i use to move a lot.
A LOT.
i had it down for a while and while i have been needing soemwhere worth moving to for ages, the idea of moving fills me with dread.

Small boxes, like file boxes with handle holds, are pretty much the best thing, and keep the tape and marker on you.
At least two laundry baskets for anything that just needs to be tossed somewhere last minute;
Pack stuff with paper towels or rags you will use to clean when unpacking and settling in.

With this and too much practice, i could decamp and load a rental truck on my own in a day.

Of course, there is something wonderful about having movers show up when you've nearly totally lost it and having them pack and load the remaining scattered remains of your life *sigh*...

Keep the music on and keep moving with empty headed military precision.

Don't remove clothes from dresser drawers to pack them. Pull the drawers out, stuff 'em full, then wrap them in plastic wrap and transport separately from the cabinet.

Set aside a special box or two for things you will need right away when you get where you're going, so you don't have to sort through a dozen boxes to find everything you need.

Have a yard sale. Half of what we own, we don't need and won't miss - the cash will be more helpful. If it costs more to store or transport than to replace, don't take it - convert it to cash.

On the other hand, don't sell or give away so much that you're immediately in the hole in your new home because you have to buy so many basics.

If you have CDs in jewel cases, now's a good time to put them in a binder instead.

As you're packing up, set up a trash area and a donate/give away box. Before automatically packing something, ask yourself whether you really want to keep it, or whether it's time to toss or donate it. Keep/toss/donate - learned from HGTV, incredibly valuable strategy.

Don't pack air. If there is space inside something, put stuff in the space. Rolled socks into shoes, rolled towels into (clean) wastebaskets, candles into mugs, belts and scarves into shoeboxes with shoes, etc...

When in doubt, throw it out.

Them's my tips!

Good tips from ethylene and Miko. But you know what? I think there's always a bit of panic at the end. At least there is for me and I'm quite experienced at moving.

deborah is right on I've never had it go completely smoothly, and I've moved a ton as well. There's always a moment where you're sitting in a giant pile of your shite, feeling utterly at a loss, tearing up and feeling sorry for yourself. Don't sweat it, e! It's a transition, but you will come through it beautifully.

First things first,
load up the shotgun and fill with rock salt and shoot the bear in the ass — give him something to be sore about. Honestly, the nerve of some people, good riddance, I say.
This, is no 'friend'. ok¿
OK.

The panic is because you haven't processed the fact you are leaving. Hell ya, just after you've finished fixing and painting the place. You think it was a waste of time, although it wasn't and frankly, you're off to a new adventure. Embrace it and packing will be a snap. Embrace the change./ What you did in the past is behind you, that's the past, history. Now is now. Today./

Tackle areas placing into boxes [liquor store boxes-free for the asking or hunting them down] and labeling them, even a few hours a day.
Top left cupboard-bread crumbs [you know, whatever] and systematically, Swiss watch/train schedule method, area by area -scoop and drop & label. If things are too loose in the box, stuff with socks, towels etc, utilizing space, limiting breakage.
Don't get sentimental while packing. Just shuv it into a box and move it, or consider it a good opportunity to leave it behind. Ask yourself: stay or go.
Yeah, you're in shock of the move, but think of the unpacking in the new place./
Whee.
Think of it....the new place and crank up the music, pour a tall glass of your favourite and begin.
Don't leave it to the last minute, you'll be chuffed at yourself.
A move is a fresh start. Make it so.

Those last five days, the ones during which you're all, "I haven't sold this, but I don't have time to take it to the Salvation Army, but I don't want it in my new home"? That's when you post on Craigslist. FREE STUFF. Cut your losses. We gave probably more than 300 books to some dude who sells them on the street in Queens. He came to our apartment and just hauled them all away. Seriously, it's the best thing ever.

And once you've moved and broken down all the boxes, and you have all these empty boxes and recycling day is too long to wait? FREE STUFF on Craigslist. People will come to your house any time for free moving boxes. Seriously.

Oh, and if you've hired movers, they will probably give you a discounted rate on "real" moving boxes. So if you still have stuff that's unpacked, buy a bunch of boxes off them when they show up at your place.

Good luck! And more importantly: DON'T PANIC.

Thanks--sound advice, and it's also helping me to wrap my head around what needs to be done. I don't know where I'd be without y'all some days, I swear. We don't have a Craigslist-type anything here, but my friend runs a consignment clothing store and I have an astonishing amount of city clothes (read: cool pants that don't fit me, miniskirts that I don't think I'll wear again, that wicked vintage dress I never could get into, that latex miniskirt that frankly the world will be better off if it goes to someone else at this point) I might get money for. Furniture I don't want is either going to friends or over to the Redirectory (a place for good stuff for free), as there's no time for a yard sale now. Books have gone/are going to friends, the pub's lending library, or the recycling station's book room. All of this means I'll need a friend with a vehicle for a day. Fortunately:

Another friend (my new room-mate's boyfriend) offered himself and his van, especially since the person mentioned above was appallingly rude to them when I went over to check out how much space I had and what they could use vs what I should put into storage, so they understood about me being kinda stranded. Good friends, indeed. They are sooo getting a gourmet home-made meal and/or a really good bottle of wine.

