Never look through 17 boxes to find a spatula again!
Packing for a move is not the worst… not being able to find anything when you get there is THE ABSOLUTE WORST. Between my husband and I, we have move four times in the last two years. Trust me when I say that PCS box organization is key. Military life can be exhausting and moving has its ups and downs – but I can not stand getting somewhere and just wanting to write something down and where’s the pens? Have you seen my belt? I can’t find a plate. Oh the sheets, we need sheets, where did we put the sheets?
If you’ve ever found yourself standing among a sea of boxes in a new house feeling completely overwhelmed and questioning your life decisions then this post is for you! Nowadays I guess they call a military move that you do yourself a PTDY. I’m just going to refer to it as a PCS. For those of you that are PCSing and packing your own boxes, this system could work for you as well. I have never let the Army move any of my stuff (waaaayyyy to anal for that over here) so I have no idea what the deal is with that packing scheme.
How I came about this crazy system
This “move” for us is more like a 6 month hiatus where I live out of a suitcase/my car and try to not lose my mind. My husband got deployed in June so we gave up our apartment and I packed most of our stuff up into a storage unit at Fort Bragg. Then I moved myself, my closet, and my home office to my parents house in Michigan. I have been living here since June. My husband got accepted into a program that he then got sent home from deployment for… and that program involves a move to Texas. So now he is living at a friends house in Fort Bragg, I’m living with my parents in Michigan, and in a couple weeks we will be moving to Texas. Phew. If reading that was exhausting – try living it. LOL
Anywayyyy with stuff spread all over the country, I HAD to be organized y’all. So I implemented this super totally awesome very organized PCS Inventory System. Before you ask, yes, I am a nerd and a neat freak. So here’s what I did:
Step 1 – Get PCS Boxes
Aquire the boxes that you want to move with. I used mostly plastic tote bins because I know we will be moving a lot over the next however many years my hubs is in the Army.
If you are looking for tote bins and don’t care if they match, check out places like Facebook marketplace, Offer Up, and Craigslist. If you’re looking to buy new so they match (see the right side of pic below) I found mine at Sams Club/Costco and Walmart.
You can also consider using different colored boxes for different types of items. For example: in the picture below you can see the big green box (for Christmas decorations) and the big blue box (for other decorations). Whereas the black and yellow boxes are non-decoration items like kitchen stuff.
A Cheaper Option
If you don’t want to spend the money investing in plastic tote bins, you can always use cardboard boxes! I know that U-haul will buy them back if you don’t end up using them all. This time around we had some stuff that didn’t fit in plastic bins so we grabbed some cardboard boxes from Walmart. 10/10 DO NOT RECOMMEND BOXES FROM WALMART. They are horrible and some broke on the way to the storage unit *face palm*.
The budget option
Some grocery stores or clothing stores (think Kohls) will give away the boxes that they get products shipped in for free. You will probably have to rebuild them but if you are trying to budget the move calling around to some stores may be worth your time!
Step 2 – Download PCS Organization Sheet
When I first started my PCS organizational journey I made a fancy spreadsheet. Look here:
Looking back on it… this spreadsheet isn’t fancy at all. So I revamped it this morning so y’all can have a pretty version! Fill out the form at the end of this post to download the pdf of my box inventory – its a fillable pdf so you can type it (recommended) or you could print it off if you are a handwriting kind of person.
↓↓↓↓ Super Cute PCS Organization Table ↓↓↓↓
Step 3 – Label Your Boxes
As you begin to pack, label your boxes (or you can do it ahead of time if you’re a go getter). I just used a metallic sharpie to write numbers on mine. I highly suggest writing the number in bold lettering on all four side of the box and the lid! Sometimes if a box is in one direction you can’t read the number, this way you can tell what box you are looking at from any angle.
Step 4 – Fill out the PCS Organization Inventory
If you just skimmed through the rest of this post you should actually read this part! Seriously, if you only listen to one thing I tell you, listen to this – fill out the inventory sheet correctly.
- When you fill a box, number it with the next unused number (or just find the number from the sheet if you pre-labeled your boxes).
- Then record where the stuff in the box came from.
- For example, if you filled the box with sporting goods that you had stored in the guest bedroom closet, write “guest bedroom closet” in the “Room From” section. The “Room To” section will most likely be left empty at the point.
- Write down what you put in the box – try to be as specific as possible here.
- I wanted my French press out of the storage unit when I went down to visit my husband last month. Since I packed these boxes in May, I had no idea what box it was in. So I went into my document and searched “French press” – it was in box 24 – easy as pie!
Step 5 – Use your inventory to help you move in
When you know where you are going and what the layout looks like, you can begin to fill out your “Room To” column. Some of them will be easy, what came out of your kitchen is likely going back into your kitchen. Others will be more difficult, where do the games that were in that one storage closet go now that we don’t have a similar storage closet?
Prepare for move-in Day
The biggest reason I started this organization system is because move-in day was a nightmare for me when we got to Fort Bragg. There were like 15 guys hauling in boxes and everyone kept asking “where does this go?” Well, I didn’t know what was in it so I didn’t know where it went and I spent the next two weeks hauling kitchen boxes from the bedroom to try to find my plates ugh.
Prep for move-in by getting yourself some blank pieces of paper, tape, and a big marker. Use your inventory list to write the box numbers that belong in each room. For example, say that boxes 20-25, 27, and 31 go into your new bedroom: grab a piece of paper and write those numbers on the paper, then tape the paper NEXT TO the bedroom door (not on the door because the door will be open).
On move-in Day
Determine someone to be in charge of directing traffic. This is a great job to give to moms, dads, and youngsters that want to help but shouldn’t be lifting heavy boxes – and if you have none of the above woooo hoooo you get to do it!
Station your traffic director outside of the house/apartment with your handy inventory sheet open. When someone walks by with a box, they look where that numbered box goes and tell that person. Ideally it goes like this:
Mover: “Box 27”
Traffic Director: “Master Bedroom”
Next Mover: “Box 11”
Traffic Director: “Kitchen”
*applause from the organizational Gods and your new neighbors that are in awe of your amazingness*
Lets recap
Get your boxes, label them with numbers, record what you put in what box, decide where each box is going in the new place, hang signs on each room, and direct traffic as they are hauling boxes in!
The signs on each room might seem redundant but it is a helpful reference for anyone that might forget or happens to sneak past the traffic director.
Remember to explain your system to the people helping you! Things will go much more smoothly if everyone is on the same page.