Survival Kit for the In-Between Week: What to Pack When the Movers Have Your Stuff
She was moving cross-country with professional movers, driving herself, and had a week before anything arrived — including her bed, her couch, and her coffee maker.
By Emilia Grey
An empty apartment with an air mattress during the week before movers arrive
When Margot arrived at her new apartment, the place was empty in the particular way that only a fresh apartment is empty: clean, echoing, full of light and no furniture. Her belongings were somewhere on a truck between Georgia and Oregon. She had a week, an air mattress she had not yet inflated, and a car that contained everything she had brought in preparation for this exact situation. She was working remotely, which meant her first full day in the new city would be spent on a video call, sitting on the floor, in an apartment that had nothing in it.
She had thought about what to bring. The list was not perfect but it was better than nothing, and the things she had not thought of became obvious within the first forty-eight hours.
The Case for Treating It Like Indoor Camping
The most useful frame for the in-between week, Margot found, was camping indoors. Not in a survival way but in a supplies way. Camping gear is designed to let you function without infrastructure. It is compact, practical, and does not require you to own a kitchen. A camping mindset for the in-between week means you are not trying to recreate your home in an empty apartment — you are setting up to be functional for seven days.
This changes what you bring. You do not need dishes. You do not need a full set of towels or linens. You need the minimum to sleep, work, bathe, and feed yourself for one week, with the understanding that stores exist at the other end.
The List That Actually Matters
The core items that function as the foundation: an air mattress with a battery pump, a set of sheets and a pillow, two bath towels, and a week's worth of clothes. These four things make the space livable.
For working remotely: laptop, charger, mouse, portable power bank, and a lap desk or folding table. The lap desk is more important than it sounds. Spending eight hours hunched over a floor laptop is genuinely bad for your body. USPS's Mover's Guide also has a useful checklist for the admin tasks that need to happen during the in-between week: mail forwarding, address updates, and scheduling utility turn-ons at the new place.
For bathing: a minimal toiletry kit and a shower curtain with rings if the apartment does not have one. This is the item Margot had not considered. She had assumed the apartment would have a shower curtain. It did not. She was at a hardware store by 7am her second morning.
For eating: a small cooler with a few ice packs, a spork or basic utensil, and two or three days of easy food that does not require cooking. After that, delivery and local restaurants are not a hardship.
The ambient quality-of-life additions: a small portable speaker, a camping lantern or table lamp, an extension cord with multiple outlets, and a folding camp chair. The overhead light in an empty apartment is harsh and depressing at 9pm. A small lamp changes the feel of the space more than seems reasonable.
Margot's In-Between Week Packing List
Sleep: Air mattress, pump, sheets, pillow, light blanket Work: Laptop, charger, mouse, power bank, lap desk Bathing: Toiletries, 2 towels, shower curtain (do not assume it exists) Eating: Small cooler, utensils, 2-3 days of easy food Comfort: Camp chair, small lamp, extension cord/power strip, speaker Admin: Copy of moving contract, important documents, pet supplies if applicable Emergency: Basic cleaning supplies, paper towels, trash bags, toilet paper
The One Thing Worth Spending Extra On
Margot would have brought a folding camping chair from day one and did not. She spent the first four days sitting on the floor or on the edge of the air mattress to work. Her back was not happy. A cheap folding chair from a hardware or discount store is $15 to $30 and makes a week on the floor survivable.
The same logic applies to the small lamp. Overhead lighting is fine for daytime. In the evening, in an empty apartment, overhead lighting makes the space feel like a warehouse. A battery-powered lamp or plug-in table lamp costs almost nothing and transforms the psychological experience of the space.
What Not to Bring
Dishes, cooking supplies, and extra clothing are the most common over-packs for the in-between week. You do not need a full kitchen for seven days. You have one week. You can order food, buy easy groceries, and function without a cutting board.
Margot also brought too many clothing options, which took up trunk space that would have been better used for the camp chair and the lamp she did not bring. A week's worth of clothes plus one spare set is sufficient for a seven-day gap.
The moving truck is coming. Everything else is on it. The goal for the in-between week is not comfort — it is function. REI's camping kitchen guide is a useful reference for the minimal-function food setup, since the gear it recommends is specifically designed for living out of a car or a bare space with minimal infrastructure.
Heading somewhere new and want to know what it will cost to live there? Our cost of living calculator can help you plan ahead.
