Do some household tasks now so you won’t inconvenience yourself later. Create a binder that has important documents in sheet protectors. Put all the really important papers like birth certificates in here so they are not buried in boxes. You need to keep this binder safe.

I recommend you have a print copy of many things, since charging your phone may be an issue if you don’t have somewhere to live. You can’t just look it up on Google Docs.

Scan the fronts and backs of the contents of your wallet and print them, and keep in your binder.

Create emergency sheets for each family member (and each fur baby) in case something happens, you will have a recent photo, birthdate, their height and weight, and their insurance info in one place. Print off lists of prescriptions for family members and keep them with the emergency sheets. If you do not already have one, create an ICE (in case of emergency), family binder, or home management binder, now is a good time to start one, even if you just start with these really important documents.

Develop your budget (as best you can) past when you expect to be in your new home, and print it.

Print your passwords, account numbers, and any other information you refer to often or might need.

Create a contacts document of people you will need info for, including utilities, the school, doctor and vet, in case something happens to your phone and you can’t access anything else. My contacts document was printed and lived in my purse. Mine had the following info: Each child’s birthdate (because no I can’t remember them), my license number, car plate number, my contact info including cell, the doctor’s info, the bus my child would be riding and pickup and dropoff times, hours and addresses for several local stores, my child’s work info, hours for accessing our PO Box, the number of a neighbor who would let me use her phone, contact info for the studio where we get guitar lessons. I had the following for both towns: address and phone for school and school bus company, the hours of both the transfer station and swap shop, info for the town offices, and contact info and hours for the library.

If you may be job hunting tidy up your resume (many libraries help with this, even if the building is not open to the public). Get it gussied up and print it out so you can make copies, and add this to a flash drive/memory stick so you can print it from the library.

Next: Organize, Sort, Declutter, and Otherwise Blow Your Stuff Up

Dire Straits Moving – Make a Plan, Stan – Moving Truck Budgetness – Preparation – Computery Preparedness – Binder of Doom – Organize, Sort, Declutter, and Otherwise Blow Your Stuff Up – What Do I Do With All This Junk I Don’t Want? – Needful Things for Packing – Where Do I Get Boxes? – How To Pack – Moving Tips – Moving Day/Stuffing all the Stuff – Moving with Pets (tons of cats for me) – Moving with Kids – How Do I DO Schtuff with No Home? – How Do I Eat with No Home? – Meal Plan for Dire Straits – I Moved and Now I Don’t Have Anywhere to Sit – Need Help?

We hope you enjoyed our Dire Straits Moving: Tips for Relocating in a Not-So-Pretty Situation – Homelessness and Other Hard Times Moves post