Peter and I are so excited to move, we want to do all we can to prepare now. It makes us feel productive and gets us excited!

Buttoned Up Moving.kit is designed to guide you through preparing during the months leading up to your move, as well as moving day and the weeks following.

Unfortunately it’s too early to do a lot of things, but here are some items we have done:

• made a budget for moving
• planned our itinerary for the cross-country drive
• reserved a POD
• sold some furniture we don’t need/want on Craigslist
• informed our landlord we’ll not be renewing our lease
• started packing non-essentials like books
• got our taxes filed early

Things to do (there are many, but these are on my mind):

• hold a yard sale as soon as it warms up
• secure temporary housing (2-3 month furnished rental while we’re in Portland househunting)
• make note of all the magazines, bills, etc that will need change of address notification
• figure out how many boxes we need for everything
• start eating out of the pantry more so we have to move as little non-perishable food as possible
• go get a pre-approval letter from the bank. I think we’re going to get this letter from a local bank just because that’s easier and it will affirm our ballpark house budget. Then soon after we get to Portland we’ll seek a local mortgage lender or broker. Still figuring this one out…

Writing this post reminded me that I purchased a Buttoned Up Moving.kit a few weeks ago that I haven’t cracked. I have heard good things about it so I will hopefully get some use.

And while we twiddle our thumbs in this frustrating stage of “I want to be doing stuff but it’s really too early!” here are things we do to pass the time:

• look at real estate listings! I love Estately and Peter loves Trulia. (Our Portland Map Tool queries both)
• read Portland blogs/events/news
• work on this blog :)
• make plans to see nearby friends/family as frequently as we can