Aaaaand, it turns out the laundry sink (where the washer drains) leaks, and has been doing so for I don't know how many loads (I'm doing clothing and bedding and such now), so I had to frantically move the boxes I'd put there (half-unpacked from my last move, fortunately, not the freshly-packed ones) and pull out all the pictures and such that were in there and put them outside to hopefully dry out. *sigh*

How are you moving your stuff and yourself? Or is this mostly storage? How long have you got?
Remember to take it one task at a time, and for gassakes, put the drunken ape away.

It's Sunday, right? i've been confused about this all day.

I'd say don't drink while packing. I'm sure it's as hot here as it is there, and you can't replace bodily fluids through drinking. Ok. You can't when you're working. Sitting down is another matter. Besides, it's a distraction and it won't help you focus. Lots of glasses of icewater. Drink after it's done. Same with "just having a smoke". No. do that later because you're breaking forward momentum. You know what you're supposed to be doing, and surveying the area takes 5 seconds, not 7 min.
Hit one room at a time, that way you'll have more space to put finished boxes from the next room to keep them out of your way. Divide your main space into living / dining / kitchen. Start from one edge of the division and work to the next. Books first as they're being moved into the next room, or are at the start of this one. They go on the bottom of the stack of boxes so as not to crush anything else.

What do you need? vs What do you want? I've mentioned that before. After you have what you need, you can look at what you want. If it's a decision to be made right now, Have you used it? Will you, in the next 3 months? Really? Is it an important part of your psyche that you need as a reference point? (you probably need to keep that. unless it's stupid big/heavy, then really, maybe find a lighter replacement. made by nerf.) You have an awful lot of big heavy wooden stuff. You know it's going to be a pain to do anything with and will take up tons of space in storage. More space = more money, or at least less space for other stuff.

I'd'a thought he'd at least not be a total dickhead about it. Maybe he doesn't agree, but the deed's being done so he could at least stfu and help. This room isn't big enough for me to roll my eyes in.

I've got until the end of the month (i.e. Saturday) to get my stuff out of the cabin, then Sunday to clean. It's all going to another place on the island, where I'll be renting the second bedroom. I'll pay 1/2 the apartment rent for June, then 1/4 to store my stuff and keep the room. Little if anything will get unpacked until I get back from Down South. Clothes are divided into 'keep--storage' (winter stuff), 'keep--coming with me' (summer stuff), 'consignment', 'donate', and 'put in the burn barrel and set fire to the damned thing' (those jeans that are more hole than jean that I wear now because I spend days without seeing another person but don't really see the point of keeping).

It looks like I'll be spending most of June on my friend's farm on the Sunshine Coast, then heading down to BOP-land after that, but I have to come back to Canuckistan after 6 months no matter what, hence keeping a place to stay and such.

(Zack, you know me way too well. At least this time I've realized that it's possible to smoke and pack at the same time.)

Funny, last time i did a big move on my own was on Memorial Day.
The rental truck plate had expired that day and i got pulled over under an hour from my destination, just past midnight. It wasn't like i knew or could do anything about it.

"Why are you moving on Memorial Day?"
"It's the last day of the month."
i had to stare at the cop with the same matter of fact tone in which i'd said it and it still took a whole minute.
"Oh."
The world doesn't stop for your goddamn barbeque, and cops that work the highway patrol are never very old.

Come to think of it, i'd had awful screwy luck with rentals.

Smoke breaks aren't so bad as long as something gets done in between. i usually went kitchen, bedroom, books, music and everything else got shoved into its easiest fit with will need items in a basket or bag or the last box.
i still have unpacked boxes squatting in places. Accidental time capsules await me.

When I smoked, it worked as a great motivator, 'cause there's no reward like smoking. Work 45 minutes = smoke break for 15. Work 45, break 15. It helped.

i once found a box at a friend's house that had little more than toilet paper, a pair of shoes and a lot of very expired condoms.

