Apartment Essentials: Moving Out for the First Time Checklist + Download!

Moving out of your parent’s house is such an exciting time! You’ll finally be on your own and have more freedom. But, it can also be stressful because there are a lot of things to remember as well. I recommend having a “Moving out for the first time checklist” on hand to make moving day SO. MUCH. SMOOTHER!

Having a moving checklist will help you save time the first night in your new place because you won’t be going to the store to buy the toilet paper you forgot or rushing back to your parent’s house because you forgot to pack your toothbrush.

This is a list of things you need to make sure you have on hand in your new apartment, and if you want to be able to print the list out, check out the handy moving-out checklist PDF I have down below!

APARTMENT PACKING & MOVING TIPS

Before we get into the bulk of the first-time moving checklist, let’s go over a few apartment packing tips! These will also help your moving process go a lot smoother and hopefully help you avoid some headaches!

• Downsize anything you don’t need

To make the moving and packing process easier, downsize or get rid of anything you know you won’t need or use. And preferably do this before moving day! You don’t want to move a bunch of things into your new apartment, only to find you never needed them in the first place.

It’s a waste of space in the boxes you have, and just means you’re moving more things than you need to. This can be clothes, extra furniture you bought and don’t need or anything else.

READ MORE: 11 Ways To Start Decluttering When You’re Overwhelmed

• Buy extra bubble wrap & boxes

These are just helpful things to have around when you are moving into an apartment, and you don’t want to run out of them! Even if you end up with too many, these are things you can easily store away in a closet for when you move again, or can just throw away because they aren’t very expensive to begin with.

It’s important to have enough bubble wrap to make sure all of your dishes, glassware, and other precious glass items don’t get broken in the move. You can buy bubble wrap in bulk on Amazon for pretty cheap!

• Label your boxes

This is another great moving tip- make sure you label your boxes! This will make unpacking easier because you’ll know what’s in each box. You can save unpacking the unimportant boxes for later and you’ll be able to easily organize by putting each box into the room it needs to be in.

FIRST THINGS TO BUY WHEN MOVING INTO A NEW APARTMENT

When you’re moving out for the first time, you need to make sure you have all your cleaning supplies and a first aid kit as well! These things can be easily forgotten about because your mom always seemed to have them and you don’t use them very often.

But you don’t want to be opening a box on moving day, cut your finger, and realize you have no band-aids on hand! You may also need to clean a few things as you’re unpacking it all or find something in the apartment to clean. So it’s best to have all these things on hand to start.

-CLEANING SUPPLIES CHECKLIST

• Toilet paper
• Toilet bowl cleaner/ Toilet cleaning brush
• Plunger
• Window/glass cleaner
• Mop & bucket (I recommend getting a Swiffer Wet Jet instead, but a mop bucket comes in handy too!)
• Broom
• Trashbags
• Old rags to clean/sponges
• Duster
• Vacuum
• Soap (Dish soap, hand soap, dishwasher soap)
• Detergent/dryer sheets
• Carpet cleaner
• Rubber gloves
• Kleenex/tissues

-FIRST AID KIT CHECKLIST

• Neosporin
• Band-aids/gauze
• Advil/some kind of pain meds
• Hydrogen peroxide
• Burn cream

You obviously won’t need every single thing on this list the day you move in, but they’re all still good to think about buying in the future!

MOVING OUT FOR THE FIRST TIME CHECKLIST

Now let’s get on to the bigger part of the checklist! One thing you might notice, if you don’t mind buying things online, is that Amazon is going to be your best friend and you may find yourself browsing online for a few hours looking at all the nice things you can buy!

So that’s why I’ve linked a bunch of great products that I’ve bought from Amazon, or similar items, that you can check out!

-LIVING ROOM MOVING CHECKLIST

If this is your first time moving out of your parent’s house, you’re going to need to buy some furniture. We (My husband and I) wanted to save money on as much as we could, so we went to a lot of second-hand stores or Estate sales to furnish as much of our apartment as we could.

When you just start out, you really can’t expect to have the best stuff. It’s better to save money now and upgrade later as you go.

