Packing a whole home for an interstate move in under a week is doable. Our crews do it for Denver families every summer, and the method is the same whether you pack yourself or hand us the kitchen. Work in a fixed order, buy more boxes than you think you need, and keep the truck’s rules in mind, because a long-distance load is packed differently from a move across town.
Here is the plan we give customers who call with seven days to go.
Why long-distance packing is different
On a local move your boxes ride for an hour. On a move from Denver to Phoenix or Chicago they ride for days, get loaded and unloaded at least twice, and share a trailer with pallets and blankets and other people’s furniture. Three things follow from that.
- Every box gets weight on top of it. Boxes must be full, taped on all seams, and rated for stacking. Half-empty boxes crush.
- Loose items do not travel. Anything not in a box or blanket-wrapped is a liability. Lamps, plants, bags of clothes and open bins stay behind or get boxed.
- Weight is money. Interstate moves are priced on weight or cubic feet, so packing the garage you never open costs real dollars. Purge first.
The seven-day packing timeline
| Day | What gets done |
|---|---|
| Day 7 | Walk every room with a notepad. Decide what sells, donates or goes to the dump. Book the donation pickup now. Order or collect supplies (see the box math below). Confirm your mover’s packing scope so you know what they handle. |
| Day 6 | Pack the rooms you can live without: garage, basement, guest room, storage closets, books, off-season clothes, decor. |
| Day 5 | Kitchen, part one. Everything that is not used daily: serving dishes, small appliances, pantry overflow, the good glasses. Dish packs and paper only. |
| Day 4 | Bedrooms and closets. Wardrobe boxes for hanging clothes. Linens go in as padding around lamps and framed pictures. |
| Day 3 | Living room and office. Electronics in original boxes if you kept them, otherwise wrapped and labeled with cables bagged and taped to the device. Photograph the back of the TV before unplugging. |
| Day 2 | Kitchen, part two. Daily dishes, pots, the coffee maker last. Bathroom. Set aside the essentials bag (below). Label every box on two sides. |
| Day 1 | Loose ends, cleaning, and the walk-through with the crew. Nothing new gets packed today except what you used this morning. |
Box math: how many supplies you really need
People run out of boxes on day three. A common rule of thumb for a fully furnished home is 20 to 30 boxes for a one-bedroom, 40 to 60 for a two-bedroom, and 60 to 90 for a three-bedroom, plus specialty cartons. Round up. Unused boxes are cheap and empty boxes on moving day are not.
- Small boxes (1.5 cu ft) for books, canned goods, tools. Anything heavy goes small.
- Medium boxes (3 cu ft) for kitchen items, toys, decor. The workhorse.
- Large boxes (4.5 cu ft) for bedding, pillows, lampshades. Light and bulky only.
- Dish packs (double-walled) for plates, glasses and ceramics. Do not use regular boxes for the kitchen on a long haul.
- Wardrobe boxes so hanging clothes stay hanging.
- Mirror and picture cartons for anything framed or glass over about 24 inches.
- Packing paper, roughly 10 pounds per room. Newsprint stains. Bubble wrap only for electronics and the most fragile pieces.
- Tape: one roll per 15 to 20 boxes, plus a dispenser gun.
If you are moving locally, Rocky Movers includes free packing supplies on local moves. For long-distance customers we can deliver packing supplies in Denver ahead of the move so the box count is never the bottleneck.
What the movers pack, and what you pack
On an interstate move with Rocky Movers, the crew blanket-wraps and stretch-wraps all furniture, disassembles beds and tables, and crates anything you have flagged as fragile or high-value. That is standard and it is included. Boxing your belongings is separate, and you have three options.
- You pack everything. Cheapest. The crew loads what you have boxed. Note that most movers, us included, cannot accept liability for damage inside boxes they did not pack.
- Partial packing. You do the clothes, books and linens. We do the kitchen, the art, the mirrors and the electronics the day before loading. This is the option most week-out customers choose, because the kitchen is the room that eats the schedule.
- Full-service packing. Our packers arrive one or two days before the truck with all materials and pack the entire home. You do nothing but the essentials bag.
Pricing for all three is on our Denver packing services page, and every option is quoted during the free in-home or video survey so it lands on the same written estimate as the move.
Room-by-room: the parts people get wrong
Kitchen
Wrap each plate individually and stand them on edge in a dish pack, never flat. Glasses get wrapped and nested upright with paper between rows. Fill every gap with crumpled paper until nothing shifts when you shake the box. Tape the knife block shut or wrap knives in a towel and tape it.
Electronics
Photograph cable connections, bag the cables and tape the bag to the device, then wrap in bubble wrap and box with paper on all sides. TVs travel upright in a TV carton or crated. Never lay a flat-screen face down under other boxes.
Furniture
Leave it to the crew unless you are loading your own truck. Empty every drawer. Dressers travel lighter and safer empty, and a full drawer can pop open in transit. Remove glass shelves and tops and have them wrapped separately.
Clothes and linens
Hanging clothes into wardrobe boxes, folded clothes into suitcases and medium boxes. Use towels and bedding as free padding around lamps, pictures and speakers. Vacuum bags shrink bulk and lower the cubic footage you pay for.
Garage and outdoors
Drain fuel from mowers and trimmers. Empty propane tanks cannot go on the truck at all. Bundle garden tools with tape, and box small hardware in small boxes with the drawers labeled.
Labeling that survives a 1,000-mile trip
Write the room and a short contents note on two sides of every box, not the top, because tops are hidden once boxes are stacked. Number the boxes and keep a list on your phone. Mark fragile boxes on all four sides and “this side up” where it matters. Color-coding by room with tape helps the crew unload straight into the right rooms at the other end.
What cannot go on the truck
Interstate carriers will refuse hazardous and perishable items, and you would not want them in a sealed trailer for three days anyway. Plan to use up, give away or carry these yourself:
- Propane, gasoline, aerosols, paint, pool chemicals, fertilizer, cleaning products with bleach or ammonia, and fireworks.
- Perishable food, opened pantry items and anything refrigerated or frozen.
- Live plants across state lines.
- Firearms and ammunition, which travel with you.
- Passports, deeds, jewelry, cash, medication and laptops. Irreplaceable things ride in your car.
The essentials bag
Your goods will arrive inside a delivery window, not on a single day, so pack as if you are camping for a week: clothes, toiletries, medication, chargers, important documents, a few dishes and a kettle, bedding for the first night, and a basic toolkit for reassembly. Put it in the car, not the truck.
When to stop and call for help
If it is day four and the kitchen is untouched, the schedule is gone. That is the point where partial packing pays for itself, because a two-person crew clears a kitchen in a morning. Call us, tell us your loading date, and we will size the crew to what is left. Every long-distance move with Rocky Movers starts with a free in-home or video survey and a written binding not-to-exceed price, and packing can be added to it right up to the day before loading.
Planning the rest of the move too? Start with long-distance moving from Denver, and use the FMCSA’s moving checklist for the paperwork side. If you have not picked a mover yet, our guide on how to choose a moving company in Denver covers what to check before you sign.
