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While you are being packed up, take your bedding off your bed, mattress pad, sheets, blankets, pillows, etc, and wash, dry, and place into big Hefty Trash bags.
Instruct your movers that you want the bed to be one of the first things unloaded off your truck.
Take your bedding and a couple of good towels and wash cloths with you in the car so you will know EXACTLY where your bedding is located.
Trust me, moving day you'll want to collapse in your bed and not have to look through all your boxes to find your bedding or towels to take a shower. Nothing better than sleeping exhausted in your bed with clean sheets after a shower.
I do that if I am moving long distance or a few miles away. I learned that years ago.
We sleep in hotels during the trip, but bring pillows and blankets to sleep on the floor when we get there. It's easier on the critters not to spend more time in a hotel room than necessary.
I pack up the valuables before the movers ever show up. Jewelry goes in the vehicle along with important papers, check books and anything else that has a number that could be easily lifted.
We don't bother with aerosol cans and things the moving company won't move. Those can be given away or thrown away, but I'm not wasting space on that. I usually don't bring food from the old house either. If you have an infestation of any type, you are spreading it. Glass jars could get broken and contents spilled. Donate or give to friends. I give my plants away too since the movers will not take them. If I want the pots moved, I have to empty them. I usually just give them away with the plants.
Valuables. Unreplaceable items. All sensitive documents.
This!!
I had a a very breakable item my husband gave me on our wedding day and the movers broke it! Take anything valuable or sentimental. Bring with you any important documents such as passports, birth certificates, etc
Put bedding you absolutely need to take in the car into multiple smaller bags so you can tuck it in as cushioning around your possessions. Otherwise, in large bags, it is going to take up a lot of room in the car that you should be filling with heirlooms or any other precious breakables. Alternative......get some colored duct tape, like bright pink or lime green and put strips on the few boxes you will want to open first at the new house. Tell the movers to put those boxes with the bright stripes in a specific area. Then you can easily find the things you need to get you started without hunting for them.
One tip for hotels: we stayed on the west side of the small cities where we stopped. This allowed us to miss any traffic through a city in the morning.
Someone gave me a rep point for this comment. First, thanks for the rep. Second, I want to clarify it a bit--we were traveling west thus the west side of cities. If we were traveling east, we would have stayed on the east side. It seemed obvious to me, but I never know.
Scan & email to yourself every important document including your drivers license & passport. It will make it easier to replace them if something should happen to them in the move. Also email yourself important names & phone numbers. A lost or broken phone can happen. I always travel with a laptop & portable hard drive. A battery stick is handy to recharge your phone if you get stuck somewhere.
Also, suggest after scanning all those documents, you save them to your secure site in the cloud. That way, if absolute disaster happens and you lose paper documents, your phone, laptop, portable hard drive, and/or the thumb drive, you'll still be able to reach those documents.
Another suggestion, from someone who made many, many military moves:
Do NOT state on the box what's in it. Just put a number on it. On the mover's inventory, state the room in which that numbered box goes.
In your personal inventory, list number, room and what's actually in it. Do not allow the movers to see your personal inventory.
Pack up your small valuables before the movers arrive, and set them in your vehicle/trailer, away from what the movers will access. Use clothing, linens, etc. to pad and disguise them.
Photograph everything before the movers arrive, and save the photos in your cloud. If something goes missing, you'll have proof it was there.
good suggestions.... :-). Thankfully, we will have a place to stay on our arrival whether we have our stuff or not. This alleviates some extras for the "camping" out period.
Keep reminding yourself that there will be ordinary stores along the way and at your final destination. Remind yourself again. It won't be Timbuktu (unless you really ARE moving there ). Amazing what you WON'T need to take with you. You have a place to stay. There will be stuff you can use there in a pinch.
With you carry small valuables... pets, guns, and whatever you need for the trip. Let the movers take the rest.
Lord I hope I don't need a gun for the trip! Is there a lot of NRA radicals along the road... ugggghhh..
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). Amazing what you WON'T need to take with you. You have a place to stay. There will be stuff you can use there in a pinch.
