Officially, you are all set to PCS when your hard orders are in hand. From there, you’ll likely start pre-planning, researching your next duty station, and get your current living situation in order to move out. For military families, multiple moves are a way of life. While the military does give you money for the move, don’t you wish they also hire out someone to take care of all of the details? Sort of like a wedding planner, but a PCS move planner.
Whether you’re PCS’ing for the first time or for the fifth time, there’s always a long list of things to do. To help you save time, money, and some sanity, did you know there were some everyday items in your house that could help you along the PCS process? Here are seven items you should have on hand for your next PCS move.
Duct Tape
It’s not just for the handyman, it’s for the PCS move. Duct tape (from the Duck brand especially)can help pack up boxes, organize boxes (get different colors and patterns so you can color coordinate for different rooms), Attach remotes to devices. Reinforce containers. Fix random stuff.
PCS Binder
Any old binder will do, although I recommend a zip binder like this one so nothing falls out. I feel like this is your central location to go to for anything. Keeping a copy online is great too but if wi-fi ever drops or you don’t get service, it may not be as reliable. I also offer PCS printables in my etsy shop for those that need some extra help.
Trash Bags
Any moveout expert will tell you, now is the time to purge and declutter your household. I used black ones and white ones. White trash bags like these for things I gathered to donate or sell. Black trash bags for trash. Having a bunch on hand will help you get rid of things quicker.
Ziploc Bags
Speaking of bags, ziploc bags also save the day by organizing all of the little things. You’ll have to take apart furniture so ziploc bags like these can hold all of the nuts and bolts together. They kept my kids lego sets together. They kept my headbands together. They also kept my husband’s challenge coins together. During our travel, I used them to separate my kid’s outfit day by day and I also used them to store all of our chargers for our devices.
Sharpies
My go to “label maker”. I used sharpies to label everything. For boxes, the thicker ones worked better. For papers and notes, a fine tip like this one was fine. I used them especially to write on masking tape or duct tape. It always felt like I “meant business” when I wrote with a sharpie.
Surge Protector
I used this on our PCS travel. When we were cooped up inside a hotel, having a spare surge protector helped us charge our phones, laptops, tablets easily. I also used it if we were waiting at the airport for a while.
Post-its
Get colored post-its like these. They mark different rooms, different boxes, different luggage bags. Everything gets assigned a color. I also used them in my PCS binder as makeshift tabs for me to easily find things.
That’s my list. Do you have any other PCS tips?
RELATED:
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