A Packing Timeline for Moving: What to Pack and When

If you’ve decided to move and you’re wondering, “when should I start packing for a move,” then you’re in the right place. 

As a professional packer, I can share my perspective on how long areas can take to pack, the order of items to pack, and things to consider when packing for a move. 

Your exact timeline will depend on if you’re moving into a rental home, if you have to sell a house and buy a house, and if you’re moving out of state.

Nevertheless, here’s an example timeline you can use to start preparing for your move. 

For this example, let’s pretend you’re moving in six months.

Six Months Before Your Moving Date

The first thing I recommend you do is declutter your home. 

Why? Because you most likely have items in your home that you no longer want because they’re broken, outdated, from someone you no longer associate with, or taking up unnecessary space because you haven’t used them and don’t plan to use them in the future. 

Therefore, instead of packing and transporting those items to your new home, you can declutter those items by selling, donating, recycling, or throwing them away. 

You can start decluttering the area that has the most items in it such as your garage or attic, or you can start decluttering the area you use the most such as your kitchen or bedroom. 

Five Months Before Your Moving Date

Because you have full-time responsibilities (e.g. work, school, kids), then you may need more than a month to declutter your home which is normal. 

Continue to declutter the items you don’t want to take to your new home.

In addition to that, you can purchase some packing materials such as boxes, packing paper, and tape to start packing items you won’t need access to between now and your moving date.

Those items can include seasonal clothing, seasonal decor, awards, and collectibles. 

Four Months Before Your Moving Date 

By now, you might be done with decluttering or close to being done with decluttering your home. 

If you’re not done decluttering, then focus on completing that first so you don’t accidentally pack something you don’t want to keep. 

If you’re done decluttering, then continue to pack items you won’t need access to between now and your moving date. 

Those items can include books, photo albums, and dishware in your china cabinet. 

Three Months Before Your Moving Date 

Since we’re getting closer to your moving date, I recommend packing the areas that typically take the longest. These include the kitchen, bedroom closet, and garage.

The kitchen can take several hours to several days to pack because it usually has the most fragile items in it. As a professional packer, I’ve been taught to wrap glassware and delicate items individually to help protect them during transit. As you can imagine, that will cause the packing process to be longer since dozens of items will need to be wrapped individually. 

Additionally, many people have a lot more items in their kitchen than they realize. From customized mugs and glassware to multiple cooking appliances and food containers, many people can easily end up with 30 boxes just for their kitchen. 

A bedroom closet can also take several hours or several days to pack if you have a lot of clothes, shoes, bags, and accessories in it. If you declutter this area beforehand, then you can help reduce the amount of boxes or storage containers you will need to pack everything in. However, even with decluttering this area first, you can still end up with 10 or more boxes for that closet if it also contains items for someone else such as your spouse. 

Just like the other two areas, a garage can take several hours to several days to pack because many people use their garage as a storage area so it’s easy for items to accumulate in that area over time. While some items may already be in storage containers, you might have to look through them to see if there’s anything fragile in them and to make sure they’re protected correctly. 

Other areas that can take a while to pack are a basement, attic, office, and children’s playroom. 

You don’t have to pack all of those areas at once. Pick one of those areas to focus on for this month. If you need help deciding, then choose an area that won’t cause as much disruption to your life right now if most of the items in it are boxed up this month. 

Two Months Before Your Moving Date

By now, one of those areas should be packed up for the most part. For example, if you chose to pack the garage, then 80% of those items might be in boxes while 20% of those items are unpacked because you still need access to them between now and your moving date. 

For this month, you’re going to pick two more areas to focus on and start packing one of those. Once you have packed up most of the items you will not need right now, you can pack the items in the second area you chose. 

Since your moving date is getting closer, it’s important to be more intentional with the time you dedicate to pack so that you can make significant progress with packing while still maintaining certain standards such as labeling your boxes and protecting fragile items. 

One Month Before Your Moving Date

The big day is getting closer so it’s time to evaluate how much you still have to pack and what items you will still need access to on the days surrounding your move. 

If you still have a significant amount of items to pack, then focus on packing the fragile items first. Fragile items need to be protected and handled carefully so they take longer to pack. 

Once you have those items packed, then focus on the area that will take a while to pack such as your bedroom closet or children’s playroom. 

If you’re worried about accidentally packing items you will need, then I recommend making a list of those essentials and placing them in specific areas of your home. 

For example, you can place items on a table in your living room to visually remind yourself to not pack those items right now.  

Alternatively, you can pack those items in an overnight bag or an open first box without sealing that box. That way, those items can be in one place that’s easy to access when you need them. 

One Week Before Your Moving Date

By now, at least 90% of your belongings should be packed up. The remaining 10% of items should be things that may require special packing or handling (e.g. plants, mirrors, TVs,) and things you want to use this week such as plates, food, and cleaning supplies. 

