Moving house can be a lot of trouble; there are too many things to do and a little time to do them. During a house move, anything that can go wrong will often go wrong. Because of how difficult moving house is, your first instinct might be to try and avoid the work by delaying it.
But as anyone who has ever moved house knows, postponing your packing doesn’t make it easier. It makes it difficult, says Keyrenter Alexandria Management Company, who helped move hundreds of their tenants, because you eventually have to do all of your work within an even shorter time.
The truth is getting ready for a house move is not hard at all if you do it the right way. The challenge is discovering the right way.
If you are about to move house, this post will show you all the steps you can take to remove the stress from your house move. It will arm you with a proven system that breaks the entire house-moving process into small steps that are easy to handle.
1. Understand why moving is stressful
There is a good reason you feel stressed every time you think about house moving. You feel overwhelmed by the amount of stuff you have to pack and how much time it will take to do it. That happens because you consider the entire effort instead of the daily steps to get the house ready. The moment you start focusing on the task immediately in front of you, your stress will begin to disappear.
2. Start early
The second reason moving feels so stressful is due to time pressure. You worry about how much time it will take to finish the packing; you are scared of the time it will take. The way to deal with this is to start packing several weeks before moving day. The recommended start date is eight weeks before moving day. If you are not short on time, you will not feel so stressed.
3. Create a checklist
In the heat of a house move, it is easy to forget to do some important stuff. You can avoid this by creating a complete checklist of everything you should do to finalize the house move. Do not worry if you do not capture everything on the first attempt. Just make sure the checklist is always accessible so you can update it with any new information.
4. Create a timetable
Separate one or two hours every day when you will tackle some of your house moving chores. Taking out one hour every day might not seem like a lot, but you will be surprised at how much you will accomplish if you do this consistently. Do not be tempted to do too much by setting aside long periods. The problem with doing that is; it is too disruptive, and you could get fatigued.
5. Create a plan
Design a plan for how you will tackle your packing. What approach will you use? There are several ways to pack the house. You can choose to start with the least-used items in your home. You may pack by room or according to categories (book, clothes, furniture, etc). Whichever method you choose, remember to pack a suitcase of important stuff for each member of your household.
6. Inventory your belongings
This step ensures that if you need something urgently, you will not have to go through all your boxes to find it. Secondly, you will be able to tell if your belongings get missing. To inventory your items, list every item under the perfect section before placing it in a box. When you unpack in your new home, do the same thing in reverse.
7. Purge the house
Moving house is a decent time to take stock of what you own, what you still need, and what is no longer valuable. Among your belongings, you will invariably find broken, old or duplicate stuff. Do not transport unnecessary items to your new home. Sort the things you don’t need into three piles; items to trash, donate, and sell.
8. Organize your boxes
Part of your goal when packing should be to make unpacking in the new home as painless as possible. One of the ways you can do this is to label your boxes accurately. To make boxes easy to identify, color-code your rooms and label each box using the colors of the room where it belongs. Also, use labels that make it easy for your movers, such as “LOAD FIRST,” “FRAGILE,” etc.
9. Pack boxes securely
One thing you don’t want during the move is for boxes to burst during lifting or for their contents to injure people. To prevent this, arrange the heavier items at the bottom, secure boxes with tape (sideways and bottom), and make sure boxes do not exceed 50 pounds. Also, wrap sharp or pointed objects securely before packing them. Do the same for fragile items.
Finally, make sure you get enough sleep throughout the period, stay hydrated, eat well and get friends or family to help you.
