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Shipping before a move works best when you send non-essentials early, keep essentials with you, and time each parcel to arrive after you have the keys. Never ship something you will need on moving day itself. Plan the timing a week ahead.
Sort by need, not by room. Books, off-season clothes, spare kitchenware, and decorations can travel early without hurting your daily life. Chargers, medicines, work gear, keys, important documents, and a few days of clothes must stay with you, in a bag you carry yourself. If a shipped parcel is delayed by a day, you should be mildly annoyed, not stuck without something you need that night.
Documents deserve special care. Passports, leases, titles, and financial papers should travel with you, not in a shipped box. A shipped box can be delayed, misrouted, or held for pickup, and retrieving a document from a held parcel during a move is a miserable errand. Keep originals on your person, and ship only copies or low-stakes papers if you must ship paper at all.
Valuables follow the same rule. Jewellery, small electronics, and sentimental items that cannot be replaced should not ride in a general parcel during a move, when your attention is split and your address is in flux. Carry them, or use a service with signature and coverage that you track closely. A move is already chaotic; do not add a lost-parcel claim to it.
| Category | Ship early | Carry yourself |
|---|---|---|
| Clothes | Off-season and spare clothes | A few days of outfits |
| Kitchen | Spare gadgets, extra dishes | One set of basics for the first nights |
| Work | Reference books, archived files | Laptop, chargers, current work |
| Personal | Decorations, hobby supplies | Medicines, documents, valuables |
| Home | Extra linens, seasonal gear | Bedding and toiletries for night one |
Work backward from key handover, not from moving day itself. A parcel sent too early may arrive before you can receive it, and sit at a pickup point, a lobby, or a neighbour's home. A parcel sent too late may arrive while you are still unpacking boxes and cannot find anything. Aim for parcels to arrive in the days after you have keys and a place to store them, not before.
Build in buffer days on both ends. If you expect a parcel to take a few business days, do not plan for it to arrive the morning after key handover. Weather, a missed delivery attempt, or a weekend in between can push it back. Send early enough that a short delay still lands after you are settled, and late enough that it does not arrive before you are there to receive it. That window is usually wider than people fear, if they plan it a week ahead.
Use the overlap window between addresses wisely. If you still have access to the old address for a week after the move, you can receive a late parcel there and carry it over yourself. If you lose access on moving day, do not ship anything to the old address after that date. Tell senders, sellers, and subscription services about the new address early, and set up mail redirection for letters, since parcels and letters follow different rules.
For parcels you send to yourself, the destination address matters more than the return address, but both need care. If you are shipping to your new home, confirm the full address, including unit, buzzer, or building details, and confirm that deliveries go to a door, a lobby, or a pickup point. A new building may have delivery rules you have not learned yet, such as a parcel room code or a concierge desk.
If the new address is not ready to receive parcels, ship to a trusted alternative instead: a friend, a family member, or a pickup point near the new home. A parcel held at a pickup point is safer than a parcel left outside a new home you have not moved into yet. Tell the holder that parcels are coming, and agree on how long they will keep them.
On the return address side, use an address that will still reach you if the parcel bounces back. During a move, your old address may stop reaching you quickly. A trusted person's address, or an address you control for the whole moving period, is a safer return address than an old home you are leaving behind. Update the return address on every label, not just the first one.
LetterAgent labels are Canada Post Xpresspost labels, Canada-only, flat-rate, up to 5 kg. That fits small pre-move parcels well: a box of books, a bundle of clothes, or a set of kitchen extras sent within Canada. Ask your AI assistant, get a per-label quote, approve the exact price, pay once through Stripe, and receive the label as a PDF.
It does not fit a whole move. Furniture, large boxes, and anything over 5 kg need a moving company or a freight route, not a parcel label. Parcels headed outside Canada also fall outside LetterAgent, so use a cross-border route for those. For the small boxes that do fit, the same rule applies as for every pre-move parcel: send non-essentials early, keep essentials with you, and time arrival for after you have the keys.
Ready to ship it? Get a shipping label with LetterAgent: describe it to your AI assistant, approve the exact quoted price, and get your label.
LetterAgent is a working name. Prices include print, postage, and our service fee. US prices in USD, Canadian prices in CAD (Canadian prices exclude applicable sales tax, added at checkout). Currently in private testing.
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