Streamlining Your Moving Experience

Ideally, you would have a couple of weeks to fully plan your move and a week or more to get everything packed and transported to your new home. But real life is rarely ideal! If you find yourself in a time crunch and need to move in one weekend, you'll need to approach this task carefully to ensure everything gets done and you don't lose your mind in the process. To that end, here are some tips to help streamline and simplify your one-weekend move.

Have a friend clean out the junk after you move.

While packing, there will surely be things you come across that you don't want to keep. Whether they belong in the trash or at a thrift store, it will take up a lot of time to package them all up and transport them. See if you can find a local friend who is willing to do this for you once you're all packed up and moved out. You can arrange to leave your unneeded items in a certain room. They can later swing by and sort through everything, throw away the trash, and donate the items in good condition. This also saves you the time and hassle of deciding what is and is not in donation-worthy shape while you're trying to pack.

Hire a cleaning service.

Chances are you won't get your full security deposit back if you don't leave the apartment clean. And if you owned the home, the new buyer certainly won't appreciate the mess. However, this does not mean you have to sacrifice any of your precious few hours to clean your apartment or home. Arrange to have a cleaning service do this for you after you leave. Many cleaning companies offer move-out cleaning packages that are intended especially for situations like yours. You may need to drop a key off with them on your way out of town or have a friend meet them at the apartment. Either way, this is something that can be done once you've already left town.

Divide tasks before you start.

Hopefully you have at least a friend or two on hand to help you pack and move. Before you tackle anything, sit down with your helpers and make a comprehensive list of moving-related tasks you need to complete. Then, decide who will tackle each task. This way, you won't be tripping over each other and wasting time deciding who will do what later on. 

Don't worry about organization.

Surely, organizing everything carefully in boxes will make unpacking easier later. But all of that organization takes time that you don't really have right now. So push organization to the back of your list of priorities. If it's easiest to put everything in a cabinet into the same box rather than divide the glasses from the dinnerware, so be it. Your number one goal right now is to get it all packed and out the door.

Transport your furniture in one piece.

Disassembling items like tables and chairs saves space in the moving truck and also makes those items easier to carry. However, it also takes a lot of time. Consider just renting a larger moving truck and leaving all of your furniture in-tact to save time. Only disassemble pieces that you truly cannot fit out the door or lift safely when they're in one piece.

Finding a moving service to move you last-minute is not always easy, but if you're short on time and need to get out in a weekend, it's worth a try and would definitely be worth the money. Otherwise, following the tips above will make orchestrating such a move on your own possible.