Over these last few years of the pandemic, a lot of us have been moving; in our case, my hubby and I realized how important being closer to family was to us, so we high tailed it out of Denver back to the SoCal sunshine barely a few weeks out of lock down last year!

I will say, moving 1,000 miles with two cars, a motorcycle, a dog, and copious amounts of clothes was NOT an easy feat. First, there’s buying all the moving materials (& making about 7 trips to Home Depot before we finally had all we needed), then the packing, bubble wrapping, and playing Tetris trying to fit it all in the boxes you have instead of making yet another trip to go get more. Clothes are bagged, furniture’s wrapped, phone calls are made to a ton of moving companies to get the best rate; it’s flat out EXHAUSTING!

To spare you the moving woes, whether you’re looking at a new home across the country or down the street, I’ve put together all of my top tips and lessons learned to make the process a bit easier (especially if you have a huge closet to lug along!). Read on…

1 | Pick Your Moving Company Wisely

Picking the right moving company can be the difference between a stressful mess and an exciting experience. For long-distance moves, I recommend PODS; they’re who we used, and the whole process was pretty simple and stress-free. They basically just drop off however many PODS you need and you fill them when you can, then lock them with your own lock, and they pick them up. They’ll schedule a delivery date that works for you to drop them off, and it’s fairly straightforward! The only issue can be (like in our case), you need to have enough room at your departure location and drop off location for them to set up the PODS, otherwise this won’t work. For us, we move from an apartment complex in Denver to a town home in San Diego, and while the apartment complex had a parking lot we could use after checking with management, our new place has almost no parking areas besides our garage, and everything else is a red zone. So, we had to hire an additional moving company to get our stuff from the PODS facility in San Diego to our new home. The experience was okay, but the movers broke a lot of our stuff and didn’t really reimburse us for the full damages.

If you’re moving in the SoCal area or need long distance movers, I’d recommend using Big Deahl’s Movers; they give you a relocation manager that handles all the details and scheduling, and they can even pack your stuff for you if you don’t have the time or energy! This can be super helpful for families with children, or really anyone who prefers to let the pros handle things! (Remember all those Home Depot trips I talked about? You won’t need that with this company; they’ll bring all the supplies to pack your things safely!) Their experienced movers and professional trucks know just what you need to make moving a stress-free experience! Click here for a free quote and furniture protection at no extra charge!

2 | Boxes with Clothing Racks are ESSENTIAL for Any Fashionista

However you choose to move, be sure to get some boxes with bars to hang your clothes from! Seriously, this was a lifesaver and I can’t stress it enough! These boxes are available everywhere (we got ours from Home Depot here) and they are a godsend for clothes that can’t (and shouldn’t) be folded: evening gowns, anything with tulle, sequins, things that might get damaged or wrinkled easily, etc. Plus, when you get to your new home, you can just take the clothes out and hang them up with no re-hanging!

My top tip for clothing rack boxes? They can be top heavy and the bottom under your clothes is empty, so get the most out of the space while evening out the weight by packing it with shoes, handbags, or other accessories before you hang your clothes!

3 | Dust Bags are a Must

Nice shoes, jewelry, bags, and sunglasses should be treated with care when it comes to packing. Protect your style investments with dust bags or organizers to make sure they arrive safely! Here’s a few of my picks that got me and my 300 pairs of shoes through our move!

4 | Use Non-Fancy Clothes as Packing Materials to Save $$$

If you’re moving and packing yourself, save some money by using things like socks, underwear, t-shirts, PJs, and scarves to wrap dishes, trinkets, and other breakables. Be sure the box has plenty of padding, though, to avoid breakage (I found that a layer of thicker bubble wrap on the inside bottom and sides of the box will do the trick in conjunction with your clothing wrapped goods!

5 | Pack a Suitcase with Enough Essentials to Last Until You’re Settled

This might go without saying, but you’d be surprised how many things can fall by the wayside when you’ve got so much going on!

Whether you’re moving with a service or on your own, estimate how much time it’ll be between when you leave your current place to when you’ll have access to all the stuff you packed, and then pack a small suitcase accordingly. Make sure you have enough underwear, toothpaste, socks, work and leisure clothes, toiletries, toys for kids or pets, medications, and any other essentials to help get you by until you’re in your new place!

6 | Take Plants with You, Don’t Pack ‘Em

Plants are like pets: you can’t and shouldn’t just pack them in a box when you move (lol). I know I said this was a fashionista’s guide to moving, but I also have a lot of house plants that I love & refused to leave behind when we moved, so I thought this needed to make it in here!

Take plants along with your suitcase of essentials (an open top box works well!) and make sure they have plenty of access to light and water along the way. If you’re moving long distance and have to fly, ship them with companies that specialize in shipping plants. Here’s a great article on how to safely ship your little green friends if you just can’t part with them!

Here’s a Pinterest-friendly version of this checklist so you can save this post for later!

Moving can be a hassle and a stressful time, but there’s so much fun to be had if you work smarter, not harder! Having a big closet or a lot of stuff doesn’t have to be a hinderance; it’s more than possible to bring along all your glorious goodies without having to sell or donate them if you don’t want to. I hope these tips can help make your move easier, and I’d love to know how it worked out for you, so drop me a comment below!

Xx Tabi