• Planning can make military moves easier.moving house image by dinostock from Fotolia.com
  
  Moving can be a stressful event for anyone, but a military relocation can be even more complicated than most civilian ones. In addition to the usual concerns over packing and transporting possessions, a military family may also need to deal with passports, visas and inoculations. There are some ways to minimize the confusion of a Permanent Change of Station.
  
  

Making Your Plans

• Arrange for the move with the base or post transportation office as early as possible. This way, you stand a better chance of getting the best area movers.
  
  

Organizing the Packing

• Designate one room for articles to ship, one for storage items, and one for suitcase articles that will travel with you. According to Mary Jane Martin, a veteran military spouse, "The packers then know what goes where and there is no confusion. They are not going from room to room, trying to get the right stuff."
  
  

Meeting Weight Limits

• Clean out anything that you will not need at the next duty station or that you can easily replace there. This will help keep you under your weight limits and save unpacking it later. Be sure to remove bagged garbage from the packing rooms, too.
  
  

Collecting Important Documents

• Set up a binder in which you place identification papers, including birth and marriage certificates, passports and social security cards. Store the service member's official orders in the binder, as well. Place this in a room where packers will not be working.
  
  

Documenting Your Contents

• Take pictures of all of your possessions. Write serial and model numbers on the backs of the pictures.
  
  

Protecting Your Possessions

• Be sure to seal all the boxes properly, especially if you packed them yourselves. The packers and movers might not do that for you. Also, if you choose to pack fragile items yourself, wrap them in adequate padding. Remember that the military will not replace those items if they are broken in the move, says Amanda West, current Air Force spouse.