If that’s not the case for you because you still have a significant amount of items to pack, then it’s time to call for help. You can either ask your family or friends for help (by doing a service trade with them) or hire professional packers or movers to finish the job. 

Things to Consider When Packing for a Move

Now that we have discussed an example timeline of what and when to pack for a move, let’s discuss some things you need to consider when you’re packing for a move.

1. People underestimate how much stuff they have.

If you looked at this example timeline and thought you don’t need as much time to pack, then think again. Your home has cabinets, drawers, and storage areas that have belongings inside of them. Some of those belongings are items you haven’t used or thought about in a while but are still taking up space in your home. Packing for a move will expose how much stuff you really have in your home (and it’s more than you think).

2. Declutter before you start packing. 

As you noticed from the example timeline, I recommend decluttering your home before you start packing. There’s no need to pack and transport items you don’t want from your current home to your new home. Packing up everything without decluttering will lead to a waste of time, energy, and money spent on packing materials, truck space, and labor. Go through your belongings before you start packing and get rid of items you don’t want to take to your new home.

3. Give yourself more time than you think you need.

Because packing sounds simple, people underestimate how long it will take to pack all of their belongings in their home. 

For example, you might have a china cabinet and think it will take you 30 minutes to one hour to pack everything in it. However, it may end up taking three or more hours because you had to assemble boxes, wrap items individually, organize the items in boxes, tape the boxes, and label the boxes. 

Just because a task is simple doesn’t mean it will be quick. 

Additionally, if you only have a certain amount of time each day or each weekend to pack, then you have to spread out your packing schedule across several weeks to several months so you can have enough time to pack everything. 

4. Pack the items you use the least first. Pack the items you use the most last.

If you’re not sure what to pack first for a move, I recommend packing the items you use the least first. These can include seasonal decor, seasonal clothing, extra glassware, extra dishware, and sentimental items in your storage areas.

As you’re making progress with packing, you will end up with the items you use the most as the last set of items to pack. These items can include work outfits, toiletries, cleaning supplies, and kitchen tools. You can wait one week to four weeks before your moving date to pack those remaining items (make sure you give yourself enough time to pack them if they’re fragile items or a good amount of items left). 

5. Label your boxes in a way that will make unpacking easier.

While it can be tempting to label your boxes as “kitchen,” “kitchen lower cabinet,” “random stuff,” or “miscellaneous,” those types of labels won’t help you when it’s time to unpack your boxes.

Imagine you have 30 boxes just for your kitchen and you want to know which box has the seasonings or your blender in it. If none of those boxes has a label with that specific item on it, then you will have to open up all 30 boxes to find that specific item.

If you plan to unpack all of your boxes at once, then that won’t be a big deal. But if you’re only planning to unpack a few boxes at a time, then that will be frustrating. 

To avoid that, I recommend including the categories or names of specific items in addition to which area of the home the items belong in.

For example, you can label a box “kitchen pantry: canned goods, rice, pasta” so you will know those items belong in the kitchen pantry and you will know what type of items are in that box. 

6. Keep packed boxes in certain areas of your home.

To help avoid overcrowding your living spaces with boxes, choose certain areas of your home to store packed boxes in. For example, you can store packed boxes against the walls of your living room, in your garage, or in your basement.

7. Pack your essentials in an overnight bag and open first box.

Because everything will need to get packed at some point, you can store the essentials you will need access to on the days surrounding your move in an overnight bag and open first box.

For your overnight bag, you can use a suitcase, duffel bag, or backpack. You can pack items such as clothes, toiletries, chargers, and important documents in your overnight bag.

For your open first box, you can use a cardboard box, reusable storage container, or plastic bin. You can pack items such as trash bags, toilet paper, cleaning supplies, and paper towels in your open first box. Because you may still need access to these items on the day before your move, you can leave the open first box unsealed until it’s time to load that box on the moving truck or in your personal vehicle. 

Click here to learn more about an overnight bag and open first box. 

8. Ask for help when needed. 

If you still have a significant amount of items to pack one week before your moving date, then I recommend asking your family or friends for help or hiring professional packers or movers for help. That way, you can avoid panic packing, everything can be packed up on time, and your boxes can still be organized and labeled properly. 

Keep Your Essentials Accessible While Packing

One of the concerns people have about packing for a move is accidentally packing an item they still need access to before their moving date or packing an item they will need after they move in a box that isn’t clearly labeled. 

To avoid that issue, I recommend making a list of those essentials and packing them in an overnight bag and open first box. With my guide Moving Day Essentials, you will get a list of examples for each of those containers and ready-to-use worksheets to make your own lists and keep track of those essentials. 

---

Over to You – Packing for a Move

If you’re planning to move, have you started packing yet? What do you find challenging about packing for a move? Let me know your answers in the comments below.