Packing Checklist for a Long-Distance Move

The experts in long-distance moving at All My Sons Moving & Storage offer a comprehensive packing checklist for your move outside of town or across state lines. Make your cross-country move with complete confidence when you follow this guide for long-distance packing.

Long-distance moves require a lot of preparation, so stomp that moving procrastination and get these tasks done in the first week after you learn that you are moving.

• Make a Moving Checklist: Keeping organized will ensure your stress levels stay low and your move stays efficient. When you learn you are moving, start prepping a list of tasks to complete including scheduling disconnection and reconnection of utilities, changing your address with all your subscriptions and services, and researching moving companies.

• Craft Your Moving Budget: Estimate how much money you can set aside for your move. Get at least three quotes from moving companies, and determine how much cash you’ll need for extra expenses like deposits, storage, and moving supplies. Plan carefully, and watch out for the hidden costs of moving like cleaning fees, changes in insurance premiums, and restocking the fridge.

• Plan Your Packing Schedule: If you have a large home and have not opted for professional packing, then you should create a schedule to ensure everything gets boxed up in a timely fashion. Go room by room and write out deadlines for when you want all your packing for that room to be completed. You should start packing with your non-essentials and end with your essential items. 

• Declutter and Downsize: The easiest way to save time, money, and energy on your move is to get rid of everything that’s not going to serve you in your next home. As you go through your items, ask yourself if the item is worth keeping. Some items you never use and never look at should definitely get donated, discarded, or sold. Some items you might determine you should just replace at your destination rather than attempt to move. Watch out for items that movers might refuse to pack or load like fine jewelry, ammunition, and toxic chemicals. Be prepared to make a contingency plan for these items if you have them in your household inventory and need them to reach your destination.

• Create a Moving Inventory: Which box did your favorite dress shoes go in again? Rather than constantly hunting through a box maze, consider creating a moving inventory to keep track of your items. A moving inventory comes in handy after the move in the event of a home disaster that leaves you scrambling to make an insurance claim. In lieu of a full inventory, always label your boxes with as much detail as possible.

• Gather Your Packing Supplies: Ready the tape gun and assemble the boxes. First, you’ll need those boxes. You can get all the packing supplies you need from most moving service retailers (Like All My Sons Moving & Storage!) or check places in your local community for free boxes.

The first items that should go into boxes are the items you won’t miss immediately. Raid the back of your closet, the attic, and the corners of your garage for those items that are out of sight and mind. Make sure to get rid of any items that are just taking up space like ill-fitting clothes, broken items you’re not able to repair in a reasonable timeframe, and expired medications. 

Once the back closets are packed, look to pack your displayed items and décor items. Even if you love and admire these items daily, they can stand to sit in a box for a little while before you’ll miss them.

Here are some examples of non-essentials you can start packing immediately.

• Off-Season Clothes: When you move during the summer, you can pack your winter coats, scarves, and hardy snow boots first thing. Winter move? Your tank tops and flip flops can get packed away. They’ll be no need to get these items out until the seasons change, long after you’ve settled into your new home.

• Extra Blankets, Towels, and Sheets: Your linen closet is a great place to find the extras you keep on hand. Set aside any items that might need to continue working up until your move, and then pack the rest.

• Keepsake Boxes: Anything hanging out in your closets that you’re holding onto for sentimental reasons like children’s memorabilia, a deceased loved one’s clothes, or items from special milestones in your life. If you believe you should hang onto these items a little longer, make sure they get packed well before the move.

• Holiday Decorations: Your menorah, festive lights, Christmas ornaments, artificial Christmas Tree, and your army of new year’s noisemakers might already be hidden away in boxes. Check to ensure the boxes are in ship-shape for moving and put them to the side until the movers arrive.

• Books: Avid reader? You probably have books sitting on the shelves that you’re proud to display and keep to read again later. These books can go into your non-essentials boxes, as long as you keep one or two to read during your move.

• Photo Albums: Your precious photographs and other mementos like playbills, thank you cards, and graduation announcements are preserved for decades to come in your lovely photo albums and scrapbooks. Chances are unless you actively admire them on a daily basis, you can put them into your moving boxes first.

• Media Collections: If movie night can wait until after the move and the dance party’s not until you reach your destination, pack up your CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Rays plus your vinyl records.

