If you knew you were moving in 2-3 months

[motzie]

What would you start to pack? Or do?

I've cleaned out both girls closets and purged all and packed all baby gear and clothes. We're in an apartment so there's no basement or attic of crap to sort. Is it too early for toys? I feel like I'm in limbo and I don't want to fall behind and then be screwed when the time comes.

[dottyblue]

I hate the period where you know a move is imminent but you can't pack. Sorting/cleaning out is good.

Usually I try to pack up off-season items (aka, Christmas, winter clothes, boots, coats, etc), books we won't use, specialty kitchen items we won't use.

I also make lists. Lots of lists. If I can't pack, I can plan. Good luck!

[Deleted]

When we were getting ready to sell our house, we packed away all of the kitchen stuff we could live without for 3+ months. Things like extra cooking utensils, glassware, etc. We packed up books, extra linens, cleaned out closets, things like that. But, we were doing it to reduce stuff in the house for potential buyers.

If there's toys that you can live without, I might question whether you even want to keep it. I think I would really start packing stuff closer to one month out.

[lemoncupcake]

When we have been in that stage of preparing to move we mostly just purged/cleaned out stuff that we didn't want to keep. Actual packing started about 4-6 weeks out.

But if you have a place out of the way to put boxes, then go for it. That was always my issue - I didn't want boxes all over the place for months on end.

[badtzmaru22]

Throw everything away.

[meltoine]

Inventory the pantry and make plans to use as much as you can.

[lilac05]

Purge, purge, purge.

If you're not planning on hosting company/parties between now & moving, you could probably pack a bunch of kitchen stuff.

I think just taking time to think about your game plan is the best use of time. If you're moving to a multi-level house, I recommend using different colored stickers for each level. It makes it easy to see where things need to go at a glance.

Whatever you do, don't pack away the next size up clothes! I did that just a few weeks before we moved & BOTH kids hit a major growth spurt. Oops!

[magpie]

I'm currently moving (like right now all my stuff is on a truck somewhere!). I wouldn't pack a thing that early (unless you need to put your house on the market and stage it), but I would purge everything I could. I really think packing is one of the few things in life that is better done last minute. We had to pack up a bunch of stuff very early to stage our house and it was irritated how often I'd be like, "Oh, I need blah blah, but damnit, it's in the garage all packed!"

[sierramist03]

I would start purging and throwing stuff away/donating.

[IrishBelle]

I just went through this 6 months ago and I used that time to purge as much as I could. I donate a lot and sold quite a bit on FB B/S/T groups.

Pack up anything that is seasonale and that you know that you won't need for the next 2-3 months.

[ssmjlm]

We purged a ton. I also packed anything that wasn't used daily. All books, office supplies, etc were packed. We packed a ton of kitchen stuff, like the glasses and just kept out a few tervis tumblers, etc.

[linz]

We were going to sell our house but H's cousin bought it so now we are house hunting. I had started to pack up stuff and put it in my parent's basement. It's such a pain! Most of it we don't need but it's annoying when we want something and it isn't at home. 

Had I known this was going to happen I would have just packed up things like winter clothes and stuff and kept it in our basement. 

[juliette21]

Ditto everyone -- pack up off-season clothing and accessories, kitchen stuff like bundt pans and other things you don't use all the time, entertaining items, books, etc.

We just moved from a 989 sq apartment with no basement or attic to a SF house. We started packing about a month and a half before the move and also purged a lot or so we thought. We still ended up with so much crap to move and we had to make 2 trips with the moving truck on moving day. I wish we had purged more because now I don't want all this clutter in my beautiful (but small) home.  

[runblondie26]

We've started packing away or selling toys (I don't think they've even noticed stuff is gone), and most of the kitchen items, save a few basics.

It still seems overwhelming how much we have left. We're doing the list thing too: Discard, Donate, Storage Unit, or Keep for Staging.

[motzie]

May 24, 2016 10:28:43 GMT -5 meltoine said:

Inventory the pantry and make plans to use as much as you can.

Yes! I have already laid down the law with H about packing/bringing any food. As in, it's not happening.

I'm still not over driving 22+ hours with a cooler full of soda that he insisted he would drink on the way down. He didn't touch a single one. Murder!

[noodleskooze]

I purged then packed up things we only use periodically--games, DVDs, extra toiletries, winter clothes, etc. The weekend before we move, I plan to pack up the toys and DS's books since we won't be home during the weekdays anyways. I might also pack up the rest of our bathroom/closet stuff and just live out of suitcases for the week. The night before, we'll pack the kitchen.

[gerberdaisy]

Ditto on purging and using up the pantry. Also, bathroom items. When I move I realize how many lotions, masks, random sample I have that I never use.

[ryry]

We are moving one month from today (ack!) and I've done a lot of purging but no packing. I'm going to start when we're two weeks out, I think.

[anna7602]

Hauling off things to Good will/neighborhood swaps/ used bookstores/other donation centers, etc., as well as offering things to friends (like kids' clothing or big toys).

[hski2349]

Purge, purge, purge. Consider getting boxes, if you can get some from work, or other places.

[liveintheville]

Our house situation made it so I had to pack everything in 5 days. Do not do that. I'd start a couple weeks out.

[aspentosh]

Out of season clothes. Toys that haven't been played with in awhile (even better to purge those if you're done with kids). That type of thing.

But I agree that sorting through and purging is probably what I'd be most concentrating on this far out.

[rbp]

Ugh, we're moving locally in July, and I feel you! So far all we've packed is M's outgrown clothes and toys and our out of season clothes. I'm hoping that having the movers pack or stuff will be in the budget, because it suuucks.

ETA: I've also made a Goodwill run!

[sh10]

Purge as much as you can, give it a week, then go through again and find more things you don't want and purge. I sold a lot before we moved, anything I bought used like big outdoor toys I got rid of. There are boxes I haven't opened since we moved and I'm sure when we finally end up in our bigger house, I'll question why we moved at least half of it.