Cleaning & Dusting

The first thing you’ll want to do is some cleanup at the new place - and there’s no better time for a top to bottom dusting than right before your boxes arrive.

If you’re moving into an empty house, send someone over early if you can (either before the move or on the day of the move while everyone is loading up the truck). They’ll have a much easier time dusting the floors, scrubbing the tiles and cleaning the windows when the house is empty.

If you don’t manage to get the cleaning done before your things arrive, fear not! There’s still plenty of opportunity to get it done. Try placing most of your boxes in a dedicated sorting room, and clean the empty rooms in the meantime. Once each room is clean, proceed to unpacking the boxes for that room.

Organizing By Room

When you start unpacking, there’s a few rooms you’ll want to hit first:

• Your kitchen will has plenty of storage already there (drawers, cabinets and cupboards) for your plates, utensils, pans and so forth.
• Your washroom will also require less unpacking than other rooms. Plus, the sooner you get the shower curtain up and the bath towels out, the sooner you can cool off with a shower after the move.
• Next move onto any room that’s been cleaned and need to have big furniture assembled.

Assembling Furniture

When it comes time to putting your things back together, your movers should have this covered.

If you’re going at it alone or with friends, assemble the big things first, such as your bed, futon, shelves, dining room table, and so forth. Since these will take up the most space, you'll need to make sure they fit where you want them before you unpack the rest of your things and move the smaller items in.

If you took measurements earlier, you should already have an idea where the big furniture will fit - or worse case, you can start sizing up the rooms as soon as you're moved in.

Use Your Closets

Closests can be your best friend during a move, especially if you have limited space to unpack and assemble your furniture. Store your things in here while you sort out the rest of your room and put together your big items. You can then pull them out one-by-one and start unpacking.