Moving with a trailer: the complete checklist
Moving by trailer costs a fraction of hiring movers, as long as you do not improvise. Here is the plan, week by week, right down to the loading order.
· 7 min read
A trailer move is decided in two places: the size you pick, and the order you load in. Everything else can be improvised. Those two cannot.
Four weeks out
- Estimate your volume. The benchmarks that hold up: a studio or one-bedroom fits a 10- to 12-foot enclosed trailer; a furnished two- or three-bedroom needs 14 to 16 feet; a whole house needs 20 to 24 feet if you want one trip. Torn between two sizes? Take the bigger one: a second round trip costs far more in fuel and time than the difference in rate.
- Book the trailer. In peak season, and especially around July 1st, the 16- and 20-foot enclosed trailers go weeks ahead. Book as soon as your possession date is confirmed.
- Check your vehicle. Towing capacity from the owner’s manual, ball diameter, connector type, whether you have a brake controller. The details are in our hitching guide.
- Line up help. Two extra people is not a luxury: it is the difference between six hours and a full day.
Two weeks out
- Start with what you do not use. Decorations, books, good dishes, out-of-season clothes. It is also the moment to cull: every box you do not move is a box you do not unpack.
- Gather supplies: boxes in two or three sizes, packing tape, bubble wrap, moving blankets, ratchet straps, markers, stretch wrap, a couple of tarps.
- Book the elevator or the parking space at both addresses. In many cities a temporary parking zone has to be requested in advance.
- Change your address: Canada Post, SAAQ, RAMQ, bank, employer, insurers, subscriptions.
The week before
- Pack everything except the essentials for the last three days.
- Label by destination room, not origin room. Write on the side of the box, not the top: stacked, tops are invisible.
- Take apart what comes apart: beds, tables, shelving. Put the hardware in a resealable bag taped to the furniture itself.
- Empty and defrost the fridge and freezer at least 24 hours ahead. A freezer dripping inside an enclosed trailer is something you smell for a long time.
- Pack a « first night » box: tools, toilet paper, soap, towels, chargers, bedding, a lamp, something to eat. It rides in the car, not the trailer.
The day before
- Load whatever is ready, if the trailer is already with you.
- Fill the tow vehicle.
- Check the forecast. Rain changes the order of operations, and makes an enclosed trailer clearly preferable to a tarped flatbed.
- Confirm the time and address of the service location for pickup. Returns are possible around the clock, but pickup happens during the host business’s opening hours.
- Get to bed early. Seriously.
Moving day: the loading order
Load with two things in mind at once: the trailer’s balance and the unloading order. Balance comes first.
- Appliances and the heaviest furniture first, against the front wall, slightly ahead of the axle and centred across the width. That is what puts weight on the tongue and prevents sway.
- Long items on edge along the walls: mattresses, box springs, table tops, mirrors. They take less room and brace each other.
- Heavy boxes on the floor, light ones on top, in tight columns. A column that cannot tip is a column that does not tip.
- Fill the gaps with bags of clothes, cushions and blankets. Empty space is the enemy: that is where things start to move.
- Strap in sections as you go, not only at the end. Use the trailer’s D-rings or E-Track rails, never the side rails.
- The first-night box and anything fragile last, near the door.
Protecting the furniture
- Moving blankets over anything with a finished surface, then stretch wrap to hold the blanket in place.
- Corners and table legs: that is where damage happens, against the walls.
- Mirrors and glass flat against a mattress, never standing free.
- Cardboard between wood surfaces that touch. Two tables stacked with nothing between them scratch in a single trip.
- Electronics in their original boxes if you kept them, otherwise well wrapped and carried in the car where possible.
On the road
Double your following distance, take corners wider, and stop after the first 20 kilometres to retighten the straps: they always loosen a little at the start and loads settle. It is the highest-return stop of the day.
The classic oversights
- Not measuring the doorways. Neither the ones at the new place, nor the trailer’s. A full-size fridge does not fit everywhere.
- Packing liquids with everything else. Paint, cleaning products, oils: separate, upright, in a bin.
- Forgetting the tool to reassemble the bed. Keep a toolkit with you, not at the back of the trailer.
- Not planning the return. Returns are possible 24 hours a day, but rental is counted in full 24-hour days: note your pickup time and work from it.
- Not sweeping it out before returning it. Five minutes with a broom saves you a cleaning charge.
That leaves choosing the trailer. Our article on which trailer to choose breaks down the four families, and the enclosed trailer catalogue gives the exact interior dimensions of each model. Availability shows in real time for all five service locations.
