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We have always moved in one day, but start packing maybe the week before.

The last time we moved it was from our townhouse, which we still own, so we could have it as long as we wanted. Of course we wanted to rent it out asap so we could get the money, but we gave ourselves enough time to be comfortable.

The time before that I was living with my parents and moved into DH's townhouse. I took months to get all my stuff over

definitely make sure everything you can is packed before hand - save things you need (for the baby or you guys) until the morning of.

label boxes with what room they go into and what it is in them, whether its written on the box or on a paper and taped on. that will help make it easier to unpack and find things when you get there! then you can unpack as you need things, without having to open every box that might contain your kitchen things to find one appliance!

I'm also really type A, so I'd probably have my own list of how many boxes for each room (i.e., "6 boxes labeled kitchen, 3 labeled living room) so if something was missing or forgotten I'd know which box it might be right away!

we moved yearly growing up until my parents bought a house at age 10.

@Coco Bee: haha, that's too funny that you know the previous tenants! is that how you found out about the rental? i ended up having to take an extra day off because of how things went on out moving day. i had planned to only take one day, but needed to take 2. DH couldn't take a second day, so my mom did & she helped me get things settled.

I have never moved in one day, didnt even realize this was possible! Its always a gradual thing

Like other posters, we've usually packed everything minus necessities a week or two in advance along with doing some cleaning where possible so come moving day, it was just packing up that final box, final clean up, and loading things into the truck. We also asked a couple friend to help us load/unload to help expedite things. After all the sweating is done, we take everyone out to dinner.

We were packing/unpacking for like 2 weeks. Luckily the last place I moved to let me move in the middle of the month and I had 2 weeks to get outta the other place.

It took us about 2-3 weeks to pack up all our stuff at the old place (with some marathons at the end). We ended up hiring movers for the first time ever, which was the best decision ever. We didn't have to be out in one day, but I wanted to be because I feel like it's more annoying to do back-and-forth for days at a time. I was able to go back in and clean the day after we moved, but I would suggest cleaning as you go. You might have to go back later that day to get behind where furniture was, etc.

We've always had to move out on the morning of the 1st, and into our new place in the afternoon of the 1st. Is there no way you could do that? Technically you have already paid for the last night of the month...

@Mrsbells: I think we paid around $400, moving from a 2-bedroom 1,200-square-foot house to a 3-bedroom 1,500-square-foot house. They did it by the hour and took about 4 hours. They also had wardrobe boxes to use for free so we didn't have to pack any of our hanging clothes. I thought it was really reasonable for not having to worry about anything. They didn't require us to unpack drawers, they just moved the whole piece with everything in it, so that was a HUGE, huge help.

They were very careful with everything, they didn't bang anything into walls or drag anything against our floors. They put everything exactly where we wanted it. There was one incident where they dropped a very large mirror in their truck and they looked devastated about it. They immediately said they would take it back to their shop and they got a piece of glass custom-cut for it and delivered it back to us in perfect condition within a week or so. Which was fine with me because the old glass had sticky stuff all over it that annoyed me lol.

We were very happy and didn't know why we didn't do it before! Moving ourselves was always so awful and our friends were always so much more careless with our stuff than movers. We ended up with a broken lamp and a broken bookcase when we moved into our last house ourselves/with friends, and gave away our couch because nobody could figure out how to get it through the door lol.

@Mrsbells: I would just suggest using Angie's List or something to find a good mover, that's what we did. I use Angie's List for everything though lol

@Mrsbells: We paid a flat rate using a moving company here in NYC (not sure where you're located). I think for them packing everything and moving it, it cost around $1000? It took about 7 hours from the time they arrived at our old apartment to the time they left our new apartment. It was well worth it though. We've used them before just to move our stuff as well, and both times they were very careful and didn't damage anything.

@MrsBrewer: yeah I guess it is expensive...I may have overestimated, maybe it was $800? But like I said, it was well worth it! We were moving from a 4th floor walkup and I was 3 months pregnant, plus I had an awful stomach virus the weekend we moved so I would have been completely useless. We don't know a ton of people in NYC who are able/willing to help move our crap, so it made sense for us to hire movers

@Coco Bee: woohoo! We're moving too!
We get our keys this Sunday, but movers are coming on the 8th. We plan on having everything moved on Monday.

We've moved every year to a new state and had one day to get out/in, it is no fun. My husband's work normally pays for movers, which is nice, but the last move something fell through and we had to move ourselves last minute. This time we'll be moving with a newborn.. so we'll definitely be paying for extra wiggle room to make it less stressful! My biggest tip if you're moving yourself is to watch Craigslist for free moving boxes and packing materials... and to start earlier than you think.. and to donate annnnything you question otherwise when you unpack it and don't want it, you'll wish you had