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Packing Timeline
Start four weeks out by sorting, not packing. Then work from the rooms you never use towards the ones you use daily, so the kitchen and bathroom go last.
Week by week
The order is always the same: least used to most used. Get that right and the last two days are calm, because everything left in the apartment is something you were still using yesterday.
| When | What you are packing | Progress |
|---|---|---|
| 4 weeks out | Sort, do not pack. Go room by room and pull out everything you are not taking. Sell, donate or bin it this week, while a collection can still be booked. | 0 packed |
| 3 weeks out | Pack the rooms you barely use: spare room, storage, books, decorations, out-of-season clothes, sports gear, anything in a loft or under a bed. | About a third packed |
| 2 weeks out | Living room and bedroom, except the clothes you are wearing this fortnight. Wall art down, cables coiled and bagged with the device they belong to. | Two thirds packed |
| 1 week out | Kitchen and bathroom, minus a survival set. Start eating down the freezer. Defrost it 48 hours before the van if you are taking it. | Nearly everything |
| 2 days out | The last of the kitchen, spare bedding, and the first night box. Confirm the van and the key handover. | All but the survival set |
| The morning of | Bedding, toiletries, chargers, the kettle. Strip the bed, walk every cupboard once more, and load the first night box last so it comes off first. | Done |
Four weeks sounds generous and is not. Most people lose a week to work and two evenings to a problem with the van.
Room by room, in order
| Room | Start | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Storage, loft, garage | 4 weeks | Almost all of it is a decision, not a packing job. Hence first. |
| Books and media | 3 weeks | Small boxes only. A large box of books cannot be lifted by one person. |
| Clothes you are not wearing | 3 weeks | Hanging clothes stay on their hangers, bagged in groups of ten. |
| Living room | 2 weeks | Photograph the back of the TV before you unplug anything. |
| Bedroom | 2 weeks | Leave one set of clothes per day until the move, plus one smart outfit. |
| Kitchen | 1 week | Slowest room in the house. Keep two plates, two mugs, one pan, one knife. |
| Bathroom | 2 days | Everything liquid gets a bag of its own. Caps loosen in transit. |
| First night box | Morning of | Loads last, comes off first, and never goes on the van with the rest. |
Finish a room completely before you open the next one. A half-packed bedroom and kitchen is how you end up with four boxes labelled "miscellaneous" and no idea where the can opener is. What goes in each box is a separate list, and it is on the packing checklist.
What stays unpacked until last
- Passport, lease, bank cards and anything the landlord wants signed — these travel on you, never in a box.
- Chargers for your phone and laptop, plus one power strip.
- One towel and one full set of bedding per person.
- Toilet roll, hand soap, toothbrush, and whatever you take daily from a bathroom shelf.
- Kettle, two mugs, teaspoons, and something to eat that needs no cooking.
- A basic tool kit and something to cut tape — you will be building a bed at 9pm.
- Cleaning cloths and a bin bag for the last walk-through.
- Medication, glasses, and anything you would panic about losing in a box.
Keep this set in one marked bag and carry it in your own car if you have one. The first night box takes the same idea further, and it is the difference between a decent first night and a bare mattress.
The box count nobody expects
A one-bedroom apartment lived in for two years is usually 25 to 40 boxes, plus furniture. A room in a parent's house is more like 12 to 20. Both are higher than the guess you just made.
Buy more tape than you think and more small boxes than large ones. Large boxes get filled with heavy things and then cannot be carried, so keep them for bedding and coats. Get free boxes from a supermarket or a local buy-nothing group in week four, because the week you need them is the week there are none. Technique for the wrapping and stacking lives on packing hacks.
If you only have three days
It happens. Drop the sorting stage entirely and accept that you will move things you do not want.
- Day one. Every soft thing into bin bags: clothes, bedding, towels, coats. They squash into gaps, and this is a third of your volume gone in two hours.
- Day two. Kitchen and bathroom, in boxes, wrapped in the towels you have not bagged yet. Label only the fragile ones. Eat whatever is in the fridge.
- Day three. Everything else by room into whatever containers you have, then the survival set, then a sweep of every cupboard, door back and wardrobe top.
Label by room only, not by contents. Knowing which room a box belongs in is worth more than knowing what is inside it, because unpacking will be slow either way.