OnlyWhenILarf's Profile

I used to work for many years in the UK as a painter and decorator, and ended up qualified to teach it.
Although the paint companies have done a lot to make painting much easier than it used to be, it's still worth knowing a little about how paint works.
A primer is formulated to soak into and bind a porous surface or grip a non-porous surface. This is why you sand first: to clean up and remove loose surface material and to scratch it up a bit for grip. Always use a vacuum to get rid of dust after sanding.
An undercoat (now often the same thing as primer) is a dense neutral-colored paint designed to obliterate any variation in the original surface and to provide the right kind of base for the top coat. It also often reveals imperfections that can be sorted out before the final coat is applied.
Now, this is subtler than you'd think. We see color on surfaces based on what gets reflected back from light shining on it. If the layer of paint is very opaque, then the undercoat color matters less. If it's more translucent (reds and yellows for instance) then the undercoat color matters more, as what you see is at least in part light that has passed through the top layer and bounced off what's underneath. In fact, glazes are paints that have been specifically formulated to be translucent, and so you can get wonderful special effects with them. Varnishes are paints with no pigment in them. (FYI pigment is solid and needs a binder, dye is liquid and usually translucent and might stain on its own or provide tinting in a colored varnish or glaze.)
All paint has solvent (to make it easy to apply and that evaporates), a binder that hardens to provide the actual protective layer and support the pigment, pigment to color it, and then variable amounts of fillers and extenders to either help with opacity, or simply add more body to cheaper paint.
Some cheap paints have so much extender that although they look OK in the can, you'll simply never get a full bodied finish with them. They are a total waste of money.
So if you take into account the hourly rate of your painter (or your hourly rate if you're taking time off work to do it yourself) then do it right the first time - it's always more economical.
I was trained to be able to apply paint finishes that could last for decades. Even if you paid me three times more than some unskilled optimist, would it be worth it if the work lasted ten times as long? Maybe not if you just wanted to freshen up and move out in a couple of years. But if you're serious about establishing a lasting professional finish, use the good stuff, and use a professional.

If it's a big move, and especially if my stuff is going to be in storage between moving out and moving in, here's my routine:
1) measure the new place and draw up a plan on squared paper, marking in doors (which way do they open and what radius?), windows, outlets, lightswitches
2) check the access - can I get the sofa up that stairwell and through that door?
3) measure up my furniture, make little paper cut-outs of them so I can work out where they're going ahead of time (this rocks - I've discovered ingenious configurations that I'd never have found if I'd waited until I arrived) and can make all the difference during move-in. Tape the cut-outs in place when you're done and keep this in a file to have on hand when you get there. You can even use this to work out what to move first if you're taking several trips, or what to suggest to a removalist to leave closest to the back of their truck so you're stuff isn't left out of the wet sidewalk. Makes sense, eh?
4) do a rough inventory of each box, number the outside of the box and mark what room is should end up in. Keep the inventory list with all your vital stuff, it will be vital when you arrive!
5) when packing, use zip-lock bags to keep all those little furniture fittings together, then tape them to the furniture itself so you can put it all back together properly
6) as everyone else has suggested, keep cleaning stuff, tools (cordless screwdriver and charger AND manual screwdrivers, box-cutters, hammer, torch, tape), basic cooking and drinking kit, all in a separate box - it gets packed last and unpacked first (toilet paper and soap ftw!)
7) well ahead of time, start and update a list of who to inform that you've moved, official bodies, utilities, friends, magazine subscriptions etc etc. Then use the list and tell them all! Sure, USPS have a service, but the mailman is human.
8) well ahead of time, start collecting boxes, bubble-wrap, tape (tape-gun: best investment ever!), sharpies to mark the boxes. Can't have too many.
9) last, and probably the most important in hot places, remember to cover up with sunscreen while you're packing or unpacking, it's real easy to forget and toast yourself on a day when you need all your energy, and drink gallons of water on exactly the same principle.

Sounds like a lot of schlep, but believe me, when I worked all this out, and made it into a checklist for myself, the next couple of moves were painless. Tiring, time consuming, but painless!