Our medical school journey has come to an end, yay! I am so proud of my husband for this amazing accomplishment and I’m excited for our next adventure… Residency! Wish us luck! This new adventure will be relocating us from South Carolina to Florida! We can’t wait to see what the sunshine state has in store for us for the next four years!

We are so proud and excited for new changes however, as many of my fellow Dr. wives can agree, we do not look forward to moving! Most of the move falls on our plate as well as all of the stress! This move has taught me a lot along the way which I have translated to some pretty awesome moving tips to share with you.

Moving Tip 1: Start packing the moment you find out you are moving! Seriously, the day after Match Day I started packing up closets and holiday decorations. Pack all non essential items. This with help you immensely when it’s go time!

Moving Tip 2: Use colored duct tape to organize your moving system. I know this may sound crazy or like too much work but trust me, it will help you when you are unpacking a sea of boxes trying to find essential items. I used three different colors: pink, green and blue.  I placed just a small 2×2 piece of duct tape in each corner of each box. The pink was for boxes that needed to be opened immediately. Things like medicine, sheets and food. The green was for boxes that needed to be opened semi urgently. Things like toys, lamps, pots and pans. Lastly the blue was for non urgent things. These boxes are still in our garage! Haha, I have all summer to organize those boxes. They contain things like holiday decorations, coats and winter clothes (we won’t need those in the summer heat of Florida!). For fragile items I recommend putting a larger piece of duct tape across the top of the box to help remind the movers to be careful with it. When that doesn’t work… I just write death threats on those boxes, just kidding (I’m really not!).

Moving Tip 3: Mark each box with the name of the room that it will be unpacked in your new house. Our last move we did the opposite and wrote the name of the room it was packed in and it caused so much confusion since our house had doubled in size.

Moving Tip 4: Wash essential items ahead of time and place them in bags instead of boxes. A few days prior to our move I washed all the new sheets for our beds and placed them in non-scented trash bags and plastic airtight bins. You can also toss in a dryer sheet to keep them smelling extra fresh! These were the first bins to be unloaded and once beds were built at the new house fresh linens went on them! Also, you can do the same with silverwear. Wash and dry ahead of time then place them in ziplock bags before placing into boxes. Use all non-essential linens such as moving blankets to wrap fragile items in. We used old towels, sheets, blankets & pillows instead of buying bubble wrap.

Moving Tip 5: Find your moving tribe! A few posts back I wrote about how important it is in Medical School to find your tribe (your support team). Now is the time to call upon that tribe and beg them to help you pack, move and unpack! Feel free to pay them how you please. In our case, it was lots of pizza and beer!

Moving Tip 6: Create a budget.. then double it!  Moving is so expensive and it’s better to be over-prepared than under… like us! This past move killed our budget, because we ended up having to rent two moving trucks for all our stuff. I don’t know why we do this to ourselves but moving always starts off with a good budget them explodes in your face on moving day! The upside is if you end up under budget then you will now have a nice nest egg to buy some new things for your new house. Which brings me to my final tip…

Moving Tip 7: Expect the unexpected! Moving is so stressful. Every time we have moved something has gone wrong. The upside is we will be extra cautious with future moves. In the mean time, take a deep breath and just live day by day. I promise everything will eventually get unpacked and all will be well again.

When all else fails, there is always next time. Of course, we will be hiring a full service to move for us while my family and I will take a long vacation to Hawaii!

Happy Movin’