Moving Checklist For The Perfect Move, 2 Months Out

Now, ya’ll, I say this with love because this IS a moving checklist for the perfect move. However, it is so important that you accept up front that the perfect move will never ever happen.

So no, moves aren’t perfect. However, you never know what it is that will go wrong, so you always plan for perfection.

The plan and the checklist are for the (laughably) perfect move. Just for your sanity, remember that it won’t actually be perfect. We are just going to hope that whatever goes wrong will at least be funny.

Our family is currently 60-80 days out from our summer move. We are a military family, so we do this insanely frequently.

Please note. Already, I am behind on my perfect moving checklist.

That’s not changing either.

My truly, truly perfect checklist would be even more ambitious than this one, because it would mean that I already have a lease for my next home, but things happened.

Covid, my addiction to Township, cooking meals, house hunting in this seller’s market, life in general, I could go on and on with the challenges we have already faced in this year’s move.

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The 2 Months Out from Moving Checklist

Printable version:

• Decide if you are buying or renting
• Decide if you are selling or renting out your current home if you own it.
• Declutter each individual room of the house so it will show better.
• If you are renting, schedule all the maintenance people required in your lease. Usually, that at least includes a maid service and a carpet cleaner. Some places also require a chimney sweep and gutter cleaner.
• Meet with a realtor if you are buying, selling, or need help finding a rental.
  • If you are selling your home, have your realtor walk through the house a month before listing to tell you what improvements you need to make to the house to have it ready to sell. Closing usually takes a month, and with this market you do not want to list the house until you are comfortable closing in around 30 days.
• Hire a property manager if you are planning to rent out your current house.
• Be collecting boxes to pack your stuff in.
• Organize your things as much as possible.
  • Catch up on all filing.
  • Order photo albums for any loose photos you have. When you don’t, your photos may get hot during the move and stick together.
  • Donate and trash as much as you can part with. The less stuff you move, the easier your move will be.

Book movers. (You can do this even if you know your moving date may have to change.)

• Book a hotel for any in between time that you expect to have.
• Search the internet for your kids’ activities in the new city, and see if you need to go ahead and sign them up for things.
• Decide which school zones you are comfortable living with to narrow down your house hunt.
• If you are selling your house, find an area or a storage building where you can shove extra furniture and storage bins to help your house show better. In the past, we used our attic. I am still deciding where to put the extra things this time! For now it is mostly in the basement, which is not ideal.

• Create a moving toolbox. I describe that in this post.
• Begin your final home improvement projects or anything your realtor suggests you need to do.

Buy an Apple tracking tag, and save it for the move.

• Put in your moving toolbox for now. When moving day comes, stick the tracking tag in a moving box that the movers are moving. Then you will always know where your household goods are. Sometimes the movers don’t want to tell you, and that makes it seriously hard for you to plan when to be there for the delivery.
• The night the packers leave, they will leave you an empty box to pack your bedding in in the morning. That’s the box you will put your tracking tag in.

Go to your kids’ doctor and get updated copies of all of their immunizations.

• Create a “MOST IMPORTANT PAPERS” folder, binder, or bag, and put the kids’ records and your passports and orders (if you’re military) in there.

• Let go of the perfect plan. Planning is everything, but the plan is nothing. It cannot go exactly as you will plan it.

• Deep breaths. It will be okay.

• Play happy music, and open the blinds and let the sunshine in. Moving is stressful. Give yourself grace.

Now here is the truth about my own progress two and a half months out from our move…

I have finished only half of those things on that checklist. This is an especially hard year to keep pace with moving goals, as the housing market is so hot. Finding just the right place to live is more challenging than it has ever been.

Our realtor said that she has been selling houses for thirty years, and she has never seen it quite like this. You are not alone. We are all dealing with this.

My house isn’t even close to looking ready to sell or even ready to show the realtor yet. You can at least feel good about yourself by remember that you are probably ahead of me! Ha!

Give yourself lots of grace.

I know I said that on the checklist, but it’s such a big deal. Moving is one of the most stressful life events a person goes through.

Keep putting one foot in front of the other, and before you know it, it will be over.

Your stuff may have to go to storage between moves. You may not get your first choice house. The movers might break down on the way to your house. It may take them days to pack and move you, or the moving company may send you two men to move four bedroom house.

All of these things have happened to us and more over the years, but you know what? In the end, it all turned out okay, and it will for you too.

Want to see where I’m at in this process? Check out my 2 1/2 Months Out Check in on YouTube. I have more moving tips on the video.

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