I agree with Miko.
A smoke is medicinal and a curative, ask the First Nations and my physician relatives, as much as they're against it per se. It stabilizes some folks. We're talking neurons etc.
Mind you, in BC, a smoke isn't just a smoke. All good in moderation, staying focused on the task. :)

Tape all remotes to the items they control, and do the same with any item X that needs part Y to operate, or any keys or parts for any item. Pack one box that has all you'll need for the first full day after moving - bedding, towel, toothbrush, soap, pajamas, change of clothes for next day, etc, and don't lose track of that box; I label it "open first". Number the set of boxes going into storage, and letter the boxes going to the new place (or vice versa); that way you'll know you should end up with boxes A-G at the new digs, and the storage facility should have boxes 1-20 (for example). This way you'll know if everything got moved, and all to the right place.

I think it helps to be kind of thorough about listing box contents somewhere on the box. It's not fun to face 15 boxes that say "kitchen stuff" when all you want is the toaster so you can have some breakfast. (but this also makes it easier, in the event of theft, for people to find the boxes with the expensive stuff - so you might want to leave off listing TVs and such... you could use code words if you want. Write "Marshall Mcluhan" on all your electronics-containing boxes, for instance. :-))

Separate winter and summer clothes. Whenever you end up unpacking those stored boxes, it's going to be one season or the other (roughly), and it will be handy to have one set of clothes boxes you can just put away and forget about without rummaging through to see what's useful now. Use mothballs or equivalent in all your clothes boxes. And I'd maybe include some sort of anti-bug stuff in every single box going into storage, and pack paper items first in heavy-weight plastic bags and then in boxes. In fact... really? It would be great to pack almost everything that will be stored that way. I had a lot of stuff ruined that we bothered to move all the way across the frickin' Atlantic ocean when we put the boxes in our new 8th floor apartment, and it flooded. Somehow. Huge storm, rain blew in between the closed windows up to an inch or so on the floor in a couple of rooms, and the cardboard boxes soaked it right up. Bizarro.

Don't forget your "this end up" arrows on boxes, and any "don't stack!" or "fragile" info., as well as what room they will eventually go to.

It's a massive pain, I know, eliz. But it will get done; it always does.

It's not great for unpacking, but the most efficient and compact packing job I did involved using all my non-dress clothes (basically, t-shirts, socks, boring underwear, and dishtowels) as wrapping for the kitchen breakables. It was amaaaazing how much it cut down on the number of boxes that needed to be picked up, moved, and arranged -- which was mainly the point, as I had to load everything I owned into a single minivan and drive it across the country.

It also cut way down on the time spent packing, and on the throwing-things-away bit on the unpacking.

Also, on that particular move, my "friends" were pulling the same "We're going to be assholes because we're upset about you leaving, even though you're happy about it" thing. It's a fucking pain in the ass, but it truly does indicate that you're important to those people, even if they're too emotionally stunted to express it in constructive ways.

ah! I see your stuff isn't going to two different places... mis-read. Still, the two numbering schemes might work out for stuff that does get unpacked versus stuff that doesn't.

I used to own a van. The best thing I did was get rid of it. I ALWAYS said yes, and, while I can't add anything to the above, I helped scads of people move. Lots of pianos, also.

At least you're ON it. Once, when I showed up at the appointed time to help a fairly good friend, he had not even started PACKING yet. . .so you are not the worst, by far.

I hope that you're doing well this morning and, well you're probably still sleeping but I hope the forward momentum continues. . .

Good luck!

At least you're ON it. Once, when I showed up at the appointed time to help a fairly good friend, he had not even started PACKING yet.

I used to be lead hand in a warehouse, so one thing I can do is pack stuff. I hate it, but I can do it. Yeah, I've helped friends like that. Good lord, people, what the hell are you thinking?!? The best one was helping friends move out of a trailer that was so infested with black mold that you couldn't be in there for more than about 15 minutes at a time, and we were armed with a stack of those flimsy paper masks (which did help a bit). They hadn't packed a thing--they'd been staying with friends for the previous week. Fair enough, as the place had made them pretty sick, but still. Yep. Good times.

And the truck thing--that's why ever since I hit about 28, I've always had the number of a good, cheap mover (except for the one move when I couldn't find it, but that's a nightmare tale unto itself. Suffice to say, do *not* inform movers you don't know that there's beer for them until the move is done or almost done, even if you think they'll realize it's not for drinking at 9:30 am.) I move a lot and never wanted to be *that* friend. You know, the one whose calls you start avoiding around the end of the month. This island isn't exactly rife with moving companies, though, and I am far from flush ATM. I am very grateful to C (the friend with the van who so kindly offered to help and I mean offered for real before I thought I'd have to take him up on it, not offered in response to poorly-disguised hints). I'll be giving him gas money (if he'll take it) and making sure he's well fed and watered. Is there anything else anyone can think of? (Apart from the nice bottle for him and his gf, the new roommate, that is.) He definitely won't take straight payment, even if I had the money to give him.