When you pack things, label the box with what is inside (general description) and where it goes in the new house. Load boxes onto truck grouped by where they are going into new house.

Pack the seasonal holiday stuff now. Pack the off season clothes now also if you can.

Label as Amber said.

I don't think it's too early to start.

We color-coded our boxes. Kitchen was red, master bedroom was orange, living room was green, etc., You could even code furniture this way with those low-adhesive indicator flags they sell in office-supply stores. Post a color-coded map at the entrance to the house and anyone bringing something in knows which room it should go to.

Keep a box with cleaning supplies, TP, maybe a cell-phone charger so there's no guesswork about where to find vital items.

Mock-schedule the day. That will help you identify things that need to be addressed. Will the movers need the address of the storage unit? Who will be there with a key to open and close it for them? Are those items color-coded? Who will be at the new house for when the movers arrive? Need to plan ahead to store cold drinks and snacks for movers (round up coolers and ice and the name of a good pizza joint)? Can those assisting you (and potential backups) be lined up early?

Purge...and be ruthless.

What I do is number each box, and put on the box which new room it belongs in. Then on a legal pad, I write the number of the box, and a brief description of what's in the box. Then as the boxes are delivered, I check off on my legal pad the box number against the number on the legal pad. This way I'm sure that if I packed 50 boxes, I'm getting 50 boxes in my new home.

So for example, it will look like this:

1. master bathroom-toiletries, medicine cabinet

2. kitchen-glasses

3. kitchen-large plates

4. den-books

Rent a dumpster for move day. Everything that comes out either goes onto the truck or into the dumpster.

I did the color coding as well. Master was green, master bath was green and red, etc.

I also did one box for each room of essentials, like bedding for he bedrooms and a basic kit for the kitchen. So at least on moving weekend we had a place to sleep, some tp and towels for bathroom and could make coffee and a sandwich.

Since your current home is 744 square feet with no garage, you probably don't have nearly as much purging to do as most people might have!

I tape a lined piece of paper to each box and write down everything that goes in. Not every one needs that level of detail, but if I write something too general or just have color coding, it drives me nuts not knowing exactly what's in the box. I like to unpack very methodically and I've found that this method helps me to find any specific item I might need and unpack in the right order. If the whole box is one general category - e.g. towels or large plates, then that's good enough.

If you're moving yourself or with friends, consider the weight of boxes - books can get very heavy. You don't want to have a beautifully packed box that you can't lift.

I hate moving. Really, really hate moving.

Lots of good advice here. I'll add only one thing: At Staples I saw duct tape that was not only color-coded but also said Kitchen ... Bedroom ... Living Room

Wow! Never thought about renting a dumpster. I probably took about 15 trips (car loads) to the landfill. Luckily, we were about 2 miles away. My white car was coated with mud and stink after those raining days at the landfill. It was worth it to get rid of years of junk.

Lots of useful advice here, the labelling, colour-coding, arranging the van, etc. ARG's list contains some not-so-obvious but really practical tips. If chaos is the main thing you aim to avoid, plan and schedule as if it were a military op... have suitable people assigned to areas/ tasks and so on.
Also, pack an overnight bag for the day.
label boxes on the sides, not tops, so the labels are visible when stacked
use laundry hampers, travel bags, etc as 'boxes' for the move
wrap furniture in plastic wrap for protection
remember to notify relatives, subscriptions, etc of your change in address
take photos of your current house before moving, clean and undamaged.

label boxes on the sides, not tops, so the labels are visible when stacked

Yes, I labeled the tops and at least two sides with the numbers.

If you got 15 trips to the landfill without three flat tires; you've lived your life well. Don't push it. Get a Dumpster.

When I was in school, I came home for the summer and helped my mom and dad move to their retirement home in Colorado. I hated moving then, and I still hate it today. Anyway, I would write on each box what I had put in that box. Towards the end of the packing process, I was labeling boxes with 4 letter words. ____ and then "more ___". That was all funny until their sunday school group in the retirement community helped them move in and one of the nice gentlemen said "Sir, where do you want this box of ___ ? Then, moments later a "Hey Mr, I've got some more ___ here" -- all to the cringes of their wives.

Preparation for moving is a lot like moving itself. It stinks. THe procrastinator in me says wait until the very day and then scramble in a chaotic mad dash for 16 hours trying to stuff your belongings into a van and then dump it out at the other end. Follow this by about 6 weeks of curb filling trash cans and broken furniture on the curb at the new house. I find its also a great way to make nice with the trash man, right off the bat.

On second thought, save your money and pay someone to move you. :) Best of luck.

