Moving should be an exciting experience where you hire professional movers and focus on looking forward to your new life in a new home. But unfortunately, that is not how things usually work out. For many of us, moving strikes fear into our hearts, leaving us an anxiety-riddled mess long before the move happens.
By organizing things smartly and taking a couple of precautions, you can minimize the horrendous stress of moving. Maybe, the experience could even be fun if planned properly.
Join us as we look at 5 top tips to make moving to a new home a less stressful and more enjoyable experience.
Inventory Everything
Many people mistake skipping this step, even though it features at the top of nearly every list of moving recommendations. And it’s easy enough to understand why people are opposed to inventorying their entire home’s worth of contents before a move.
It is a lot; even if you live in a smaller home, there are always more things in your home that should rightly fit once you start unpacking closets to inventory your stuff. Thankfully, while there is no way to make the number of things that need a listing on your inventory fewer, there is a way to make it easier.
A great way to go about it is to do one room at a time and divide the room’s contents into logical partitions. The TV remote, gaming console, and retro VHS collection go on the same list, while lamps, indoor plants, and trinkets make a new list.
Get Rid Of Things You Don’t Need
The popularity of chucking out anything that does not ‘spark joy’ attests to just how redundant and unnecessary clutter we wind up hanging on to over the years. And it is a great idea, in theory. However, some essential items will not ‘spark joy,’ and they don’t have to.
The benefits of decluttering when moving are plentiful, especially when reducing the stress of a long-distance move.
Organize Your Home (The One You Still Live In)
Preparing for the next home is easier when your home is well organized. You want every item in the correct space. For example, you might have a kitchen utensil set in your dining room. Is that where you want it in the new home?
If it goes to the kitchen in the new home, it should go in your kitchen now. You’ll be surprised how much this helps simplify things when moving day comes. Then, once you are in your new home and it’s time to unpack, you will thank yourself for having everything pre-organized for the new place.
Label The Label Maker
It’s an old sitcom joke, but seriously, you should label everything. Every box should communicate what is inside, and not only the room in the new home it is headed to at the new house. A box that says ‘kitchen’ could contain anything from cutlery to stone cookware.
Unless you plan on unpacking everything by yourself, it is helpful to have labels on everything so that when you ask someone to unpack certain items, they know which box to check and what else they will find in said box.
Breathe
Packing is stressful. Hauling a move is stressful. Unpacking is stressful. It shouldn’t be stressful. Packing up your old home is a time for reflection, thinking back on good memories, and finding closure.
Likewise, moving and unpacking are experiences worth engaging with on an emotional level. The experience signifies the start of something new, a brand-new chapter in your life filled with potential and the promise of new memories.
Cherish the moments that change brings. It can change your experience so much that the stress of moving melts away to the momentousness of this life event.
