Cross-Country Moving Tips

Our family is currently moving from Fort Worth, Texas, to just outside Greenville, South Carolina. 

Soon after we decided to put our Texas house on the market, the process went very quickly (just over two weeks between the offer and closing). We were incredibly thankful for this—especially in the current housing market—but we had to work fast. This also meant that we had 24 days between the time we needed to be out of our Texas house until we could move into our South Carolina house. We had to get creative about how we would spend that time! We decided to see it as an adventure and spend time at the beach, in the mountains, and with both of our families in Tennessee and North Carolina.

I want to share a few things I am learning along the way that will hopefully help you if you find yourself in a similar situation!

1. Declutter. As soon as you decide you're going to move, start decluttering. For us, that meant selling things on Facebook Marketplace, donating extra books, toys, and clothes to our local thrift store, and tossing old rugs and items that we knew we wouldn't want to bring with us. We had already seen and purchased our home in South Carolina, making it easier to decide which furniture items to keep and which to sell or toss. But whether you've seen your future home or not, be ruthless about what stays and what goes. It is always easier to move with less. Tip:  If you aren't sure about keeping or tossing something, ask yourself, "Does it take less than 15 minutes or less than $15 to replace?" If the answer is yes, toss or donate that item.
2. Pack up! Even before we put our house on the market, we began packing children's books, decor items, and picture frames that we knew we would take. This helped to prepare our home for potential buyers to see it, but it also gave us a significant head start on packing! We find all our best boxes for free at liquor stores. Just walk in and ask if they have boxes you could have, and they're always happy to get rid of them. The boxes are small and sturdy—perfect for books and heavier items. Other moving supplies we used: moving blankets (at least one per furniture item in your home), plastic moving wrap in mulitple sizes to keep the moving blankets in place and also to wrap drawers and baskets with items inside, larger boxes, tape, a large Sharpie, these stickers for labeling and color-coding rooms, fragile stickers, stretchy honeycomb packing paper for fragile items, bubble wrap in multiple sizes, cardboard corners for protecting picture frames and art, and these moving ropes to tie down and secure items in the moving truck or container. 
3. Find a moving company. Because our stuff needed to be stored for 24 days and we didn't want to load and unload it into a storage unit, our options were limited. The best moving service I found (for the best price by far) was 1-800-Pack-Rat. We paid just under $5,000 for two 16-foot shipping containers, nearly 30 days of storage in an air-conditioned, secure facility, and shipping to South Carolina. They will deliver the pods to our new house on the day we close. We purchased padlocks from them to keep the pods locked the whole time. I also liked that these pods have hooks every two feet where you can use ropes to secure the boxes. Also, when I called to book our pods, I asked if there were any coupon codes or specials available, and they immediately gave me $800 off! Note: When 1-800-Pack-Rat asked me how many bedrooms we were packing up, I told them we had five lightly furnished bedrooms (which was true because we sold so many things!). They recommended two 16-foot containers, which I reserved. I did not realize they recommend a 16-foot pod for two bedrooms, so we needed more space for our five bedrooms and business inventory. Because of this, my husband had to stay in town for an extra day to figure out what to do with the rest of our stuff. The best option we found was a U-Haul Box that will be stored at U-Haul until we call and ask them to ship it to South Carolina when we're ready for it. This was pricey and not ideal, but we were thankful to save ourselves a trip back to Texas to retrieve these extra items! Tip: Add an AirTag to the inside of each pod so you can track where they are during your move! 
4. If you need car transport, schedule that. We drove both of our cars across the country this time. But when we moved from North Carolina to Texas, we had one car transported. We used UPack Auto Shipping for this, which cost approximately $3,000.
5. Hire local movers to load in and out, if possible. When we moved from North Carolina to Texas a few years ago, we loaded the truck ourselves (along with the help of some friends) and, frankly, did not know what we were doing. Because of this, our boxes and furniture shifted around quite a bit, and several things got damaged. This time, we used Hire-a-Helper to hire local movers to load the pods in our driveway. They did an incredible job! It's like a giant game of Tetris. We needed to provide one furniture pad per piece of furniture, but they helped us wrap and pack the pods tight to minimize shifting. Tip: I found that hiring local movers to load and unload—we had four movers for two hours to load the pods and will have the same when we unload—was much more cost effective than using a full moving service that includes movers. 
6. Hire a move-out cleaner. If it's within your budget, hire a professional cleaner for a move-out clean. The cost will vary, but ours cost just under $300 for a thorough cleaning (inside cabinets and drawers) before our buyers moved in. For us, it was worth every penny!
7. Pray for your heart to stay soft throughout the process. Take time to grieve the loss of your community. Praise God for what He has done in this season of your family's life. For the last couple of weeks, I've asked my kids, "Are you feeling more happy or sad today?" Their answers vary, but I've found it important to check in regularly on the state of their hearts. Sometimes, we need to be sad and cry, and then I remind them that God's plan for us is good and He has a beautiful community in store for us in our new home. Take time to grieve for yourself and journal all the ways you've seen God's hand at work. It has helped immensely for our kids to see our new house in person and visualize their new life there. But that's not always possible. If it's not, do a little research and list some fun things you'll do in your new town. Show them pictures of your new library, park, or playground. Make a list of things you want to explore once you land. This helps build anticipation and excitement instead of dwelling on what they have to leave behind. 

Finally, a few additional questions: 

• How far in advance did you tell friends you were moving? We didn't tell most of our friends about our move until we were sure it was happening (to minimize the emotional back-and-forth). Because our move happened so quickly, we could hardly say goodbye to everyone, let alone spend much time with them. 
• How do you help kids through loss of friends? This is always tough and has been especially hard on one of my kids. Each of our kids has an address book and a little stationery set that they use for "Mail Mondays" in our homeschool. So, every Monday, they will write a letter to a friend in Texas. While it's not the same as in-person relationships, it will be a sweet way to stay connected. It also helps that some of our friends are planning trips to visit us in our new home in a few months, so we have that to look forward to! I remind my kids that certain friends are forever friends who are more like family. We have carried friendships from every place we've ever lived that last despite the distance.
• How do you find a church? If you're starting from scratch, here are three great places to start looking: The Gospel Coalition Church Directory, The Pillar Network, and the Acts 29 Network. If you find one that looks to be a fit, listen to a sermon or two.