Checklist
Long-distance and cross-country moving checklist
Enter the day your belongings leave. Choose how they travel and how you travel, and the checklist adds the parts a local move never has: a delivery window, an inventory and a bag for the days in between.
Ten to eight weeks out: choose how it travels
Seven to four weeks out: inventory and route
Three weeks to loading day
Travel bag for the days in between
Arrival and delivery
Tips for this list
- Plan for a gap. On a long move your belongings can arrive days after you do, so the travel bag is packed for the wait as well as the journey.
- Numbered boxes beat labelled boxes over distance. A label says what is inside; a number on a list tells you one is missing.
- Carry anything you could not replace: documents, photographs, jewellery, the hard drive. Do not put it in the shipment.
- This checklist does not cover moving to another country. Customs, visas and import rules are official procedures; use the government websites of both countries.
Questions
How far ahead should a long-distance move be booked?
The checklist starts ten weeks before loading day because carriers, containers and one-way trucks have fewer free dates than local movers, especially in summer. Enter your loading day to see the dates.
What is a delivery window?
A range of days in which a long-distance carrier promises to deliver, rather than one fixed day. Ask how wide it is before you book, and arrange somewhere to stay for the whole of it.
How does the checklist count clothes and overnight stops?
From the nights on the way that you enter: one booking per night, and changes of clothes equal to the nights plus two for the wait at the destination. Both are estimates to adjust.
Related lists
8-week moving checklist
The full two-month plan: enter your move date and every task from booking to handing over keys gets its own day.
First-night essentials box
The one or two boxes packed last and opened first, sized for your household and the wait for everything else.
Moving with pets checklist
For a dog, a cat or a small caged animal: before the move, the journey kit and settling in.