Do you have any advice on how to go about packing for a big move?

Painters tape or post-it’s.
Just start labeling stuff.

Even if you can’t physically pack them just yet, mentally sorting them will help you get some psychological momentum.

Doing the easier stuff first will make the harder stuff easier. Mental inertia.

Good luck!

I once had a similar situation with a long distance move. Rather than be crippled by indecision, I put most of the “I don’t know what to do with this stuff” stuff into boxes, and into storage. I moved all that stuff with me, put it into storage at the other end, and took a month there to sort it all out.
As far as packing the rest, I kept out the bare minimum for myself and my young child and boxed up the rest.
And at the end, I asked the movers to finish packing for me, as it all got to be too much to do in too little time.

Good luck with this!

Get rid of as much of the easy stuff as quickly as you can. Don’t worry about making money off it or even donating it to the best place.

Pack up and label things you might want to keep for now. If you haven’t missed them by the time you move, don’t take them.

Consider paying the movers to pack for you if you can afford it.

Be ruthless!

Easier said than done.

Start with one room at a time. I had my kitchen remodeled last year. I had 36 coffee cups. I don’t drink coffee. I had 5 packages of straws. I don’t use straws. Spices I had 15 years ago. So those things were obvious items to get rid of. Goodwill for the coffee cups, trash for the other stuff. So I would go through each room and pitch the stuff you obviously don’t need or want. Pack the rest and label and put in a storage area that you may have to rent for six months or so.
It would help if you had a friend or relative to help, but you said you didn’t. I’m sorry. Good luck.

Twice in my life I paid a professional organizer to help me sort, throw away, and organize. It really helped. Im not sure if you would even consider it with covid still out there.

Like anything, don’t worry about doing it perfectly, perfection is paralyzing, just start somewhere.

I would first throw out as much of the easy decision stuff as you can.

Then, the maybes you could start putting in a few boxes, or a closet or a room or shelves, and see how you do without those items in their usual place? Maybe they become items you can do without also.

Also, think about what items you definitely want with you, that You would never part with. Put those all together also.

Is some of it bills and old paperwork? You can bring it in large quantity to be shredded or sometimes there are mobile shredding services that come to your door.

Do you have a lot of books? Those are expensive to move, and you can probably get some money for them, or give them to people who will appreciate them.

When it comes to actually packing up everything, if you can afford it, have the movers pack. Pay for the well known movers like Atlas.

Resist the urge to go by places like liquor stores and pickup free small boxes. You simply can’t put enough in them and it ends up being way more work than it needs to be. If it’s a cross town move again resist the urge to use a smaller truck. You don’t want to take too many trips if you can help it. Consider renting a storage space short-term to have a place to put things while you clean out your old place and settle into your new one. It’s much easier to get settled if you’re not constantly tripping over boxes or having to shuffle things around to get out of your old space.

Also if you need friends to help you get ready to find out that some of them simply won’t be there for you when you need them. Even if you have helped them out with things like this in the past.

If you pack yourself, I forgot to mention that people often advertise giving away boxes for moving on Facebook, Nextdoor, and freecycle.

Remember heavy items like books need to go into small boxes. Books get heavy fast.

I called s second hand shop who sent a driver around to look through and take the items..no charge, since they sell it themselves in there shop.

My late Mother phoned all of us adults kids and asked it we wanted anything of Dads’ when he passed away?

I got one or two personal things of his and when my Mother passed on I got her blouse and sweater that she wore often as personal mementoes that had a connection to her throughout life.
When my late father passed on Mom got rid of all of his things to a thrift shop and later she regretted not having anything personal of his as a connection to him when later in life she was nearing the end.
My older sister took all of my late mothers belongings, furniture when she became Guardian over my mother and her estate .

She ( sister) never asked anyone IF we would like anything of my mothers, but at Mothers

Funeral I was able to get the blouse and sweater ( and Photo) that she had been

photographed wearing years before.

My older sister took anything of value including mother’s new expensive clothes that fit my sister perfectly.

Consider that you might later WANT something personal of your husband in order to feel him around you a conduit or connection for some.

Take pictures of absolutely everything. Look at the pics, and make a list of what you know for sure you WILL keep. Box up everything else.

Allow yourself some time for memories and feelings. If some special memories pop up, do a video log. “No special reason, but seeing this shirt made me think of when we went…” That way, you can pack everything without feeling like you are ditching memories. You will still have all of that, but it will take up no space.
It is a way of sharing with special people sometimes.

Similar to @Patty_Melt to I would separate things into three categories:

1 Things I will keep
2 Things I will try to sell
3 Things I will discard.

I would take pictures of everything before storing in plastic boxes. I find plastic boxes convenient as you can stack them to save space. I would also list everything on an excel spreadsheet so you know where everything is. Your decisions don’t have to be final at this stage but you can at least make a start and take your time over the difficult decisions.

Forty years ago I went through this with my Dad. My mother had passed away over a decade earlier and he was moving out of the house they bought in 1954 and into a Florida retirement condo at age 70.
Fortunately for him we had just purchased a house and had room in the attic to store his stuff.
We carefully labelled each box and had 3×5 cards with the contents. Over the years he would occasionally ask if I had a certain object and I’d say “Yes, It is in box A11” He’d say “Keep it.” or “Throw it away but don’t tell me about it.”
I still have about 15 of those boxes in my attic.

If you still have packed boxes from your previous move that you haven’t yet opened, this could be a sign that you don’t need to move it with you and that the items are not worth keeping.

I hope you are not doing this alone.
I know this is a stressful ltime for you. Having a friend or family member come over every now and then to assist really helps.

I wish I lived in the neighborhood. I’d gladly come over and help.

Same here.

Same here.

I’m sorry to read you’re alone for this. I second something mentioned by @JLeslie. Get a professional organizer. They will greatly assist in the difficult decisions, and they offer a kind of companionship.