Which Rooms Should I Pack First When Moving?

Moving is stressful. In fact, on a scale of stressful life events, researchers rank “moving” as one of the topmost stressful things a person can do. You can make it slightly less stressful by planning out your move. To do that, you might consider moving room by room. Now this doesn’t mean that you are literally packing up a single room, hauling it to your new home, unpacking that room there, and repeating the process for every room in your house. That just doesn’t make sound financial sense. Instead, figure out how to best pack up each room and load each room on the moving truck. 

Moving Rooms by Proximity

This may sound a little weird, but it works. Let’s say that your bedroom in your current abode is upstairs, but in the new home it’s downstairs. Considering that you will want to have your bed reassembled for you to sleep in the new house, it’s smart to pack up your bedroom and load that on the truck first. Why? Because you are moving the exact rooms you need to unpack on the first floor of your new home first. It’s the “drive in the same lane while you turn” principle. You make a turn and turn directly into the lane that naturally moves from one corner to the next. 

Similarly, you are not going to suddenly “change lanes” while you pack up and move to the next location. You know what you need to unload on the first floor and why. You know you need to take rooms full of stuff from upstairs or from the long hallway into the house first because those rooms are closer to the front door now. Every room that is on the first floor of your new home should go on the truck first. That way everything that goes on the second floor of your home or is farther away from the front door will be emptied first and the other rooms last. 

Moving Rooms by Immediate Necessity

Another packing and moving strategy is to move rooms by necessity. If you know that you might not be able to unload your moving truck completely on the first day and you want to leave things on the truck until the next day, pack up the rooms you will need most for your first night in the new place. Put these boxes on the truck LAST so that they are the first rooms you unload. Most people make sure it’s their bedroom(s), kitchen and bathroom loaded onto the very back of the truck so that these rooms are unloaded first. That way you will be able to cook and eat a meal, shower as you need to, and go to bed the first night.

Packing Willy-Nilly, but With Purpose

This seems oxymoronic, but once you understand that packing willy nilly with purpose is actually not that bad, you might like the idea. Simply put, you pack everything onto the truck randomly, but you place all of the furniture at the back of the truck. That way all of the furniture and the heaviest items are unloaded first. It gives everyone a bed, a chair, a place to sit down, a place to eat, etc. The rest of the stuff in boxes you can load onto the truck however you like, but you might want to make sure clothing boxes are between the furniture and the rest of the stuff, so everyone has fresh clothes the next day.

Have Everyone Pack Their Own Rooms

With the exception of the common area rooms, have everyone pack their own bedrooms. Reason being, if a kid packs his or her own room, then he or she knows exactly which box his favorite toys are in and which box contains his/her clothes. If they are old enough to label boxes with a magic marker, have them do that so that they know exactly what box holds what for them. If they can carry their own boxes, all the better. Then they can put their own boxes on the moving truck, and they will know where to find all of their stuff. Will it be slightly less organized? Maybe, but it’s less stress for you because you aren’t packing their rooms and you won’t have to worry about them dumping boxes trying to find their things. They will already know where to look.