There are various reasons why you or someone you know may need to know how to move quickly.
You may have found out you have to move for some unforeseen reason. Maybe your landlord is selling the place – maybe you’ve separated from a partner or had a falling out with a roommate.
Or maybe you need to make some quick moves because you’ve been busy and have lacked the capacity or focus to plan ahead.
No matter the case, our expert guide will make moving easier. We’ll cover how to pack and move quickly, walking you through the immediate steps you can take, starting now for a quick move out of the old place and a quick move into the new.
1. Determine If You Need Temporary Storage
The first step in our guide to how to move out fast is to consider a storage unit. If you have less than a week to get out of the old spot, a storage unit can expedite the last-minute move.
Temporary storage provides a place to stash fragile items, sentimental furniture, artwork, and valuable items like family heirlooms while you figure out your next move. It may mean staying in a guest room, motel, or on a friend’s couch in the meantime, but at least your valuables are safe.
As far as fast storage solutions are concerned, our SpareFoot storage search tool can find available storage units in your area ASAP–we can even filter out the storage facilities that will give you your first month of storage for free while you reset, regroup, and move on to Step 2.
2. Declutter and Purge
If you’re wondering how to move out fast with no money, this step is a good place to start. You can get through a last-minute move a lot faster with fewer things to pack. And you can cut costs in packing supplies and on your moving company/rental truck if you’re moving less weight. Not only are you spending less with a pre-move purge – you may even make a couple of bucks.
You can save time, resources, and stress by letting stuff go with a good old-fashioned purge and declutter session:
- Comb through every room of the house and make a giant pile of stuff you don’t wear or use anymore – be honest, erring on the side of letting stuff go.
- Now, break the master pile into three sub-piles – one for donation items, one for selling items, and one for trashing stuff that can’t be used by anyone else either.
- Take the trash to the dump and the donations to the thrift store.
- Animal shelters and centers for the unhoused may take any linens you don’t want.
- Post your for sale items on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace or throw a yard sale. If you have time to post the for-sale items on an online marketplace or host a garage sale, you can donate the good stuff, too, and earn some karma points.
- There may be some heavy items like furniture you want to donate but don’t have enough vehicles to transport them. Call Habitat for Humanity or another local fundraising store – they’ll often come by and pick it up.
This decluttering process is especially helpful for students looking for Tempe student apartments, where every square foot counts.
3. Use a Moving Supplies Kit
We’ll talk a bit more about moving and packing companies in the next step. But even if you’re packing in yourself and can’t afford to hire movers, stop by your local moving company or storage facility office anyway.
These experts know how to move quickly. Moving companies often sell moving and packing supplies kits with everything you need to get you through your fast packing endeavor. Packing supply kits include:
- Different-sized cardboard boxes: Use the larger boxes for lightweight items like pillows and linens while saving the small boxes for heavy items like books.
- Packing tape: using high-grade tape intended for sealing moving boxes ensures your boxes stay sealed during the move.
- Plastic Wrap: Moving supply kits often include a roll of bubble wrap or plastic wrap for protecting delicate items like mirrors and packing paper to stuff inside fragile items like cups and vases for some extra cushion.
- Foam padding: Kits may even include foam padding or “pacing peanuts” to stop items from shaking around inside boxes by filling the extra space. If you’re in a pinch, you can use old newspaper and magazine pages instead.
- Permanent markers and box labels: If your kit doesn’t come with markers and labels, buy some permanent ones and use tape for labeling boxes.
- Scissors and box cutter: The more elaborate moving supply kits may even provide a small pair of craft scissors for cutting tape and a box cutter for unpacking.
4. Hire Same-Day or Next-Day Movers or Rent a Moving Truck
Some companies specialize in offering last-minute moving services, such as same-day or next-day movers. And even if there isn’t a specified last-minute moving company in your neck of the woods, more than a few of the major full-service move companies will send a crew of last-minute movers your way if you can afford the extra fees involved. This is something to carefully consider when moving to San Francisco student apartments, where every dollar of your moving budget counts.
If you decide to hire next-day movers, we still suggest running through the first three steps first. The price of how much movers cost is based on the amount of stuff you’re hiring them to move and how far they have to move it.
If you decide not to hire movers, now’s a good time to book yourself a rental truck. You may have to call around to check availability and compare prices, especially if you’re booking a moving truck last minute.
Set Timers While Packing
Another pro tip for how to pack quickly is to use timers while packing to keep yourself on task. We definitely don’t want to add an extra sense of panic, but some healthy anxiety can be a positive motivator to cruise us through the packing process.
You’ll want the time frame you set as your goal to be realistic to avoid feeling overwhelmed. We suggest breaking your whole packing job down into a step-by-step plan, complete with an estimation of how long each step will take.
So, if you can pack your bathroom up in 45 minutes, set a 45-minute timer and see how close you can get!
6. Pack Items Efficiently
If you need to know how to pack quickly, try building a packing station. Set up a folding table, or just use your dining room table as a staging area. Equip it with scissors, packing tape, bubble wrap, plastic wrap, and all your empty boxes at your packing station.
Pick a room to start with and take everything out of that room that you want to bring with you. Use a laundry basket or large box or crate top to cut down on trips, and bring everything from that room you want to keep over to your packing station.
Pack everything from that single room using the best professional packing practices.
7. Keep Clothing in Drawers or on Hangers
The next step in our guide on how to move out quickly is to skip packing all your clothes, especially the ones already on hangers. Save your boxes for stuffing full with the mad mish-mash of items, and keep your clothes on the hangers.
