I wish I could help - we've only moved once and it was before we owned anything.  The only thing I can really remember about moving out of our apartment was that I packed things I shouldn't have packed and had to dig in boxes to find things.

 

One good thing about moving out of a rental - you don't have to worry about making it look nice at the same time you're packing so that the real estate agent can show it! 

 

Sometimes I'd really like to move everything out of my house, furniture and appliances included, clean it really well, paint and fix everything that needs to be painted or fixed, and move back in!  Maybe then I could find our missing Nemo DVD...

 

Good luck!  Flylady has some good moving tips on her site (if they're still there - I haven't been on her site in ages).

Thanks for the tips! I'm hoping an undeveloped film will turn up. It was lost last August. Somehow I think it got thrown out though :(

 

I'll check out the website.

I don't have any tips for you, when we moved, we were supposed to have a couple months as we were supposed to get the new house all fixed up first but the day we closed, dh says, "we are moving this weekend"!?!?!?! So we just dumped all of the junk in boxes and brought it with us. What a mess! I am still trying to declutter as a result and fix this house at the same time, SLOW SLOW is how it is going. The only thing I would tell you is to start now, start packing everything that you don't really need, or will use between now and then and just plan on packing a box or two a week. Good Luck!

Sara we had so much stuff -- I think about 140 boxes of stuff plus the furniture.  We moved from a 1100 square foot house.  A lot of it was stuff we should not have moved but we also got rid of lots of stuff.

 

I have a book.. not a sheet of paper but the back of my Family Organizer.  Each box was numbered clearly.  The number was put in the book and beside the number in the book we listed everything that was in the box and I mean everything (within reason).  Important stuff like.. "hammer" or "can-opener" we listed , otherwise it is ok to say "books" or something general like that.

 

We did not necessarily have the boxes sorted by rooms as I started packing very early and putting things from each room in.  Sometimes we had to take something from another room to fill up the box.  eg. stuff tea towels in a tiny space in a box or to protect something delicate.

 

The packing took a long time. 

 

The movers said put EVERYTHING you can in boxes.  Makes packing so much easier.  We used a professional mover and it is worth every dollar.  They are so fast and only one thing that was not very valuable got broken and it was not their fault.  We did not pack it correctly.  I highly recommend using a well-known mover.  There was a story about a mover who "lost" tons of stuff he moved for someone on the Toronto news.

I like the numbering boxes thing. Sounds like a good idea as long as you don't pack the notebook. lol

 

Well, we've moved so much that renting a truck and doing it ourselves is not that big of a deal.

I didn't know you could hire a mover but still pack your own boxes.  My MIL hired movers but they told her they wouldn't move anything she packed herself because they didn't want to be responsible.  Packing myself and then letting someone else move it all would be ideal - I hate carrying stuff!

 

Sounds like you are a pro Sara.  Jac, I feel for you - that would be SO hard.