• Décor and Artwork: You love the decorative items that grace your walls and sit on your shelves, and you’ve determined that these items are definitely coming with you. After the back closets have emptied, you can pack the items that make your home feel personalized. You might mourn the empty spaces during the weeks leading up to your move, but remember that it’s just for a little while. These items can come back out again just as soon as the essentials are unpacked.

Every home has essentials that make daily, functional living possible. These are the items you might be using up until the moment of your move and once you arrive at your destination, you will need them out of the boxes as soon as possible. Without these items, life gets mighty uncomfortable. Once packed, these items should be loaded onto your moving truck LAST to be unloaded FIRST at your destination.

If your moving truck is going to be a few days behind you, you might want to pack some of these essentials into your luggage or have them shipped to your new home instead.

If you have extra budget for moving supplies, you can differentiate essentials boxes from the rest of your moving inventory by sealing them with brightly colored tape. Happy packing!

The bedroom is your go-to place for rest, recovery, and relaxation. Once the furniture is in place, these items will need to come out of your essentials boxes to make that bedroom a great place to sleep and recharge.

• Sheets: In a pinch, you can slap a blanket on your mattress and call it a day. If you’ve got sheets in your bedroom essentials, you can make the bed as soon as you get to your new home and enjoy your first night in a cozy sheet-cocoon.

• Pillows: Lay your head down after moving day. Stock your essentials boxes with your favorite, fluffiest pillows.

• Clothes for a Week: Choose some weather-appropriate clothes that will last until you can unpack the rest of your wardrobe.

It’s dinner time after the move! You could eat takeout another day, or you could unpack your kitchen essentials. These are the items that make a happy, functional kitchen and you should unload them before your dining out budget stretches too thin. 

• Coffee Maker: Can’t function without your daily morning caffeine fix? Better pack the coffee maker with your kitchen essentials so you can get it set up the morning after you arrive at your destination.

• Silverware: Get your forks, spoons, kitchen knives, and any other kitchen utensils packed and ready with the essentials to get your kitchen back in business. Set the table, we have a home-cooked meal!

• Dishes and Glassware: You can leave the fine chinaware and the stemware with the non-essentials, but a couple sturdy plates for meals and drinking glasses are a must.

• Napkins: Don’t get caught unprepared for a spill in the kitchen post-move. Pack some napkins or paper towels with your kitchen essentials to set out during your unpacking phase.

Scrub, shower, and soak. Getting the bathroom in business means no interruptions to your regular hygiene routine. While packing bathroom items set aside these special essentials to unpack first thing at your destination.

• Toilet Paper: Dash straight into the bathroom after the move. No emergency grocery trips needed.

• Soap: Wash hands after a bathroom break or lather up during the post-move shower. You can put sealed bars of soap in your essentials boxes or keep liquid soap with your other toiletries in your luggage.

• Towels: Don’t drip all over your new home’s floor, pack at least one set of bath and hand towels in the essentials. 

• Shower Curtain: When your new home comes equipped with a bathtub-shower combo, it often does not come equipped with a shower curtain. Pack one with your essentials so you can shower post-move.

If you work from home or run a business, your home office contains essentials for you to report in. Get back to work by packing these items with your essentials.

• Important Files: You should keep some documents like rental contracts and government IDs with your luggage on your person at all times. Other files you might pack with your essentials include any files for open projects, unfilled orders, or tax records in the middle of tax season.

• Internet Router: Connection is often crucial for remote work. If you are transferring service then keep your internet router with the essentials and if you are starting a new internet service then mark getting connected high on your moving checklist.

• Computer: Get that gizmo up and running in time to clock in. Laptops might go with your luggage, but a desktop computer can be packed with your office essentials.

Kiddos in the mix? Make the big move an adventure for the whole family and have some boxes set aside for each child. Older children can pack their own essentials boxes.

• Changing Table and Diaper Genie: For the pre-toilet trained children, you’ll need to set up their changing station as soon as possible.

• Crib or Playpen: Infants and toddlers will need a quiet place to rest during the post-move chaos.

• Sheets: Children with their own beds will feel more at ease once their favorite dinosaur sheets are back in business.

• Pillows: Little Lucy can’t sleep without her regal princess pillow, pack it with the essentials.