• Couch/chairs
• TV & T.V Stand
• Video game systems
• Foldable T.V trays
• Side tables
• Ottoman/Coffee table
• Lamps
• Rugs
• Any decor/pictures
• Rugs
• Pillows
• Curtains

You obviously don’t need to have all of these things in your new home, but some of them are a must! The furniture and T.V are likely to be the most expensive parts of the room.

We bought the T.V used (Estate sale) and found a “floor sale” couch from cheap as well. “Floor sale” meaning we bought the exact couch they had out for display.

I don’t really recommend going that route, but it is an option if you can find it! If you can, I recommend getting a nice couch/recliner set that you’ll use for a while. If you think about how often you’ll be sitting on it and using it, it’s better for you in the long run if you just get a good set to start out with!

We learned that the hard way, and this was one of the purchases I’d wish we spent a little more on in the beginning!

You also don’t have to pay cash for your furniture either, if you happen to have a good credit score, you can go to a furniture place and apply for a credit card there. Buy what furniture you’d like, and put it on the credit card.

A lot of places will have deals that give you a percent of your purchase off if you get a card with them, and always try to go with an “Interest-free for X amount of months”. This way you’ll usually have 12-24 months to pay off the purchase without having it pay interest on the purchase.

We bought your second couch, and our current bed this way and we were able to pay them both off before any interest accrued on them! It boosted our credit score, and we got nice furniture too!

-KITCHEN/DINING ROOM MOVING CHECKLIST

Packing everything for the kitchen is going to be one of the harder rooms because you need a lot of items to cook! Not to mention food and everything else that goes with the kitchen.

And chances are when you’re moving out for the first time into a small apartment, your kitchen is going to be combined with your dining room. So, we’re going to lump the two together.

Here’s what you’ll need on your checklist:

• Dining table/chairs
• Placemats
• Tablecloth
• Pots & pans set (This is a similar set to what I have. I’ve been using it for years now!)
• Glasses
• Silverware
• Cups/bowls
• Silicone Cooking Kitchen Utensils Set
• Ziplock/Freezer bags
• Baking sheets
• Trash can/Bags

-BATHROOM CHECKLIST

The bathroom will be one of the easier rooms in the house because it’ll also be the smallest. Well, I guess that really depends on how many fancy shower soaps and hair care products you have!

(Psst… if you do have a lot of those, I recommend buying bins like these to keep everything organized! I bought a set for my bathroom and I love them!)

• Hair care products
• Hair dyer
• Towels/washcloths
• Bathmat
• Shower curtain/liner
• Shower caddy
• Toothbrush/toothpaste/ floss
• Shaver
• Non-slip resistant shower mat
• Body washes/Soaps
• Makeup
• Small storage cabinet (I have one of these in my bathroom. It’s small, but works great for holding everything I need!
• Bathroom spray
• Other personal items

-BEDROOM CHECKLIST

Now let’s move on to the bedroom. There is going to be a lot of furniture in this room as well!

• Bed frame/Box spring/Mattress
• Pillows/Pillowcases
• Blankets/Fitted sheets/Comforter
• Dressers
• Clothes
• Shelves/Storage (I just bought two same-size shelves like these from Menards. This size holds two plastic container bins side by side and will hold a clothes basket as well! Works great in my kitchen and bedroom)
• Nightstands
• Lamps
• Books
• Clothes baskets (I have something similar to these in blue!)
• Hangers
• Other personal items

–MISALANIOUS ITEMS

• Scissors
• Chip clips/bread ties
• Pens, pencils, permanent markers
• Pencil sharpener
• Notebooks
• Fire-safe lockbox/Container to hold important documents
• Fridge magnets
• Command hooks for picture frames (These are great for apartments because you can hang things up and not damage the walls!)
• Holiday decor
• Storage bins
• Shoe rack
• Extension cords/Power strip

There is a lot that needs to go on your moving out for the first time checklist, and there are definitely some things I didn’t add to here!

But, if you download the PDF moving out checklist I mentioned above, I’ve given you a blank section where you can add in all of your other personal items not included in the list to make sure you don’t forget anything when you move out for the first time!