Moving Day Checklist: What to Do the Morning Of

Most moving advice covers the weeks beforehand. Moving day itself gets treated as the part that just happens — and then it's 4pm, the truck is half loaded, and nobody can find the keys. Here's how the day actually goes best.

The night before

• Charge every phone and pack the chargers somewhere you can reach them.
• Set aside the essentials tote — medications, documents, toiletries, a change of clothes.
• Pull cash for tips if you're using movers.
• Empty and defrost the freezer. It leaks if you leave it.
• Put keys, garage remotes, and mail keys in one labeled bag. Not in a tote.

First thing in the morning

1. Eat and set out drinks. It sounds trivial. It is not — the day is long and nobody stops.
2. Clear the path. Prop the doors, move the cars, sweep the walkway. Every trip goes faster.
3. Protect the floors at both ends if you can, especially on carpet or new flooring.
4. Do a last sweep of closets, the attic, and the shed. This is where things get left behind.
5. Set the essentials tote aside somewhere it cannot get loaded by accident.

Loading order matters

Load in reverse order of how you want to unload. Furniture and the heavy things go in first, along the walls. Totes stack in the middle where they're stable. Anything you need in the first hour at the new place — bedding, tools, the essentials tote — goes on last, right by the door.

• Heaviest totes at the bottom of the stack, always.
• Keep one aisle clear down the middle of the truck.
• Label facing outward so you can read a stack without unstacking it.

Before you lock the old place

• Every cupboard, closet, and drawer opened and checked.
• Attic, garage, shed, and behind every door.
• Meter readings noted if you need them.
• Windows shut, water off, thermostat set.
• Photos of every room — worth it for a deposit dispute.

At the new place

1. Walk it once, empty, before anything comes off the truck. Note anything damaged.
2. Find the breaker panel and the water shutoff now, not at 11pm.
3. Unload by room, straight to the room. Never pile everything in the living room.
4. Build the beds first, while you still have energy.
5. Unpack the essentials tote. Then stop and eat.

The part people forget

Don't try to finish unpacking on moving day. It doesn't happen, and pushing for it is how things get shoved in the wrong rooms and lost for a month. With a two-week rental there's no clock running — get the beds up, get fed, and start fresh in the morning.

Ready for the day?

Reserve your totes online and we'll deliver ahead of your move with a dolly, labels, and a marker included — then collect them from the new place when you're unpacked. Still planning the weeks before? See the full moving timeline.