Label it in words, not numbers, and put it in the car.
The document box. Passports, birth certificates, the deeds, insurance papers, the completion paperwork. This never goes in the van. It travels with you, on your lap if necessary.
The valuables box. Jewellery, small electronics, anything irreplaceable. Also travels with you. Most removal insurance excludes high-value small items unless declared in advance, which is worth checking rather than assuming.
The tools box. One screwdriver set, an adjustable spanner, an allen key set, a knife, and the fixings for whatever furniture you dismantled. You will need it at ten o'clock at night to reassemble a bed.
Moving day: the things people forget
- Photograph the meter readings at both properties
- Photograph the back of the television before unplugging it, so you can put it back together
- Keep the fixings for each piece of furniture taped to that piece of furniture
- Feed everyone. Nobody makes good decisions about box placement while hungry
The first week: unpack in the reverse order you packed
Open-me-first, then bedrooms, then kitchen, then bathrooms, then everything else. Living rooms last, because a half-unpacked living room is comfortable and a half-unpacked bedroom is not.
This is also the point where the numbered boxes earn their keep. When somebody asks where the good scissors are, you look it up rather than opening boxes.
What to do with the boxes you do not unpack
Some boxes will still be sealed in six months. That is normal and it is fine, provided you know what is in them. What is not fine is a stack of unlabelled boxes in a new loft — that is exactly how possessions become invisible for a decade.
Keep the numbers, keep the record, and either put them somewhere sensible or accept that you did not need what is inside.
Waoo Storage exists for this half of the job: the boxes that go into a garage, a loft or a unit and stay there. Photograph the contents, number the box, print a label, and you can find things without opening anything. It is free for a single location, which covers most house moves.
The checklist, condensed
- Six weeks: decide what is not coming, photograph valuables
- Four weeks: pack the unused, number every box
- Two weeks: pack the weekly, keep labelling honest
- One week: pack the four special boxes, keep them out of the van
- Moving day: meter readings, cable photos, fixings taped down
- First week: unpack in reverse, look boxes up rather than opening them
