It is the day for you to move to another destination. The entire environment is abuzz with activity. You have to take care of the belongings. The movers are arranging and stacking the boxes together in the moving truck. Wait a minute! You see that the lampshade is lying obscurely in another box. You could have put it together with the other lamps. But it is too late; there is not even enough space to stuff it in along with the other boxes. Where can you put these shawls and blankets? You should have packed them a long while ago and now, you will have to stuff them anywhere. You just hope that they don’t get misplaced. God! Where in the world is your jacket in all this mess? Little Brenda is crying. You have to take her in your arms and console her. Your wife is nagging about some god forsaken ring which you had given her. Your pet dog believes in adding more strife to your woes by barking at the top of his voice. What do you do? Whom do you silence and whom do you shout on? To top everything, you have to keep a smiling face for your friends and neighbors, because you are leaving your neighborhood. Moving and packing is stressful. If only you had planned carefully in advance, then you may not have faced this situation. You just hope that you have your new job appointment letter with you. You had kept in a folder, perhaps. It was in the green bag. Or was it the black one?

Thank god, it was a dream. Or a nightmare! By this time, you might have been aware of the importance of planning and organizing your move. Organizing in simple terms would mean arranging and categorizing things in place so that you don’t get confused and feel stressed later. So, in an event like moving, you have to make sure that things are organized well. You should insist on keeping things together when movers are packing boxes. Small or loose parts can be stuck or attached to the item they belong to with a tape or hard glue. You can keep bookends with books, extension cord with appliances, picture hooks with pictures etc. You can keep things like cords in a ziplock bag and attach it to the underside of the item, of which they are a part. You can keep all the nails, cords, cables, detached important pieces of an appliance label them and put them in a box which has to be named accordingly.

You should pack ahead of the moving day. The more you pack in advance, the better. Ideally you start packing the things that you will not need for the rest of days till you reach the new destination. For example, you can start packing the television set, if you already have an additional one that you will be using for some time. If you will not be using your computer for another week, then it makes sense to pack it. You can start packing the wastebaskets also because they serve as good packing items. In the meanwhile for sometime, you could do with disposing trash in plastic grocery bags.

Try and clean your old place ahead of time. If it is clean, then the only job you will have in the near future would be to arrange and co-ordinate the moving and packing process. You have to clean up your house anyway if you are leaving the house which was on rental basis. If your house is in order and there are no noticeable flaws, you can get a full security deposit amount back from your landlord. Do not hesitate to use the vacuum-cleaner and wash the windows dry.

It is not advisable to hand over collectibles, jewelry, fragile items, items of sentimental value and extraordinary value to your movers. You should check with your homeowner’s insurance to check if there is a requirement for an additional insurance from your mover. You should find out the paperwork and procedure needed to file a claim in case of loss, theft or damage to your belongings, or more specifically belongings of extraordinary value if you hand them over to your moving company. You should also check with the moving company about how you can move your pets. You can alternatively read the piece on ‘moving with pets’ for more information. Important documents like birth certificates, your new appointment letter, school records, bank statements and medical records should be kept with you and not to be handed over to your mover.