Moving day checklist, hour by hour

The short version

Finish packing the night before, not the morning of. Keep one bag and one box with you that never go on the truck. Be the one person who knows where everything goes. Photograph both homes empty. Unpack beds first, kitchen second, and stop.

The night before

• Everything is packed and closed except the last-day kit: toothbrushes, tomorrow's clothes, bedding you will strip in the morning.
• Charge phones and a power bank. Your phone is the map, the mover's contact and the camera tomorrow.
• Pack the bag that stays with you: wallet, keys to both places, lease or closing papers, medications, chargers, a change of clothes, snacks, water.
• Pack the open-first box: toilet paper, soap, a towel, a shower curtain, paper plates, a knife, scissors or a box cutter, trash bags, a flashlight, a basic tool kit, phone chargers and the coffee maker.
• Confirm the times with the movers or the truck rental, and with the building at both ends if there is an elevator or a dock to reserve.
• Defrost and dry the freezer if the refrigerator is coming with you.
• Take cash if you plan to tip the crew, and decide who is watching children and pets tomorrow.

Before the truck arrives

• Strip the beds and bag the bedding so it is the first thing you can find tonight.
• Clear the path: prop doors, move cars out of the driveway, roll up rugs, protect floors where the dolly will run.
• Put the things that are not going on the truck in one closed room or in your car, and tell the crew that room is off limits. This is how the bag with the keys ends up at the back of a truck.
• Walk the crew through the house once: what is fragile, what is heavy, what stays.
• Pets and small children go to a friend's, a sitter or a closed room with a sign on the door.

While it is loading

• One person directs, and stays reachable. Movers work faster when someone answers "where does this go?" in two seconds.
• Heavy and square first, light and odd last. Appliances and furniture against the front wall, same-size boxes or bins in stacks, mattresses and sofas on edge, loose and fragile things on top and at the back.
• The open-first box goes on last so it comes off first, or rides with you.
• Keep water out for everyone carrying. In a Houston summer, start early: the normal July high is 94.5°F, and by early afternoon a truck box is an oven.

Before you lock the old place

• Open every cabinet, closet, drawer and the dishwasher. Check the attic, the garage shelves, the back of the medicine cabinet and behind doors.
• Photograph every room empty, including floors, walls and inside appliances. If you rent, these photos are your deposit.
• Read the meters if your utilities are in your name, and take a photo.
• Lights off, thermostat set, windows locked, garage remotes and spare keys on the counter or handed to whoever gets them.
• Trash and recycling out on the right day, or with you.

At the new place

• Before anything comes in, walk through and photograph it empty. Note damage in writing to the landlord the same day.
• Check that power and water are on, and find the breaker panel and the main water shut-off while the house is still empty.
• Protect floors and door frames, then put a sign on each room's door that matches the labels on your boxes.
• Furniture first, then boxes to their rooms. A box in the right room is half unpacked. A box in the garage is a box you open in March.
• Count what came off against your inventory before the crew leaves, and note any damage on the paperwork before you sign.

The first night

Make the beds. Hang the shower curtain. Plug in the refrigerator and the phone chargers. Open the kitchen box that has plates and the coffee maker. Then stop: order food, find the breaker panel if you have not, and leave the rest for tomorrow. Nobody unpacks well at eleven at night.

The week after

• Unpack room by room, kitchen and bathrooms first, and break down or return containers as they empty.
• Change your address with the post office and update your driver's license; in Texas you have 30 days after a move to update the address on your license. Our Houston moving checklist has the deadlines and links.
• Check your deposit timeline at the old place and send your forwarding address in writing.

If you are moving in Houston

Three local things belong on this list. If your building has an elevator, the reservation window is your schedule, so plan the truck around it; the apartment move-in guide covers that and the insurance letter buildings ask for. If rain is in the forecast, and Houston summer afternoons often bring a storm, load in the morning and keep a tarp or a roll of stretch wrap by the door. And decide before the day what happens to fifty empty boxes afterwards, because the City's green cart takes cardboard only when it is flattened to three feet or less on every side.

That last problem is the one rented bins remove: you stack the empties by the door and they get collected. If that sounds better than a weekend of flattening cardboard, here is how renting moving boxes in Houston works.

Questions people ask