What to bring on move-in day — and what to leave home.
After more than a decade of move-in days, I can tell you the families who do this well pack lighter than they expect, and they bring the paperwork first. Here's the list I'd give my own sister.
Almost every family arrives on move-in day with too much of the wrong thing and not enough of the right thing. They bring four suitcases of clothing and forget the physician's report. They bring a beloved recliner that won't fit through the doorway and leave behind the photo album that would have done more good than all of it.
None of that is a failure — packing up a parent's life in a week is hard, and most people have never done it before. So here is the honest version: what we actually need on day one, what makes a room feel like theirs by nightfall, and what tends to come back out to the car.
Before you pack a single box, ask the home to email you its own move-in checklist. Every licensed residential care home in California has one, and they differ in the details — bed linens, laundry, whether the room comes furnished. Guessing costs you a second trip.
The paperwork — bring this first
This is the part that can actually delay a move-in. Put it in a folder and hand it over before you carry in a single box:
- The physician's report. California uses a standard form (LIC 602A) the doctor completes — diagnoses, functional ability, diet, care needs, and a recent tuberculosis screening, which the state requires before someone moves in. Ask for it a week or two early; this is the single most common thing that holds a family up.
- The signed admission agreement. Read it before move-in day, not during it — the rate, what's included, notice requirements on both sides, and how rates can change. If anything surprises you, ask before you sign.
- The current medication list — every prescription, plus vitamins and anything over-the-counter, with doses and times. If the pharmacy's list and the one on the fridge disagree, bring both and say so.
- Insurance and identification. Medicare and supplement or Advantage cards, the prescription drug card, Social Security number, photo ID, and a Medi-Cal card if there is one.
- Advance directives and legal authority. The POLST or advance health care directive, a DNR if there is one, and copies of any power of attorney or conservatorship papers — so we know who decides, and what your loved one has already said about their own care.
- Doctors, pharmacy, and contacts. Primary care physician, specialists, the pharmacy, hospice or home health if involved, and two or three family numbers in the order to call them.
Medications: bring them the way the pharmacy filled them
Bring everything in the original pharmacy-labeled containers, including the bottles you think are finished with. Please don't pre-sort a week into a pill organizer for us — it's a kind instinct, but a caregiver can't safely give a medication out of an unlabeled compartment. And if a doctor changed a dose recently while the bottle still says the old one, tell us out loud; that one sentence prevents the most common medication error in a move.
What should not come: anything unlabeled, expired, or prescribed to a spouse. Take that to a pharmacy take-back rather than the trash. More on how all of this works day to day in our guide to medication management in a care home.
Clothing: about two weeks' worth, labeled
Two weeks of everyday clothes is plenty — a bedroom closet is a normal size, not a storage unit, and laundry runs a couple of times a week. What matters more than volume is that clothes are easy to get on and off, and comfortable to sit in for long stretches.
- Tops and pants that pull on — elastic waists, wide necklines, front closures. Skip tiny buttons and back zippers.
- Cardigans and a light robe. Older adults are usually cold when the rest of us are comfortable.
- Shoes with a closed heel and a non-slip sole. A fall-prevention issue, not a fashion one. Backless slippers are the pair I'd most like left at home.
- Plenty of underclothes and socks, plus extras if incontinence is part of the picture.
- Whatever they actually like to wear. A man who wore a collared shirt every day for fifty years shouldn't suddenly live in sweatpants.
Label everything before you arrive — iron-on labels, sewn-in tags, or a laundry marker. Shared laundry is how favorite sweaters go missing, and a name tag solves it entirely.
The things that make the room theirs
This is the part I wish families spent their energy on. A room becomes a bedroom the moment it holds something that could only belong to one person.
- Framed photographs — label the backs with names and years. Caregivers use them constantly: it's how they learn the woman in room two taught school in Sanger, and how they start a conversation on a hard afternoon.
- Their own bedding or a familiar quilt, if the home allows it. Smell and texture do more on night one than anything else you can pack.
- A favorite chair or small dresser — measure it, and measure the doorway. Ask first; rooms come furnished and space is finite.
- A clock with big numbers, a calendar, and the things they do with their hands — books, large-print crosswords, knitting, a music player loaded with the songs of their twenties, a Bible or rosary, a lap blanket.
- Glasses and the spare pair, hearing aids with charger and batteries, dentures and their case, a walker or cane, a shower chair — and their own soap, aftershave, lotion. Small thing; not a small thing.
What to leave home
1Valuables, jewelry, and anything irreplaceable
Wedding rings and heirlooms are the hardest conversation we have with families. Homes have safeguards for residents' property, and ours does — but a bedroom is not a safe deposit box, and dementia can turn a treasured ring into something hidden in a tissue box, in perfect good faith. Leave the real jewelry with family; a costume duplicate of a wedding band has spared more than one family real grief.
2Large amounts of cash
A small amount for a haircut or an outing is reasonable; keep the rest in the bank. Any home should be able to tell you plainly how it tracks money held for a resident, and give you a record of it.
3Space heaters, candles, and anything with an open flame or hot coil
These are a fire-code problem in a licensed home, and the answer will be no everywhere you go. If your loved one runs cold — and they probably will — bring warm layers and tell us. We can adjust a room.
4Too much furniture
The recliner that doesn't fit; the bookcase that blocks the path to the bathroom. A clear route from bed to bathroom at two in the morning prevents falls, and it beats anything you could put in that space.
5Everything else, for now
You do not have to finish the move on move-in day. Bring the essentials, live with the room a week, then bring what's missing — and the second trip gives you a reason to come back, which matters more than whatever is in the box.
One more thing families forget: plan the day, not just the boxes. Come at a calm hour — mid-morning beats late afternoon. Bring one or two people, not eight. Set up the bed and the photos, share a meal if the home offers one, then keep the goodbye short; long goodbyes are harder on everybody. But never slip out without saying anything at all.
A word about how this feels
Most families I meet are carrying guilt up the walkway along with the suitcases. I'd gently say this: choosing a loving home where someone is known by name, cared for by the same familiar caregivers, and watched over with nurse-directed care is not abandonment. It's often the first day in a long while that your parent is genuinely safe — and the first day you get to be a son or a daughter again instead of a caregiver running on empty.
Our move-ins happen in small neighborhood homes with a handful of residents each, so someone is sitting with your loved one that first evening rather than processing an admission. Care is one flat rate — get a personalized quote and you'll know what the month looks like before you pack a thing.
Planning a move for someone you love?
Come walk through a home before you pack. I'll show you the room, tell you exactly what to bring, and answer every question honestly.
Schedule a private tourThis article is general information from a registered nurse and care-home owner, and is not a substitute for individual medical or legal advice. Admission requirements, required forms, and house policies vary by home and change over time — always follow the checklist the home you have chosen gives you. For questions about a specific person's health, medications, or mobility equipment, please consult their physician.
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