Start your moving checklist eight weeks out: get quotes and declutter at week 8, book movers or a truck by week 6, reserve packing containers and file your USPS change of address at week 4, schedule utilities at week 3, confirm everything at week 2, and pack a first-night kit in the final week. Each task sits where it does because something external, a records office, an installer's calendar, a lease clause, sets the deadline.
Shorter runway? Compress the early weeks, never the last one. Bookings go first-come in the Portland metro's summer peak, so reserve crews, trucks, and totes the day you know your date.
Why start eight weeks out?
A move is forty small deadlines wearing one big trench coat. Utility transfers, school records, a truck reservation, a landlord walkthrough, the freezer you forgot to eat down: none of these is hard alone, but they all land in the same two months and several of them have dates you don't control. Eight weeks is roughly the point where every one of those deadlines is still comfortably in front of you.
Start later and the checklist still works. You just do the same tasks with less slack, and slack is what absorbs the surprises, the buyer who moves your closing date, the crew that reschedules, the internet installer who offers you a slot eleven days after you wanted one. This post is the timeline version: what to do each week and, more usefully, why that task sits in that week and not another.
The week-by-week timeline
Read the third column first. A checklist that explains its own deadlines is much easier to trust, and easier to compress when your timeline is shorter than eight weeks.
| Weeks out | Do this | Why it can't wait |
|---|---|---|
| 8 weeks | Set the date. Get mover or truck quotes. Start the declutter. | Popular dates go to whoever asked first, and decluttering shrinks every task that follows. |
| 6 weeks | Book the movers or the truck. Request school and medical records. Measure big furniture against the new floor plan. | Records offices work on their schedule, not yours. A couch that won't fit is cheaper to sell now than to move twice. |
| 4 weeks | Reserve packing containers. File your USPS change of address. Give notice to your landlord if you rent. | Mail forwarding needs lead time to start on the right day, and most leases require 30 days' written notice. |
| 3 weeks | Schedule every utility transfer. Pack the rooms you never use. | Internet installation windows fill up. Guest room and garage packing costs you nothing in daily comfort. |
| 2 weeks | Confirm all bookings in writing. Pack everything but daily essentials. Arrange kid and pet care for move day. | A confirmation email now beats a no-show later. Sitters and kennels have calendars too. |
| 1 week | Pack a first-night kit. Eat down the fridge. Refill prescriptions. Set aside cash for the crew. | Pharmacies and grocery logistics don't respect moving day, and the kit is the difference between a rough night and a fine one. |
| Day before | Stage everything near the door. Charge phones and the drill. Empty and defrost the freezer. | Every decision you make tonight is one the crew doesn't wait on tomorrow. |
| Move day | Run the plan. Do a final walkthrough of every closet, cabinet, and crawl space before lockup. | Once the key is handed over, retrieving the forgotten curtain rods becomes a favor, not a right. |
| First week after | Unpack beds and kitchen first. Update your driver's license and voter registration. Have empty containers collected. | Sleep and food make every other task survivable, and license deadlines are shorter than most people assume. |
The address-change and utilities list
This is the part of moving nobody rehearses, so here it is as a single run-through. Do it in one sitting around week four with your account numbers open, in this order.
- USPS change of address. File online and pick a start date one day before you move. Forwarding catches whatever the rest of this list misses.
- Electricity and gas. Schedule a stop at the old address and a start at the new one, same day, so you're never paying for two homes or standing in a dark one.
- Water, sewer, garbage. Often billed through the city or landlord. Renters should confirm which side of the lease handles it at the new place.
- Internet. The long pole. Book the installation the moment you know your date, and take an earlier slot if offered.
- Insurance. Home or renters policy on the new address from day one, plus your auto policy, which is priced partly by ZIP code.
- Banks, employers, subscriptions. Direct deposits, statements, and the meal kit that will otherwise cheerfully feed your old porch.
- DMV and voter registration. Both states in our metro expect an address update promptly after a move, so put it in the first week, not the someday pile.
When to book trucks, movers, and totes
Everything you rent for a move comes from a finite local pool, and the pool is shallowest at the end of the month and through the summer, when leases roll over. You don't need statistics to act on that. Book in the order of scarcity: crews first, trucks second, containers third.
Moving companies want the most notice because good crews are the scarcest thing on this page. Truck rental is more forgiving but still tightens around the same peak weekends. Packing containers are the easy one, which is exactly why people leave them too late and end up packing the night before delivery instead of the week before.
If you're renting totes from us, the sweet spot is booking around week four for delivery around week two or three. That gives you a two-week rental window that covers steady packing on one end and unpacking on the other, with free delivery to your current door and free pickup from the new one. The whole sequence is laid out on our how tote delivery and pickup works page, and if your dates are odd, call or text and we'll fit the window to your move instead of the other way around.
What slips, and what it costs
Every moving timeline fails in the same few places, so it's worth naming them plainly.
The declutter gets skipped. It's the only week-eight task with no external deadline, which makes it the first casualty. The cost shows up later as extra containers, extra lifting, and a garage at the new house full of things you didn't want at the old one. Our guide to downsizing before you pack makes the case for doing it anyway.
Packing starts too late. A household that packs a few containers a night for two weeks barely notices the work. The same household packing everything in a frantic final weekend notices little else. Start with the rooms you won't miss.
The internet gets booked last. Then the first week in the new place runs on phone hotspots and apologies to your employer.
The final walkthrough gets rushed. Crawl spaces, the dishwasher, the shed, above the fridge. Every mover has a story about what stayed behind.
A move runs on deadlines. Meet them before they meet you.
Full runway or compressed sprint?
Not everyone gets eight weeks. Here's how to tell which version of this checklist you're actually running.
- You know your date and it's not soon
- You're moving a family, pets, or a full house
- Your move lands in peak season and bookings matter
- You have three weeks or less: do weeks 8 through 4 in the first week
- You cut the declutter to one pass, not zero
- You book everything the same day you learn your date
- You protect the first-night kit and the walkthrough no matter what
The timeline gets you to the doorstep; the day itself has its own playbook in our moving day tips, and your first-night kit deserves the five minutes of planning covered in the essentials tote guide. For everything else, from labeling to loading, browse the full moving tips library.
Written by the Bin There, Tote That! team
We rent, deliver, wash, and pick up moving totes across the Portland and Vancouver metro every week, so the advice here comes from vans and doorsteps, not a content mill. Facts about competitors are checked at publication and date-stamped in the text.
