When it comes to moving, there are many factors at play that will determine how long the process will take from start to finish. Depending on the size of your home, the distance of the move, if you’re in a hurry or not, and more, a move can take anywhere from a few days to a few months. If you’re starting to think about moving, we’ll break down every step along the way to give you an idea of what each will entail and offer some insight as to how long the process can take.

Buying and Selling a Home

Working with a real estate agent can make the buying and selling processes easier than if you try to go it alone. These professionals can help you navigate the market, avoid pitfalls, and get your home ready. Though they come with an added cost, movers often feel that the cost is worth it. The buying and selling timelines often overlap, but let’s take a look at each separately.

When it comes time to sell your home, you’ll need a couple of weeks to get it ready and listed. During this time, you’ll deep clean your home, clear out any clutter, and work with an agent to get it listed online and in real estate advertisements. After that, it could take anywhere from a week to a few months to get an offer that is finalized and agreed upon by both parties. Once it’s sold, you can expect close to 10 weeks to close on the sale; during this time, inspections and final financial checks will be conducted, offering a few different obstacles to clear before the sale is final.

The timeline for buying a home can vary largely. If you have a very specific set of needs and a tight budget, it might take some time to find the right fit. Once you have your sights set on a home, applying for a mortgage can take anywhere from two weeks to a month. If the mortgage is approved, you can begin the process of transferring ownership, conducting inspections, and finally, moving in.

Pre-Moving Day Timeline

After you have officially found a new place to move into, and all the contracts are in place, you can begin packing up your home and preparing for the move. This process can be done slowly or quickly, depending on your situation. We recommend taking a week or two to go through all your belongings, donate what you don’t want to bring with you, clear out any trash items, and collect all your moving boxes.

Packing Your Home

To avoid a stressful moving experience, start packing at a steady pace as early as possible. Getting a few boxes packed each night is much easier than trying to pack every box in a few days. Most people suggest allotting about a month of packing time to get all your things into boxes. If you want to avoid packing yourself or if you’re short on time, hiring movers is a great option. A team of movers can pack an entire house in a matter of hours, often taking no more than a day or so to get everything packed into boxes and on the moving truck.

Be sure to plan out your packing approach strategically. If you give yourself one month to pack but decide to tackle the kitchen first, you’ll be out of cooking supplies for that entire month. Instead, start with areas that you don’t use often, such as the garage or playroom. If you’re packing fragile items, be sure to wrap them properly and label your boxes with “fragile” so nothing gets broken during the big move.

Loading the Truck on Moving Day

If you have everything in boxes and ready to be loaded, moving day should be a breeze. Typically, professional movers will take about an hour to load a 10-ft truck, 4 hours to load a 24-ft truck, and 5 hours to load a 26-ft truck. Movers are incredibly efficient and will speed up the moving process for you. If you don’t want to hire movers and would rather work with a few friends to load the moving truck, you can probably expect to double the times above.

Transporting Your Belongings

If you moved to a nearby city, it could take an hour or less to drive the moving truck to your new home. However, if you have a long drive ahead, the trip can take a matter of days. Driving a moving truck cross country is no easy feat, so we recommend having a friend come with you on the trip or hiring a moving company to transport your items.

The awesome part of working with moving companies is that you can explore different packages that fit your needs. If you feel like you can do all the packing and unpacking, but simply want a team of professionals to load the moving truck and drive it to your new home, that’s perfectly acceptable. It’s not “all-or-nothing” when it comes to movers, and they can be incredibly helpful throughout the harder parts of moving.

If you do decide to partner with a moving company to transport your items, be sure to talk to the company about the moving timeline. Sometimes, they could be backed up and quote you a number of weeks to get your belongings to your new home. If the timeline doesn’t fit your needs, don’t be afraid to look at other moving companies or do it yourself.

Timeline of Unpacking

The rule of thumb is to expect unpacking to take about half the amount of time it took to pack all of your belongings. Unpacking is generally quicker than packing because you don’t have to carefully wrap items up or sort through piles of clothes, deciding what to donate. Unloading the truck will take the same amount of time as loading the truck, but actually unpacking the boxes should be quicker.

Many people opt out of using movers for the unpacking stage, simply because they want to decide exactly where everything goes in their new home. Unpacking can be done at a more leisurely pace so you may feel like it’s less important to hire professional help. However, you can rest assured that a team of movers will work quickly and efficiently.

Start to Finish

From the moment you decide to move, you can estimate that it will take upwards of two or more months before you find yourself getting settled in somewhere new. A lot of factors play into the timeline of moving, and some of them are out of your control. No matter how long it takes, you can stay motivated by the thought of being all settled into your new home.