The eight-week countdown
- Weeks 8 to 7: get your prices. Ask for a phone ballpark, an online request or a free in-home estimate. Show the estimator every room, the garage and any storage space, and ask whether the estimate is binding or non-binding.
- Weeks 7 to 6: choose the mover and the date. Compare the written estimates on the same terms (services, valuation coverage, storage). Confirm the date in writing and ask for the inventory and condition report process.
- Weeks 6 to 5: sort and reduce. Go room by room and decide what is moving, what is donated and what is sold. Anything you remove now is weight and packing time you do not pay to handle.
- Weeks 5 to 4: start the paperwork. File your change of address, tell schools and doctors, and set utility stop and start dates. See the change of address checklist.
- Weeks 4 to 3: pack what you will not miss. Pack off-season clothes, books, decor and spare linens. Label each box with its room and a short list of contents.
- Weeks 3 to 2: confirm the details. Reconfirm the date, the arrival window, parking at both homes and elevator or stair access. Arrange childcare and pet care for moving day.
- Week 1: pack the daily items and the first-night box. Pack the kitchen last. Fill a first-night box and set aside valuables and documents you will carry yourself.
- Moving day and after: walk through and sign. Check each room at both ends, read the paperwork before you sign, and note any damage on the delivery paperwork the same day.
This is a planning schedule, not a rule. A studio apartment can compress it into three weeks, and a full house with storage can stretch it past eight. The order of the steps is what matters, because each one makes the next one easier.
Why eight weeks works
Eight weeks is long enough that no single task has to be done in a hurry, and short enough that you will not lose track of the early ones. The weeks at the front are about information (prices, dates, what you own). The middle weeks are about reducing the load. The last two are about logistics and the house itself.
If your move is local and small, fold the first four steps into one week. If you are moving between states, add time at the front, because a long-distance shipment is priced by weight and needs a careful estimate before a date is firm.
Where O'Brien's fits in
The in-home estimate is the first anchor. An estimator comes to the home, walks through it and writes an itemized written estimate. If you want help with the packing itself, full packing, partial packing and box-packing-only are all choices; see packing services. If part of the move waits in storage, wooden vaults in the Sparks warehouse hold it until you are ready.
The moving checklist tool turns a version of this timeline into a list you can tick off.
What to leave until the last days
Pack the kitchen, the bathroom and the bedroom you sleep in last. Keep chargers, medicine, keys, passports and the paperwork for the new home in a bag that rides with you, not on the truck. Defrost the freezer and empty the fridge the day before so appliances can be moved dry.