Moving home can be one of the most exciting days of your life. This is a chance to experience something new, tackle a new project, or start a new period with a partner or family. However, moving can also be extremely stressful.
Packing your life into boxes, decluttering, and doing your research before moving can take a toll on your personal life and your mental health. For these reasons, when the moving out date has been decided, you should start preparing immediately. Here are some tips on how to do so.
Make a list
Moving home involves many steps. In these situations, starting with the basics can make your life easier and making a list is a good starting point for your moving plan.
It might sound pretty tedious but writing or typing down a checklist will help you recall things much more easily or serve as a handy reminder, thus helping you to avoid forgetting tasks. Things to go on the list can include contacting utility and internet services, asking Royal Mail to forward letters and parcels, and of course, any tasks you will have to undertake on moving day.
Decide if you want to hire someone
If it is a particularly large move you are undertaking, then you will probably want to consider the help of a specialised moving service. The main benefit of using professionals is that they are adept at moving heavy-duty items, as well as squeezing them through tight gaps. If you decide to hire a moving service, you will also have more time and energy to focus, for example, on the packaging of smaller items, thus limiting the breaking of more fragile objects.
Getting help with moving
On the other hand, you might decide to move everything yourself, cashing in some favours from friends and family members. On these occasions, you will need a van or a big car to move all the boxes and furniture and limit the number of trips. If you know anyone who owns a van or a bigger car like a Land Rover or a similar SUV, you could take out car insurance for one day and borrow the car for the duration.
Hire a van
Alternatively, if you do not know anyone who owns a van, you could hire one on your moving day. Hiring a van will allow you to choose a model that is big enough to fit any big furniture and in most cases, you will have insurance coverage for the whole time you are renting the van.
Even with a van, you will likely need to take more than one trip to your new address. Make sure you are well-rested before the moving day to account for this, and that you put your Tetris abilities to make use of the space!
Declutter
Moving is the ideal time to declutter. It can be difficult to separate yourself from items that you have owned for a long time, however, you should try to go through all your items, including clothes, furniture, and anything you own.
Instead of throwing your things away, you can donate to charity anything that can be recycled or do several runs to the tip for items that need to be discarded. You will definitely thank yourself when you are getting closer to the moving day for doing this.
Get your packaging
Once you have decluttered your home, you will have a much better idea of what you are taking with you to your new dwellings. Consequently, you will also know how many boxes or storage units you will need to have ready for packing up and getting prepared for moving day. Try to do this well in advance of moving day as you can begin to pack non-essential items as soon as possible to avoid a last-minute scramble.
Pack
Once all that is done, the only thing left to do in preparation now is pack! This is, without doubt, the most arduous and time-consuming task you will face before moving, so give yourself plenty of time to do so. To help keep the process organised, you could try colour coding your boxes to help remember what is where and where it will need to go at your new home.