What to pack first when moving

Where to start packing: with what you use least

Where to start packing for a move isn’t the biggest room or the hardest one: it’s whatever you won’t miss in the next few weeks. Every box you close early is one box that isn’t left for the night before.

So when should you start packing? Long before moving day, with the things you don’t use. And no matter how many days you have, the order is the same — read the list below as a checklist and a timeline at once.

The best order to pack for a move

1. What’s already in storage. The garage, the attic, the basement, the back of the closets. If you haven’t touched it in the last few months, you won’t touch it in the next few weeks. It’s also the best time to decide what isn’t worth taking.

2. Books, records and decorations. Pictures, frames, vases, decorative lamps. The house gets emptier, and it still works.

3. Out-of-season clothes and shoes. In summer, the coats; in winter, the beach clothes. And any spare bedding and towels.

4. The special-occasion dishes. The good china, the big serving platters, the stemware, the appliances you only use now and then.

5. Home office, toys and hobbies. Leave out what you use every week; the rest goes.

6. The everyday kitchen. In the last few days, keep one plate, one glass and one set of silverware per person, one pot and one frying pan. Everything else goes into boxes.

7. The bathroom and the bedroom. Last of all, and only the day before.

What to leave for last: the first-night box

There’s one box you close last and open first — some people call it the essentials box. It holds what you’ll need in your first twenty-four hours in the new house, while all the other boxes are still sealed:

• sheets, pillows and a towel for each person;
• toiletries and toilet paper;
• phone chargers;
• the medications you take every day;
• a change of clothes;
• what you need for the first breakfast — coffee maker, mugs, whatever is usual in your home;
• scissors or a box cutter, to open the rest.

Mark it so it can’t be mistaken for any other, and ask for it to be the last one onto the moving truck — that way it’s the first one off.

What doesn’t go in any box

Documents, keys, cash, jewelry and the devices you depend on for work travel with you, not with the move.

And what to unpack first when you arrive

The same logic, in reverse: the first-night box, then the kitchen and the bathroom, then the bedrooms. The decorations and books — the first to be packed — are the last to come out of their boxes.