Moving Binder

When J and I move to our new apartment, this will be my 5th move since I moved to Tallahassee in 2005.  Every move I have learned a new trick to making things run smoother.  I have a couple new tricks under my belt this move and they have been very helpful so far.  The first trick is my moving binder.

My moving binder is a simple, white 1 inch binder.  It's kept with the rest of our moving items on our mantel so that it's easy to find.

The binder is filled with dividers so that I can keep things organized.  I have a tab for To Do Lists, our current apartment, our new apartment, other stuff, and furniture.  

In the front of the binder, I have printed out calendars so that I can keep track of all the deadlines we have.  These deadlines include when we need to give 30 days notice to our current apartment, when we should have utilities transferred over, and other important dates.  I also have the dates that J will be out of town for work so that I know not to schedule any important appointments for those weeks.

To Do List

The first item in the to-do list tab is of course, our to do list.  I have the to-do list broken down into June, July, Moving Week, Friday (the day we get the keys to our apartment), Saturday (the day we have our moving van), and Sunday (the day we have to turn out keys in to our old apartment).  These to-do lists are long!  

The second item in the to-do list tab is our change of address logs.  There is one for me and also one for J.  Every day when we get the mail, I'll look through it and pull out the important items that we'll still need/want to receive when we move (bills, magazines, catalogs, etc).  Then I'll write the information about that piece of mail on the spreadsheet.  That way when we get ready to move, I'll have all the information about who we need to change our addresses with.  This will help us not forget anyone.

Old Apartment

In the tab for the old apartment, I currently only have a copy of our lease.  After we turn in our 30 days notice, I'll also have a copy of that in this section as well as a move out checklist from the apartment complex.  After we move out, I'll keep the move out paperwork in here in case any problems arise later with them saying something wasn't done.

New Apartment

In the tab for the new apartment complex, I cut up the brochure they gave us so that I could fit the information in the binder.  I have a map of the complex which also lists the amenities.  That will come in handy when we're trying to find something in the new complex, especially our building.  I also have a copy of the floor plan sot hat we can figure out where to place furniture in the new apartment.

In this tab, I also have a copy of our pre-lease paperwork as well as our application paperwork.  After we have signed the official lease, that will go in this tab as well.

Other Stuff

The other stuff tab will be where we keep everything else that pertains to the move.  So far it has a copy of our renter's insurance and the reservation confirmation from Uhaul.  I'll put other receipts in this section as we get them and also include copies of the transfers for our utilities, cable, etc.

Furniture

Unless you're planning on buying new furniture when you move, this section might not be of much use to you.  We're planning on buying a whole new bedroom set as well as new dining room and office furniture.  I wanted a section to be able to keep all the information about the furniture we're looking at in one place.  After we decide on what we're going to buy, we can also keep receipts and delivery information for the furniture.

I hope this helps someone else that's planning on moving soon.