The Capitol Chronicle: Another use for duct tape

I'm moving in a week and since I work best with lists I've made a list of helpful things/ things to do as you ready yourself for a move:

Clarify your move-in/out date for your new place. In my instance one lease ended the day before my new one began. I managed to talk to my current landlord to extend the lease for a weekend, giving me a few extra days to move.

Also make sure to double-check what you are responsible for in terms of getting your security deposit back. A lot of times you need to have your carpets professionally cleaned as well as your house professionally cleaned. Here in D.C. there's an entire cleaning business based on move-in/out cleaning. I managed to get out of hiring professional cleaners and only hiring a carpet cleaner.

Change addresses for not only your utilities but also for USPS and all your internet shopping accounts, subscriptions, etc.A year later and we still get packages for what I hope are the previous tenets. Nothing worse then ordering a package and never getting it.
Pack early and often. Now I'm super organized and really antsy about these types of thing so I started packing about a month before the move. I started with easy things like books and movies that I knew I wasn't going to have time to watch in the next month. Next I worked on out-of-season clothing, excess toiletries and now 5 days before I'm working on packing up the kitchen.
DUCT TAPE: this is where I will probably save the most time. I bought 5 different colors of duct tape since I am moving to a place with 5 rooms. Each room has a designated color so on the day of move-in all my helpers (who are lured with free pizza and beer) they can distribute the box right in the room it belongs, instead of me having to move boxes twice.
Finish any "projects" you might have. I had a ton of clothes that needed mending/altering and I realized that if I didn't do them now I would probably never get around to doing it so I made a day out of completing all my sewing alterations.

Packing tips according to item:

Pack out of season clothing first, and use suitcases you already own
Take this time to go through your clothing and get rid of clothes you don't wear - it can be helpful at this time to invite over a friend you see regularly and have him/her judge if they've seen you in an item. Chances are if your best friend hasn't seen a shirt you've own for years, you don't wear it enough and should donate it
For things in the closet - keep them hung and then put them in trash bags. I want to use the bags again so I put the bags around the clothes and use the bag ties to secure the hangers in place, that way after the move I still have trash bags to use!

Pack all your spare toiletries up early and only keep a small travel-sized bag of toiletries that you can use for a week or two and that you'll be able to use the day of your move/ a few days after you move so you aren't digging through boxes for everything.

You probably won't be able to watch a whole lot of movies or read a whole lot of books in the upcoming weeks before the move so take some time and pack those early to get them out of the way
Pack books in small boxes or rolling suitcases because books get incredibly heavy

Use your current kitchen towels to help pad boxes and protect breakables
Use paper or Styrofoam plates in between your nice, ceramic or glass, plates so they are protected and that they dont scrape against eachother

Another seasonal type item that you can pack up parts earlier then others. Things like boots, shovels, sleds can be packed right away if you are moving in the summer - and the reverse is true if you are moving in the winter

Save these for last or make sure they are always easily accessible. You will need tools up until you move-out and right away when you move-in. Same goes for cleaning supplies - you want these to be handy throughout the moving process.

The Capitol Chronicle