So, you got the job! Awesome! I hope my Job Hunting Post was helpful. But, how do you go from sitting where you are right now, to sitting where you need to be for that job? If you’re working remotely, easy, just don’t move. But, if you need to relocate for your new position, there are a lot of steps. As I have never owned a house, I am going to include steps that occur when renting, but you can switch them out for your own steps if you own a house. If you’d prefer a straight checklist for moving, you can find it HERE.
Letting People Know
First things first: let everyone in your current location know that you are leaving.
- You should let anyone that is important to you know that you have accepted a new position, and will be relocating.
- Celebrate and spend some time with anyone that you love and will miss by leaving.
- Turn in your lease termination notice (a large amount of places require a 60 day notice, turned in 5-10 days before the notice starts. A little silly that they don’t just say 70 day notice, but double check your lease. You might have to pay a buyout fee as well.)
- List out every utility that is in your name or anyone else that lives with you.
- Contact each utility provider (e.g. Internet, Electric, Water, Gas, etc.) and put in a disconnection notice.
Find New Accommodation
Now that you’ve squared things away where you are, you need to start looking in your new location.
- Start looking for a new rental location. A few good options for your search are Rent.com, Apartments.com, Apartmentguide.com.
- Once you find a few rentals that look like good options, if possible, schedule a time for a walk-through (however, this might not be possible if you are moving somewhere very far and won’t be able to go there until the move).
- Choose a place, and sign the lease.
- List out all of the utilities that you are going to need in the new location, and contact the providers to set up start dates that correspond to the start of your rental lease.
- Look at the layout of your new rental location, and try to imagine where your things will go.
Getting Things Ready for the Move
You’ve let everyone know here, and you’ve got everything ready there, but what about all of this stuff?!?
- Firstly, take an inventory of everything you own. For a lot of people, this is going to be a huge undertaking. Go one room at a time.
- Now that you have a list of everything that you own, read through and decide what you actually need. The less you bring with you, the less the cost will be to move it, and the less clutter you will have to deal with at the new location.
- Donate all of the items that are in good shape that you do not want to keep. Recycle or throw away any items that are not worth donating.
- Now calculate, based on the list of things you want to keep, how many boxes you will need to move.
- If needed, pare down your items again and re-calculate box number.
Decide How to Move Things
There are many different combinations of ways to move things from one location to another. Personally, I have done most of them. Here’s a list:
- Shipping service such as American Van Lines – Most Expensive
- They will pack (You can choose to pack/unpack yourself if you want to. The cost goes down slightly, and you will have more control over your things), load, and ship all of your items for you. At the other end, they unload, and unpack your things in your new location. You will pay by the weight. The only caveat I will say about moving companies like this is they will not ship until their semi trailer is full. So, if you schedule your pickup and the next person that will finish the filling of the trailer isn’t for 3 weeks, there’s a chance that your trailer could be sitting in your current location for 3 weeks before it finally starts heading your way. Now, that might be less of a problem if you are leaving from and arriving at a large city, with so many potential people moving, but this has happened to me. It was a pain.
- You pack and have a cheaper, less known company come, load, and ship your things – Still Pretty Expensive, but Risky
- I’ve done this as well. The same thing happened as above, where we had to wait weeks to receive our things, but we were not able to track what the status was in the meantime, and customer service was terrible. Then, when things did show up, some our stuff was broken. The movers didn’t seem to care at all. In my opinion, stay away from the cheaper moving companies. If you are going to use professional movers, pay the little bit extra, and go with a brand name company.
- You can use a moving box – Expensive to Cheap, depending on quantity of things
- This is just where a company like uBox or Pods drops off a box (or multiple) for you to fill. Then, when they are ready, they come and load them on their trucks and ship them. This might be cheaper, but it has all of the problems with delays that the above two options can have, and if you have more than a very small amount of things, this can add up really fast. Also, a lot of rental properties do not want a box sitting on their property while you fill it.
- Renting a moving truck and paying for people to load the truck. – Much More Affordable
- This was something that I decided to try after having two moves where we had to wait weeks for our things to show up. Whenever you rent a uHual, it lists all of the things that you can add to the rental, such as moving supplies, dollies, etc. But, the best one is it will give you lists of companies on each side of your move that will send people out to load and unload your things. They are generally not very expensive, and their prices and ratings are all listed, so you can decide which company you’d like to use. This allows you to pack all of your things the way that you’d like. You are driving the truck, so your things never leave your sight, and you don’t have to do any of the heavy lifting. This obviously won’t work for you if you don’t like driving trucks or long distances, but I love both, so this has been my favorite thus far. Don’t forget that you might need a dolly to pull your car behind the moving truck.
- You can rent a moving truck, and then pack/unpack and load/unload all yourself. – Cheap
- This is a great choice if you are a very strong person that wants to save some money, but it always looks easier than it is. The last time I tried this, I couldn’t even load half of the truck before I was dying. My super in-shape brother-in-law had to load over half of our truck for us. After that, I said never again, and booked an unload crew at the destination.
Okay, You’ve Picked Your Method of Moving
If you chose one of the above options where part or all of the moving is done for you, just skip those corresponding steps below.
- You might not think of this, but backup all of your important files. Take pictures of any important documents, and then all important files should be backed up onto either a cloud or external hard-drive or solid-state drive (I just bought THIS one and love it). Keep this drive with you, not with your moving things. This way, if everything were to get lost or destroyed in the move, your important documents are still on your person. Any physical documents that you can’t risk being destroyed should also come on your person, not with the moving things.
- Bring your vehicle in for a tune up. The last thing you need to worry about on the move or right after you arrive in a new place are car issues.
- Earlier, you calculated how many packing boxes you would need. Go and buy those boxes as well as any tape and padding items you might need.
- Pack and label all of your boxes.
- Decide on your route to your new location.
- Pickup the moving truck.
- Load the moving truck. Be aware that it is customary in the United States to tip your movers if you are using any type of moving company.
- Thoroughly clean out your old rental. Hopefully, this will save you any extra charges after you move out.
- Take pictures of your old rental. This will be good for defending yourself against any false charges from you rental company. On a lighter note, it can also be fun to look back years later and remember what your place looked like!
- Turn in your old rental keys.
Going to New Location
- Drive to your new location.
- Pickup your new rental keys.
- Unload all of your things into your new rental.
- Return the moving truck.
- Unpack all of your boxes.
Logistical Things to Do in Your New Location
- List out all of your Bank and Credit Card Accounts.
- Update every account with your new address.
- List out every bill that you pay.
- Update the address for every bill account.
- Find new medical professionals for your needs.
- Put in an Address Forwarding Request to the USPS.
- Get a New Driver’s License.
- Register you vehicles in the new location.
- Sign up to vote.
Congratulations!
There will be more things that come up during this process and afterward. Just adjust it as necessary. I hope you love your new position and your new home!
Feel free to comment below with any questions. I’ve moved many times and would love to help in anyway that I can!
Also, just an FYI: I participate in affiliate programs and may get a share of the revenue from any purchases you make from this site.