• Favorite Toys: Teddys, dolls, action figures, and plush friends that your child plays with on the regular should be packed with the essentials.

• Kids’ Clothes for a Week:  Keep your kiddos clothed in weather-appropriate attire until the rest of the wardrobe can be unpacked.

Rover and Mr. Meows need essential items too. If your pet is road-tripping with you then you might keep some of these items in your luggage. For pet owners who are using a special pet shipping service, pack these items with the essentials so you can unload them before you welcome your furry companion to your new home.

• Food and Water Bowls: Whether your animal friend walks, crawls, swims, slithers, or plays dead, they absolutely need to eat and drink. 

• Litter Box: You don’t want your cat thinking outside the box at your new home. Make sure they have a place to go.

• Food Bags and Treats: Stock that food bowl with the food you pack with the essentials, or make a pet-store run as soon as you arrive at your destination.

• Pet Toys: Grab the bones, mice, balls, and laser pointers. It’s playtime at the new place.

• Pet Beds and Furniture: Let that furball snooze in their special dog house or cat condo and save your couch from claws by setting out the scratching post.

Whether you’re road-tripping in your regular vehicle or taking a flight to your destination, you should keep some essential supplies with you during your long-distance move so that you’re taken care of. You might be bouncing from hotel to hotel or shipping your car while you kick back in first class, but these items should come with you in a single essentials and emergencies bag or in your army of luggage cases.

• Medications: Daily and emergency medications should be kept on your person at all times. If you need it to function, thrive, and survive, then keep it as close to you as possible. 

• Toiletries: Toothpaste, toothbrush, shampoo, conditioner, and soap that you would take on any week-long trip should go in your packed luggage. 

• Clothes: Keep enough weather-appropriate clothes for the duration of your cross-country trip plus a few extra pieces for emergencies. Make sure to pack pajamas for nights and athletic wear if you intend to keep up your workout routine during your journey.

• Shoes: Comfortable, closed-toe shoes should be on your feet, and an extra pair should go in your luggage in case of emergencies or an outfit change that clashes.

• Wallet and Keys: You might typically keep these on your person anyway, but double check that you definitely have them before you set out, especially if you have just made a major key exchange for your home.

• Phone Charger: Don’t get caught without battery power, keep a phone charger with you. Pack an extra car charger if you are traveling by car or an extra battery bank if you will be traveling through areas without much access to outlets.

• Book or Tablet: The move might come with some down-time as you ride or fly to your destination. Take a book to read or a tablet to play games on with you and there won’t be a dull moment.

• First Aid Kit: You need gauze and band-aids in the event of moving injuries.

• Water Bottles: Hydrate often, especially if you are moving during the summer. 

• Snacks: Your movers will not move perishable food and if you’re traveling long-distance then it is not recommended to attempt moving food yourself. If you’re making a road trip then snacks might be a must in your luggage.

• Important Documents: Keep rental contacts, government IDs, and any other documents you might need for your move in a folder that you will keep on your person.

• Boxcutter: If you are traveling by plane you might not be able to pack this item in your carry-on luggage, but you will definitely want one in your checked bag. The last thing you want is to reach your destination with a million sealed boxes and no way to open them.

• Tape Gun: Seal the last of your boxes as you dart out the door with the tape gun you keep in your luggage.

• Cash: Useful if you need to tip movers or get snacks from the gas station vending machine.

• Cleaning Supplies: Freshen up your old place before you lock the door behind you and spruce up the new space just as you arrive with the cleaning supplies you carry in your luggage. If you are flying, cleaning supplies like bleach, bathroom cleaners, or aerosols may not be allowed in your carry-on or your checked bag, check with your airline before you pack.

• Pet Essentials: If you are moving with a pet then make sure to carry your pet’s travel essentials as well. This includes food, leash, portable litter box, toys, and treats.

• Children’s Essentials: When you move with children, you should pack a bag for them with diapers, toys, baby wipes, and blankets. Older children can pack their own bags with their favorite forms of entertainment and their comfort objects.

All packed? Let the movers load your boxes and furniture onto the truck and get ready to start your next adventure. If you’re looking for movers for a cross-country move, get a quote from All My Sons Moving & Storage. Our company has 90+ locations nationwide so we can get you almost anywhere in the US. Call 1-866-726-1579 or use the quote form below to get started on your move.