Moving homes can be stressful! Not to mention throwing in a curveball of having to stay in temporary housing in-between homes. Temporary housing can be just a week or several months. But what should you bring and what should you put into storage? Today I am going to give you a few of my top tips when you find yourself between homes!
This post is a little off-brand for me but my husband and I are in the thick of it currently. We are moving from South Carolina to Florida due to his job. We have been blessed to have sold our home quickly and found a new one in Florida. But we have some time in-between where we are going to be homeless! We had limited space to decide what we could bring with us. And what the moving company would need to store for us. I did a blog post a few weeks back with a few tips on how to prep your house for moving that you might want to check out: 5 Ways to Prep Your Home to Sell
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My husband and I had 1 week between houses and decided to go with renting a condo instead of a hotel. We are so happy that we did because we have 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, an extra bedroom, dining room. You know, lots of extra space! I work from home so I think I would feel Closter phobic if I had to stay in a small hotel room working for a week.
Plastic Bins with Lids
I picked up several different sizes of plastic bins from Target to put our hair and beauty essentials in. (I have a lot of products lol!) Using plastic bins instead of boxes makes it easier to carry and stack & store in the car during the transition. Make sure they have lids because you can stack several of them if you do and things don’t go flying all over your car.
Medications
I used a plastic bin for all our medications and vitamins. I took just about everything that we had so we would have our bases covered in case we needed something. You know, headache, upset stomach, extra Vitamin C!! I would also highly recommend making sure you have refilled all your prescriptions before moving. This way you don’t have to worry about where to have them sent if you use mail order.
Jewelry
I used a process that I saw on Pinterest for my jewelry. We didn’t want to have the movers take my jewelry; I don’t have a lot of expensive pieces, but I do have a lot of sentimental things I didn’t want to lose.
When I packed most of my jewelry I ended up leaving out a few of my favorite pieces that I wear daily, like my pineapple necklace! I separated those pieces out so I could access them easily and put them in a travel case I use. For the rest of my jewelry, I placed each piece in a snack-size plastic baggie and then placed that into a larger bag. Using this process should keep them from getting tangled. In the past, I have also used Glad Press n Seal and it worked well. But I have a lot of jewelry and would have needed too much of it and it gets expensive. It is a great possibility to use if you don’t have a lot of jewelry or if you have necklaces that tend to tangle easily.
Extra Clothes
In my expert opinion … you can never have too many clothes! Lol! Even if you are going to be somewhere warm, I would recommend packing a few “warmer” clothes. Like a sweatshirt, jeans, a jacket. Sometimes evenings get cooler and you will be prepared. We weren’t sure if we would have access to a washer & dryer, so we wanted to make sure we had enough clothes to get by.
My husband is starting his new job, so his mindset was on work clothes and underestimated casual clothes. He kind of wished he had brought more t-shirts with him. Remember, you can never have too many clothes!
Cleaning Supplies
I think it’s a good idea, if possible, to bring a small supply of cleaning supplies. We used them to clean the house we were moving from after the moving company left. And we will have a day or two before our things are delivered to the new house so we will need cleaning supplies to clean the new house.
We also brought extra toilet paper and paper towels. This is also something that you can never have too much of! These are things that you can buy at the location when you arrive but if you already have them bring them!
Important Documents
The moving company recommended that we take certain documents with us, but we made sure we brought all our documents. I would suggest bringing any documents that you would not want to get “lost” or have sensitive information.
We used a file box and made sure we took all our tax documents, birth certificates, marriage license, and passports, you know all that good stuff! The mortgage company was also asking for all different types of documents last minute before closing and we had them all with us. So, no delays in closing on our new home!
We are excited about getting into our new home and not being between homes! The entire process can be very stressful but if you are prepared it goes a lot smoother! Do you have a move coming up? If you have any tips on if you find yourself between homes, please share them below with everyone.
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