When Aaron and I bought our house, we weren’t quite sure when our exact closing date would be. Your lender won’t give you the “clear to close” until a couple of days prior to the actual closing date. As soon as we received the good news from our lender, we put in our 30-days notice with our current landlord.
Knowing that we had a month to get out and moved over to the new house was really nice. We knew we didn’t have to rush out of our current place and could take our time get packed and organized.
That said, Aaron and I immediately made a list of furniture we knew we wouldn’t be taking with us over to the new house – like a couch I’ve had since grad school. We put that up for grabs on social media, and a family came to pick it up the next day. We also went through our closets and really took the time to purge the stuff we didn’t wear anymore. Aaron happens to be a major collector of running shoes, so we went through and donated a lot of his shoes to Soles4Souls. Some of my stuff I was able to donate to Dress for Success. We dropped the rest off at local donation drop boxes.
Here we are – decluttering our former house:
After we got those initial organizational things out of the way, there are four things you need to do to plan for your move.
Moving tip 1: Hire movers
This is super important – especially here in Houston. They book up quickly, especially during the weekends. We were also moving toward the beginning of September, which is the time when a lot of leases are running out so their weekend slots fill up quickly. You have some wiggle room if you are able to move on a weekday, so keep that in mind as well. But, hire a moving company as soon as you know when you want to move so that step is taken care of.
Moving tip 2: Change your address and driver’s license
It can take awhile to update your new address through the system. So, go online and fill out that change of address form as soon as you can. You can do that here. While you are at it, you will need to change the address on your driver’s license. I knocked both of those out in a couple of minutes.
Moving tip 3: Switch your utilities
I knew I would have overlapping utilities for several weeks, but we were okay with that because it provided us the ability to move out slowly. As soon as you know when you want your utilities (gas, water and electricity) activated at your new home, call to make the switch. This step probably takes the longest, but once it’s done – you can have peace of mind in knowing that your lights and a/c will be turned on in your new place! Just get it checked off that moving list.
Moving tip 4: Get moving boxes
Hear me out: wardrobe boxes come in clutch. I was convinced I would just transport my clothes by hanger by placing them in the back of my car. Nope. Just nope. My husband politely informed me that we would be going with some wardrobe boxes. Someone in our neighborhood had just moved, and she was giving away about 50 boxes, so we were able to grab those. We also picked some medium-sized boxes up from Home Depot.
Also – get packing tape that is colored and labeled by room. Seriously. It will save you so much time! We use this tape, and it’s a lifesaver.
