Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on twitter or identica.

Eva and I and our six kids are moving in a couple months to San Francisco, from our tiny little island of Guam, and as with any move, it’s both nerve-wracking and exciting as hell.

The key to making it more exciting than anxiety inducing is, of course, preparation.

However, unlike most people who are uber-organized (I’m one of them), I’m not attacking our move with a variety of moving checklists and a crapload of things to do before we leave.

I’m moving the minimalist’s way: packing as light as possible, and doing as little as I can. It’s lovely.

A Minimalist Strategy

When Eva and I first started planning our big move, last year, we were planning on packing up all our stuff and finding a moving company to ship over all our furniture. It was a massive project, and though we didn’t relish it, it did seem necessary.

After all, we’d spent a lot of money on our furniture and computers and clothes and toys, so why wouldn’t we take it all? But then we realized: there was no use in being attached to it all. Sure, it was nice stuff (we go for quality over quantity), but it’s nothing we can’t find elsewhere, and it’s just … stuff.

We realized we needed nothing, really. Nothing was sacred.

So here’s the strategy Eva and I came up with:

So we’ll be flying to SFO with a backpack of clothes each, and a laptop. Leaving everything else behind.

The Online Yardsale

We set up a simple site on WordPress.com, paying less than $10 for the domain name wowayardsale.com. Then we took pictures of most of our stuff, posted them via WordPress (which as most bloggers know is pretty easy) along with descriptions and our asking price.

Then we emailed the link to all our friends and family, and voila! A yardsale without a yard.

The response so far has been good. In just a few days, we’ve sold half the stuff that’s been posted, and we still have 70 days left. I expect everything to be sold in the next month or so. Whatever’s left will be donated or given away or perhaps we’ll have an actual yardsale if necessary.

Minimal Shipping

Our idea is to ship as little as possible. Many people moving from Guam will pay for space in a shipping container for all of their stuff — including their car(s) sometimes. We don’t want to go through all of that hassle.

So we’ll have one box each that a relative will mail over after we’ve settled in. This will mostly be personal possessions — photo albums, little things the kids just can’t part with.

Other than that, we’ll have a few days’ worth of clothes each, and a laptop. We’re not bringing a lot of clothes, not our TV or most of our computers, not our books or accumulated memorabilia.

We don’t have a lof of stuff anyway, but it’s impossible for a family of eight not to have some possessions after all these years. We’re going to purge almost all of it, and it’s quite liberating.

Necessary Documents

Other than a few days’ worth of clothes, we’re making sure we’ve prepared a few essential documents:

• Passports
• Birth Certificates & Marriage License
• Social Security cards
• Medical & dental records
• Credit report, landlord letters of recommendation, & bank statements (for lease applications)

Essential Research Tools

The beauty of moving these days is that there is SO much online, and so many cool tools for checking out far-off places. Seriously, there’s some amazing stuff out there — just 10 years ago, you couldn’t do any of this.

I’ve done a lot of research about San Francisco, just to feel more prepared and of course because I’m so excited about the move. One of the best things I did is put everything I want to live near or check out on one Google Map, so I can see clusters of things in different SF neighborhoods. It helps me to visualize where I want to live and whether a potential house/apartment is in a good location.

Some tools I’ve been using for my research — this stuff blows me away:

1. Google Maps: If you have a Google account, you can sign in and create your own Google Map. I’ve done this for past trips (to Thailand, Hawaii, and Japan) and it worked great. If I find something in an article or guidebook that looks interesting, I’ll create a marker for it on my Google Map, usually changing the icon to reflect the type of place (restaurant, coffee shop, museum, shopping outlet, etc.). For our move to SF, I created a map that has dozens of places — vegetarian restaurants, libraries, museums, shops, parks, book stores, movie theaters, places to run, coffee shops, and so on. The map is really full, but it’s a great way to visualize the city, especially because we don’t plan to own a car, and want to live within walking distance of many of these places.
2. Google streetview: This is actually just a feature of Google Maps, but it’s a wonderful tool for someone who’s moving. Basically, if there’s an apartment on Craigslist (see next item), I can find it on Google Maps, and then go into “streetview” to see the actual house/apartment, and the street it’s on. Then I use streetview to walk around the neighborhood and get a feel for the place. Not as good as being there, but way closer than ever before.
3. Craigslist: What an amazing tool for people who are moving. It has dozens of listings every day for apartments/houses for rent, many with photos and other relevant info, along with a link to the apartment’s location on Google Maps. You can even search by neighborhood and number of bedrooms/bathrooms, which I do. In fact, I save my frequent searches by bookmarking them in my browser, so each day I can open up all those bookmarked searches to see what’s new. Craigslist also has sections for used items, such as furniture and appliances, so you can buy stuff that you’ll need when you do move. I haven’t actually bought anything yet, but I’ve been checking out the used section to see what’s out there.
4. Yelp: Another amazing tool. It’s not a secret, of course, but if you’re moving, you can search for restaurants, coffee shops, bike shops, movie theaters, bookstores, and more, and read reviews. I’ll find the top vegetarian restaurants in a neighborhood (for example), and then add them to my Google Map.
5. Google Docs: I created one Google Doc for all my moving plans, and a Google spreadsheet for my budget. The doc, which I’ve shared with my wife Eva, of course, has everything we need to do (not a lot), along with info such as flight information and so forth. It’s a good way to keep all your data together, accessible from anywhere.
6. Local blogs: It’s astounding how many blogs there are out there for any city you’re interested in — in San Francisco, I’ve found local blogs on homeschooling, cycling, running, vegan, locavore, and more. I’ll usually do a Google search for “San Francisco homeschooling” or whatever the topic is, and then open up a bunch of the posts that I find, and check out those blogs. Then I’ll see what blogs those blogs link to, and check those out, and so on, until I’ve found a bunch of great blogs. I’ll dig into each blog’s archives and find a wealth of info. There are even blogs about particular neighborhoods. Wonderful resource.
7. YouTube: Again, not a secret tool, but one that has valuable info on any city. I’ve found YouTube videos showing different SF neighborhoods, along with video tours of some of the apartments I’m interested in, and of course videos of some of the best sights of the city.
8. Walkscore: Brilliant tool, not merely for getting the “walk score” of a neighborhood (basically how close a location is to things people are likely to need/use), but for finding important businesses in each neighborhood. So I’ll click on a neighborhood on the Walkscore site, and then it’ll give me a list of all the movie theaters, restaurants, coffee shops, bookstores, libraries, mass transit stops, and so on. I’ll find the good ones and add them to my all-powerful Google Map.

This all sounds like a lot of work, I’m sure. But it’s not — it’s a lot of fun. I like to feel prepared, and while I could move without doing any of this research, I’m going to be much more ready to hit the ground running once I arrive in San Francisco. And I’ll make a much more informed choice about where to live.

I hope this guide has helped!

Read more from Leo at Zen Habits and mnmlist. Or check out his ebook, The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life.