I really like using the PODS system. No ramp, no pressure, no driving a big truck.

Also, anything valuable (emotionally or monetarily) or extrememly fragile, pack separately and Mark fragile on every side of the box in big letters. Move those yourself or make sure they go with someone you trust. If you use a moving company, put those boxes in your own car, especially for anything that holds a lot of sentiment. Your moving company doesn't care about your great grandmother's tea set and monetary reimbursement doesn't replace that kind of stuff.

A thought:

It's worthwhile to pay someone to move your furniture. I'm thinking of my parents' last move. The moving company broke one piece of beveled glass on the front of their china cabinet -- so the moving company paid to replace that piece of glass. And another thought:

We'll probably move our own "small stuff" -- clothes, kitchen stuff, books. I think it'd make sense to do it in this order:

- The bathrooms should be the very first things you set up. You're probably getting new bath mats, shower curtains and pretty-pretties to set by the sink. Go ahead and get this task out of the way first because 1) you're going to need it soon. 2) this is a small, simple room and will give you an immediate feeling of success and motivation to continue.

- Move closet clothes in the second wave. With nothing in the room, you can spread out boxes as you organize your things in the closet.

- Move kitchen items in the second wave. Kitchen items aren't dependent upon furniture being in place, and you'll have the empty table space for your boxes as you organize.

- Next I'd have the movers bring in furniture. Let them move in stuff without walking around boxes.

- Finally it's time for all your other stuff: Clothing that'll go into drawers, your books,

- Last of all -- after furniture is in place -- decorations: wall art, pictures on shelves, etc.

All of the above and a cooler of beer and some pizzas for after the move!!

Use UNIFORM box sizes ... they stack better.

Box EVERYTHING you can, because that floppy stuff is a mess to deal with.

We went totally OCD and marked out the size of the interior of the rental truck with painter's tape and "loaded" the truck in the garage first, over a period of several days. That led to the realization that one size larger truck would be worth the money.

When the truck loaders got there - two guys and that's all they do is LOAD or UNLOAD your rental truck, and it was the best $100 I've ever spent - they could start at the 'front' and transfer things to the truck and rebuild the structure.

I had already loaded the "attic" over the cab with all the packed-up artwork and fragile things.

We made sure that some things that would be needed soon were loaded last ... the bed frame, for example, had to come out before the mattress to give me time to set it up.

Buy packing tape and dispensers,
rolls of shrink wrap tape, bubble wrap and marking pens at Staples or Office Max.
The shrink wrap tape is great for
binding things together, or wrapping something without tape residue. You can
buy boxes, or get free ones from the liquor or grocery store. Ask friends or
family who work in an office or warehouse for packing materials and copy paper
boxes or mailroom boxes from shipped merchandise. Craigslist often has listings
from people getting rid of their boxes after their move, so look there too. You
will need many boxes. You will not ever have too many boxes. Flattened boxes can be used to protect mirrors
and artwork, big boxes can be used for lightweight items like sheets and
blankets, and I also used my towels, blankets and comforters as packing
material. Depending on what you are packing with them, they won’t necessarily
need to be washed right away at the new house. Books & dishes need smaller boxes
due to their weight. When you’re at the new house unpacking, make sure you have
box cutter knives to open boxes and flatten them for recycling.

My system for moving clothing
has worked well for me through many moves. Put a quilt on your bed and take
hanged items out of your closet, keeping them on the hangers. Place the
clothing on the quilt, with all the hangers at the top, making a stack of the
clothes. When the pile is complete, wrap the quilt around the clothes like a
burrito and with a helper, carry the quilt out of the house like a dead body
and put it into your car (a hatchback works better than trying to get it into the
back seat). At the new house, with your helper, carry the wrapped quilt into
the bedroom, unwrap it and hang the clothes. For folded clothing, just keep
them in the dresser drawers; no need to remove them.

carry the quilt out of the house like a dead body
and put it into your car (a hatchback works better than trying to get it into the
back seat).

Hmmm..... ;-)

I'm moving in about a month, I've been packing for over a month. If you need a dumpster, do that part way before your move! I spent the past 2 years going thru 19 years of stuff.

I'm having professional movers move everything except; dogs, cats, antique clocks, plants from my gardens and special artwork.

I'm at a time in my life where I would never ask friends or families to do physical work to help me move ... I am asking them to have their vehicles available for me to fill with the items I need to move.

I will have boxes wrapped with pink tape that will be last on, first off boxes of essentials for food, clothes, bedding and bathrooms.

Otherwise, I used a different color marker for labeling each box (all 4 sides and the top) for each location.