As the world watches the pomp and pageantry of Inauguration Day unfold at the US capital, an intricate and highly orchestrated move is unfolding behind the scenes at the White House.
Every four to eight years, over the course of just a few hours, a few dozen members of the White House staff move out of the outgoing first family’s possessions and into the new first family’s possessions.
This Inauguration Day, President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will wake up to a White House filled with their belongings and personal memories—everything from personal photographs to their favorite foods in the kitchen.
At night, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will go to bed in a white house filled with everything from their clothes to their favorite toothpaste.
President-elect Donald Trump walks with Melania Trump at the Capitol on January 8, 2025 in Washington.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
“It’s a great day when they have five hours to move one family out and another family in,” Kate Andersen Brower, author of “The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House,” told ABC News. “They don’t hire movers to do it. They do it themselves, so it’s a situation where everyone on staff pitches in and helps that day.”
The move traditionally begins in the morning after the outgoing president and first lady bid farewell to the White House staff, the ushers, butlers, cooks and others who staff 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
The farewell, held in the State Dining Room, is often emotional as the first family and staff have formed a bond, according to Brower, also the author of “First Women: The Grace and Power of America’s Modern First Ladies.”
Workers continue to put the finishing touches on the President’s Notice Booth in Pennsylvania outside the White House, Jan. 16, 2025, in Washington, ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Jon Elswick/AP
During the ceremony, White House staff present the President with the American flags that flew over the White House on the President’s first and last day in office. According to Brower, the flags are presented in a wooden box made by the White House’s carpenters.
“The president and first lady go around to everybody and say goodbye and hugs, and sometimes people cry,” Brower said. “It’s a really human moment in what seems like a very formal day full of pomp and pageantry.”
Once the president and first lady leave the White House for the inauguration ceremony, a frenzy of activity begins inside.
The to-do list includes everything from changing mattresses and bedding to moving furniture, moving boxes, restocking refrigerators, storing favorite toiletries, repairing paint, and restocking closets.
“There is a moving van that is positioned in one direction to take the belongings of the outgoing president and the first family to leave the White House,” Anita McBride, who served as chief of staff to first lady Laura Bush, told ABC News for eight years since. , on the eve of the first Trump administration. “And then you have moving vans and trucks pulling in from across the driveway on the south side of the White House that will be ready to unload all of the new family’s belongings.”
A moving truck departs outside the West Wing of the White House at dawn on Jan. 20, 2021, in Washington.
Al Drago/Pool/Getty Images, FILE
No outside movers are hired to perform the move between the first families for safety reasons.
Instead, the process is overseen by the White House chief of staff, a historically non-political role that has recently changed with new administrations, according to Brower.
“They’re really the director generals of the White House,” she said, noting that one chief of staff, Gary J. Walters, worked in the role for decades, from 1986 to 2007, serving four different presidents.
When Barack Obama became president, he hired a new chief of staff, the first woman in the role, and the subsequent Trump and Biden administrations also each hired a new officer versus keeping their predecessor’s hiring in place, according to Bower.
“‘It’s a position that’s held in really high regard, at least historically it has been inside the White House,'” Brower said. “You’re the boss, and when there’s a problem among the 100 employees, you’re the one who’s going to hear about it.”
During the Clinton family’s move into the White House in 1993, for example, it was the chief of staff who had to deal with finding the then first lady Hillary Clinton’s inauguration dress, which, according to Brower, was lost during the move.
Workers move boxes onto a truck on West Executive Avenue between the West Wing of the White House and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House, Jan. 14, 2021, in Washington.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images, FILE
The Chief Constable is also the person who begins preparations for Inauguration Day, as far back as when the parties formally nominated their presidential candidate. At that point, according to Brower, the officer begins reaching out to the nominees’ inner circles to learn more about their likes and dislikes.
Once a candidate is elected president, the senior warden surveys the president-elect’s team for details like their favorite brand of shampoo, favorite pillows, and more.
Donald and Melania Trump are unique among first families in that they are returning to the White House after four years away.
Since White House staffers tend to stay in their jobs for decades, many butlers, cooks, housekeepers and more from Trump’s first term will be working with them again.
“It’s been a four-year hiatus, but he’ll be back and they’ll know exactly what he’ll have in store,” Brower said. “I mean, they know everything, so it makes it a lot easier for the staff.”
