Another season of moving is upon us, and this time, you’d rather do it yourself, save yourself the hassle of working with a moving company, and pocket the extra cash when you’re done.

I’ve moved 15 times in 30 years, the majority of the time without professional movers. If you’re opting to pack yourself, here are my best tips to help you get it done cheap and fast.

Tip 1: Purge First, Pack Second.

Before you pack a single thing, do a quick and simple decluttering purge, room by room. Take two trash bags into each room. Anything that’s trash goes in one bag. Anything that can be donated goes in the other. 

This doesn’t need to take a long time. Grab the obvious stuff within plain sight and worry about if it sparks joy or not later.

Don’t move things you don’t need. I once had movers pack a bathroom trash can with the trash still in it! What a horrifying sight and smell that was when we unpacked it 3 weeks later! Moving yourself isn’t always a bad thing.

Tip 2: Leave your clothes on their hangers. 

Don’t waste precious time taking clothes and coats off of hangers, folding them, and/or trying to fit them into suitcases or dressers for the trip. 

Use garbage bags to protect them from getting dirty but with the hanger sticking out the top where you tie the bag. For adult clothes you can easily get 10+ hangers to a bag (more if you use lawn and leaf bags). 

Garbage bags are cheaper and more flexible than boxes. You’ll be able to pack those clothes into the spaces around other inflexible objects.

So long as you tie the top tightly closed around the hangers, you won’t lose the hooks into the bag. You’ll be able to grab the bag straight from the moving truck and hang it up in the closet right away, out of the way, so it’s not getting trampled on as you move other furniture into the house.

Tip 3: Label everything with painter’s tape and a marker.

Painter’s tape won’t damage boxes and other containers used to pack up your stuff like masking or packing tape might. Get the bright green kind so you can quickly and easily find the label when you arrive at your new home. 

Writing with permanent marker directly on a box won’t always cut it, and you don’t want to unzip every bag just to figure out what’s inside. Knowing without having to open the box will save you lots of time when you first arrive. 

Your clothes, cleaning supplies, and kitchen utensils will all come in handy immediately when you arrive. Your books, sporting equipment, and that mystery box that just keeps getting moved without being unpacked can all wait until after you’ve fended off the hangry toddler meltdown.

Tip 4: Use colorful dollar store stickers to color code by room.

Avoid the back-breaking work of moving all your boxes twice (once just to get it in the new house, and again when you move it to the room it actually belongs in). 

Grab a few packs of colorful dot stickers from the dollar store. You know the ones: simple circular stickers, often used at garage sales or craft fairs to denote different price points. 

Label boxes as you pack them, but then add a colorful sticker next to the label. This will save both time and your back. 

Don’t waste time reading what’s in each box (that’ll be important later). Instead, all pink boxes go to Susie’s room, and all green boxes go to your room. It’s an easy and simple system to follow, especially if you have kids or others that don’t know you helping you unload.

Tip 5: Take pictures of your tech setup before you take it apart.

You may not be the techy one in your relationship, but you don’t have to wait for them to be available to get the gear packed or setup in your new place. If you’re short on time and need to get packed fast, take a few pictures of how all the cords connect before you touch anything.

Then, as you disconnect cords and wires, put them all in the same plastic bag according to which item you disconnected them from. All the TV cords go in one bag. All your computer cords go in a different bag.

Once you’re ready to reassemble in your new house, pull up your picture for reference. It’ll drastically reduce the confusion of which cord goes where, and get you back to normal in no time!