- For a quick move out, pull your clothes out of your closet, still on the hangers, and lay them on the bed.
- Use a trash bag and organize your clothes into clusters, keeping the delicate items of clothing by themselves in their own trash bag.
- Use suitcases and bag packs to pack shoes and any clothes that were stashed in drawers.
- Quickly pack clothing accessories like belts, hats, and jewelry in shoe boxes separately from the rest of your clothes and keep track of the valuable items.
8. Use a Labeling System For Boxes
If you’re last-minute packing your entire house, it may feel like too much to stop and label every box, but you’ll want a quick move in that’s just as fast as your quick move out. But don’t worry – we’ve got moving shortcuts for your labeling system, too.
Rather than labeling every single box with a marker, get your hands on some color polka dot stickers and write out a cheat sheet. Blue for the kitchen, green for the bedroom, etc. Then, just slap a colored dot on each box, and you’ll know just where to take it as you’re rushing to move into the new spot.
9. Prepare a Separate “First Night Box”
My wife and I just moved in a hurry a month ago, and when I packed my office, I packed essential items like my phone charger, gas cards, and markers and ended up slowing myself down. I can tell you first-hand that if you pack literally everything without separating the essentials ahead of time and packing yourself an overnight box, you’ll regret it.
Your “First Nighter” or “Essentials Box” should contain anything you might need during the drive to the new place and should also include anything you might need as soon as you settle into the new place.
A “First Night Box” can include:
- Phone chargers
- Day planner
- Two sets of clothes
- A jacket
- Medication
- A book
- Bathroom kit
- Pen, notebook, and marker
- Kitchen knife and small cutting board
- Small pot for cooking/boiling water
- Multi-tool
- Flashlight
- Coffee maker
- Sleeping bag and pillow
10. Ask Friends and Family For Help
If you need to know how to move out fast with no money, don’t be afraid to ask your loved ones for help. Friends and family can help with things like assistance with packing and transporting heavy items into that storage unit we talked about earlier. Everyone has some kind of event taking place in their personal lives and might not be able to show up for a last-minute move on demand. But it doesn’t hurt to ask.
The homies might not be able to help with everything. But maybe one friend can take a load of your belongings in the truck on their way to work. Maybe another can give you 30 minutes of packing assistance on their lunch break; any bit of help and moral support counts for something.
We suggest reaching out from a place of gratitude and openness, willing to be vulnerable and ask for help without sounding desperate or stressed out.
11. Have Everything Packed Before Moving Day
Time is of the essence when it comes to executing a last-minute move. We suggest that as soon as you set the moving date in mind–whether it’s based on a deadline or the rental truck or moving company’s availability–you aim to be fully packed by the night before the truck shows up.
Having all your belongings packed the night before avoids any last-minute moving surprises and ensures you have time to organize before the movers show up. If everything is ready for the movers to grab and load onto the truck, it sets you up for a speedy exit.
And if you realize the night before you’re short on packing tape or bubble wrap, you can call the rental or moving company first thing in the morning on a moving day and ask them to send what you need.
12. Stay Sensitive to Children and Pets
If you’re forced to figure out how to move quickly with children and animals, it adds another layer worth talking about. Last-minute moving can put stress on the kiddos and the pets alike, which can leave you feeling overwhelmed.
For pets, we suggest extra treats leading up to the move and even more once you’re settled in. Make some extra time for walks around the new neighborhood to explore the nearby dog parks. Kids might take a bit more work:
- Leave room for their sad feelings, make time to talk about grieving old schools and homes, and make room for new opportunities.
- Give the kids something to look forward to at the new place, like a new set of comic book-inspired linens, or let them pick the color you’ll paint their new room.
- A quick move can be exhausting, but try to save a little bit of time to take the kids to explore the new area as soon as you’re moved in, starting with the closest ice cream shop or children’s museum.
How SpareFoot Can Help You Use a Storage Unit to Move Quickly
No matter how many times you do it, moving is different every time. There are details that vary from situation to situation, making it hard to say exactly how to move quickly.
With this guide, we aim to offer practical tips that apply to most quick move-out scenarios, starting with our most important piece of advice – booking a temporary storage solution.
Maybe you’re moving out quickly with no notice and don’t have a new place picked out yet; maybe you need to move out fast and have a few weeks before the new spot is ready for you to move in.
But even if you have your new place lined up, a storage unit can save you stress and money, and most importantly–a storage unit can help you pack and move quickly.
First, use our handy SpareFoot Storage Unit Locator Tool to find a cheap storage unit near the place you’re moving out of. Our tool searches the cream of the crop in your area and tailors the results based on the detailed search parameters you set.
You can move what you can with your own car into storage the night before moving day to lighten the load and save time and money. And whether you’re renting a moving truck or having a last-minute moving company do the lifting for you, the next step is the same.
On moving day, unload the truck into your new storage unit and return it as soon as possible to save hundreds on hourly labor. Whether you already have a new place lined up or need some time to find it, a storage unit lets you move in box by box at your own leisure.
We know moving is expensive, especially if you’re paying extra to do it all last minute. But we have a special search tool that finds storage deals, like your first month of storage, for free!
Michael Ta’Nous
Michael Ta’Nous is a full-time writer who works and lives with his wife in Taos, New Mexico. “Mikey” spent his early twenties living either out of a van as a touring musician or out of a backpack on motorcycle trips writing from cafes–these rigorous adventure years polished him into a master packer. In addition to managing storage units full of catering supplies and outdoor gear professionally, Michael has used storage units as a band rehearsal space and a motorcycle garage.
