How long before moving day should you start packing?

How far ahead to start packing, by home size

Most households packing a full house themselves should start four to six weeks before moving day, beginning with rooms and storage they rarely use. Smaller homes need less lead time, and hiring packers shrinks the window to a week or two of sorting. The table below is our planning guidance, built from the packing-pace math in the next section.

Whatever the size, the mover comes before the boxes. The Illinois Commerce Commission’s 2026 moving-season tips tell Illinois residents to start their mover search at least six weeks ahead, and Wheaton World Wide Moving’s moving FAQ says the ideal time to get estimates is four to eight weeks before the move date. For moves out of state, Amenity Moving & Storage advises planning 8 to 12 weeks ahead.

How long does it take to pack a house?

Packing a house takes roughly one professional packer-hour per 100 square feet, so a 2,000-square-foot home is about 20 packer-hours of work before you count garages and collections. That pace comes from a national cost guide from HomeAdvisor, which says a single packer can typically pack 100 square feet of home in one hour and that most jobs need at least two packers.

Homeowners pack more slowly than professionals. They stop to sort, hunt for tape and decide what to keep. If you assume you’ll work at half a professional’s pace, the hours double, which is the gap the table shows.

Spread 40 hours of packing over evenings and weekends and you can see why four to six weeks is realistic for a family house. Two hours on each weeknight plus six hours on each weekend day comes to about 22 hours a week, so a 2,000-square-foot home takes roughly two full weeks of steady effort, and real life rarely runs that steadily.

How long does it take movers to pack a 3-bedroom house?

A professional crew usually packs a three-bedroom house in about one working day, and a fuller or larger home can take longer. Using the same rule of thumb, a 1,600- to 2,000-square-foot house is 16 to 20 packer-hours, which is a full day for two packers or a shorter one for three.

Three- and four-bedroom houses are the norm in Yorkville. According to the Census Bureau’s 2020–2024 American Community Survey, 33.6% of the city’s homes have three bedrooms, another 39.4% have four or more, and the median home has 6.8 rooms. Bedrooms are rarely what lengthens the day, though. These are the things that do:

• A kitchen with years of serving pieces, small appliances and glassware
• A finished lower level or storage room full of bins and holiday decorations
• A garage with tools, sports gear and shelving, plus chemicals that must be pulled out first
• Collections, books, crafts or a home office with files
• Fragile pieces that need specialty cartons or a custom crate

Amenity’s packers are specialists separate from the moving crew, and the estimator sets the crew size so the packing fits the schedule. Ask at the estimate whether packing will happen the day before loading or the same morning. The full-service packing page explains how a crew works through a house.

A week-by-week packing timeline

A good packing timeline works backward from moving day, starting with the mover and ending with the kitchen. This version assumes a family house packed mostly by the household.

1. 8 to 12 weeks out (long distance)Line up estimates for an out-of-state move; Amenity advises planning 8 to 12 weeks ahead for long-distance moves.
2. 6 weeks outStart your mover search and book the in-home estimate. Show the estimator every room, closet and the garage before you box anything.
3. 5 weeks outDeclutter. Sell, donate or schedule curbside pickup for what you won’t move, and pull paint and chemicals from storage.
4. 4 weeks outPack what you rarely use: storage-room bins, seasonal decorations, books, guest-room closets and spare linens.
5. 3 weeks outPack décor, framed photos and hobby supplies, and box the garage once hazardous items are out.
6. 2 weeks outPack most closets and dressers you can spare. Confirm packing help now if you need it; Wheaton recommends booking packing services at least two weeks before the move.
7. 1 week outPack the kitchen except a small daily kit, and assemble an essentials box and a bag of documents, medicines and valuables.
8. 2 to 3 days outFinish laundry, empty and defrost the refrigerator, and set a do-not-pack zone for what rides with you.
9. Moving dayStrip beds, pack the daily kit and walk the house with the crew lead before loading starts.

Our 8-week Yorkville moving checklist adds the non-packing tasks, such as utilities and school records, to the same calendar.

What to pack first and what to pack last

Pack first whatever you won’t touch before the move, and pack last whatever you use every day. Getting that order right is what lets you start a month early without living out of boxes.

Pack first

• Out-of-season clothes, coats and boots
• Holiday decorations and storage-room bins
• Books, framed photos and wall décor
• Guest-room linens and spare bedding
• Hobby, craft and sports equipment you are not using this month
• Fine china, serving pieces and small appliances you rarely use

Pack last

• Daily dishes, a pan, coffee maker and the trash can
• Toiletries, medications and phone chargers
• Bedding from the beds you are still sleeping in
• Work and school items for the final week
• Cleaning supplies for the final walk-through (these ride with you, not on the truck)

Some things never go in a moving box at all. Paint, propane, fuel and many cleaners can’t ride on the truck; our guide to what movers won’t move or pack lists them.

Yorkville pickup and disposal dates to plan around

Curbside rules shape a Yorkville packing calendar because you can only set out so much each week. The city’s refuse contractor, Groot, collects one large household item under 50 pounds per week without a sticker on your regular pickup day, and extra bags or containers outside the cart need a prepaid sticker, according to the city’s refuse collection page. Purging over five weeks instead of one gets far more out of the house.

Chemicals need their own trip. Yorkville’s hazardous waste page points residents to the long-term household hazardous waste facility in Naperville, open 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays except holidays, so schedule a weekend morning three to five weeks out to clear paint, solvents and pool chemicals before you box the garage.

Season matters too. Amenity lays floor runners on winter moves and can change dates when weather turns, subject to availability, but snow still eats into weekend packing time. Our guide to timing a move in Yorkville covers the calendar.

Packing yourself vs hiring packers: how the timeline changes

Hiring packers turns a month of evenings into a week of sorting, while packing yourself trades money for time and some risk. The table compares the three ways to pack.

The liability row matters. The ICC’s consumer guide warns that a mover may not be liable for the contents of cartons you packed unless the carton itself is visibly damaged. Many households split the difference with partial packing: they box clothes and books and leave breakables to the packers.

Signs you started too late, and what to do

You are behind if the kitchen, the garage and the storage spaces are all still untouched a week before loading. At that point, the fix is to change the plan rather than stay up all night.

• Fewer than half the rooms are boxed with one week to go.
• The garage still holds paint, fuel or chemicals that need a disposal trip.
• You have not yet decided what to sell, donate or throw away.
• Your closing or lease dates just moved and the new home is not ready.

Amenity offers last-minute packing help when time slips, subject to crew availability, so call as soon as you see the gap. If the new house isn’t ready, short-term storage in Amenity’s Plainfield warehouse can hold your goods from one day up to several years. Families moving between towns such as Oswego and Yorkville often use a few weeks of storage to bridge a closing gap. For an overview of every option, see packing services, and for help shrinking the pile, read what to get rid of before you move.

Keep reading

• What Movers Won't Move or Pack
• Moving Company Red Flags (and How to Check a License)
• Hiring Movers vs. Renting a Truck
• The Best (and Worst) Time to Move in Yorkville

Browse the full moving guide library or see every moving service.

Last reviewed November 11, 2026 by the Yorkville Movers team against Amenity Moving & Storage’s published service details and the public sources listed above.