Well, here I am at my new job in a new city. I gave my notice on a Tuesday and was able to move everything by Saturday, 4 days later. There are pros and cons to leaving so quickly.

Pros:
- Nobody asks you to finish anything you are currently working on, because they don't think you can finish in 3 days.
- Not everyone can make your goodbye lunch on such short notice. :)

Cons:
- Not everyone can make your goodbye lunch on such short notice.
- Very little time to pack and move. I had to get power, water, cable, phone, renter's insurance, change of address forms, etc. in a day. I ended up forgetting my birth certificate which is required to prove your ability to work (here in the US anyway), so I ended up having to drive to my former home at 10PM Sunday night and didn't get to sleep until 1AM.

The key is to start thinking about moving before you have a job offer. If you are thinking about taking a job in another city, look around and have a few apartments/townhomes/houses lined up that are acceptable. I did, and after my hire was confirmed, I had a townhouse the next morning. Also, packing was quick since I had gone through all my "junk" fairly recently, so there was less to pack. Donate old clothes to goodwill. Throw out old software program boxes. And do you really need all those binders with prinouts? Probably not. Pack everything in boxes. Even if you can carry something in its box, if it is small enough and light enough, consolidate to a larger box. This keeps you from making hundreds of trips carrying 1 or 2 things. Finally, get some good friends lined up for loading and unloading.