Moving house can be a very stressful ordeal for a number of good reasons. After all, your savings will be at risk of getting depleted and your prized possessions will be at risk of getting damaged in the house moving project.
And as if that weren’t enough, there are so many things to do before moving away that you’re likely to feel completely overwhelmed by the amount of work ahead of you.
And partly due to the insane amount of workload while you’re trying hard to keep everything organized, sometimes you feel like you’re going crazy, especially when friendly help is reluctant to come to your aid.
Follow these moving tips to be able to move house without losing your mind in the meantime.
1. Organize your time with a moving checklist
One of the things that might drive you insane while you’re getting ready to move out is the realization that you’re not using your time efficiently. In other words, you’ve come to the conclusion that you’re wasting precious time simply because you’re not sure what to do next.
The thing that should keep your mind at ease is a good moving checklist to manage your time in the best possible way. You just have to plan ahead every step of your residential move to prevent confusion, disorganization, and loss of time during that super-demanding period – both physically and mentally.
NEVER lose time again when moving to a new home – use our interactive moving checklist as a basis to create a new highly-customized moving timeline.
See also: Interactive week-by-week moving checklist
2. Gather your packing supplies in advance
Starting to pack up your things without having acquired the proper packing materials by your side is a mistake that will cost you extra lost time and wasted nerves. In fact, it can be rather frustrating to have to interrupt the packing process to go look for more cardboard boxes, packing paper or bubble wrap.
To keep your sanity during the toughest and most time-consuming job in your moving checklist, prepare all the necessary packing supplies in advance so that things go smoothly and according to plan. Get hold of free moving boxes to save on packing materials and ease the financial strain on your budget.
Read also: What mistakes to avoid when packing for a move
3. Start packing as early as possible
One of the major sources of stress when moving house is the thought that you may not be able to finish packing by the day you’re scheduled to move out. After all, how are you supposed to move away when you still have many possessions waiting to be packed safely for the move.
And instead of going crazy with worry on Moving day, surrounded by too many unpacked boxes, you should do everything in your power to start packing as early as you possibly can. Don’t underestimate the time it’ll take to pack up your home – packing the storage areas alone requires much more time than you’ll think.
Great to know: How to start packing to move out
4. Declutter your home before packing
Before you start packing for moving though, there’s something you just have to do to be able to keep your sanity throughout the move – to get rid of old, useless or unwanted items. Doing so will not only make packing and moving easier for you, but it’ll also enable you to save big by reducing the transportation costs.
Don’t part with things you love and wish to continue to use in the new place – everything else you should seriously consider selling for extra cash, gifting to friends, donating to charity or throwing away for eco-friendly recycling.
Remember: fewer items to pack and move will mean fewer things to worry about.
Useful to know: How to declutter your home before moving
5. Label your moving boxes
You might be thinking that not labeling your boxes after you’ve packed them up will save you a bit of time. On the contrary, not only will that bad decision lead to hours of lost time after the move is over – when you’re about to start unpacking in the new home, but it can also drive you crazy when being forced to open 15 random boxes to find the coffee maker.
Don’t let simple routine packing tasks get the best of you – make sure you label all boxes with their destination room, contents and handling instructions so that you can identify those containers more easily later on. It’s interesting how a black marker and 30 seconds per box can save you from a lot of post-move headaches.
Be prepared: What’s the best way to label moving boxes?
6. Reduce the stress levels
The infamous stress of moving will start building up from the moment your move has become only a matter of time. And as Moving day approaches, those stress levels are likely to spike and may even reach unhealthy values.
Yes, moving house can be a really stressful period (What makes moving so stressful?), so you should do all in your power to control those stress levels in order to keep your sanity. Organize your time well, pare down your possessions, start packing ASAP, ask friends for help and hire a top-rated and trustworthy mover to reduce stress when moving.
Must-read: How to reduce stress when moving
7. Control your emotions
One thing is clear – moving away from everything you know – home, city, and most importantly, friends – will most likely bring out a potent cocktail of strong emotions for you. Sometimes such emotions may be hard to control, especially if you don’t really want to move out but are forced to do so by a number of external factors.
Surprise, denial, excitement, confusion, fear, sadness, stress, anger, anxiety, depression – these are only a few of the emotions you may have to deal with when moving to a new home. Keep reminding yourself that you’re in control of your own feelings and emotions, and organizing a smooth move will contribute greatly to your mental equilibrium during that tough transitional period.
Good to know: How to deal with emotions when moving house
8. Get help from your friends
At times, a house move can become so overwhelming that you may get the unwelcoming feeling that you’re starting to lose your mind in the process. The truth is that organizing a move often turns out to be too much for one person to handle successfully, so the solution is more than obvious – get help from your pals.
It’s very important to know that you have your friends there by your side during that tough transitional stage. Also, their moral support and physical assistance will be invaluable for you, especially during the packing and furniture moving phases.
Make sure you reach out to your friends as early as possible to minimize the disruption of their own plans.
Get this: How to get friends to help you move
9. Guarantee everyone’s safety
Property damage during a house move is bad, but it’s even worse to have personal injuries during the house moving process. The thought alone that somebody could get hurt when big and heavy furniture pieces are being lugged around the house and taken out to the awaiting moving vehicle.
Avoid going insane with worry about the safety of your family members and your helpers. How?
- KEEP all exit pathways clear of obstacles,
- KEEP small children and pets away from the moving action;
- USE proper moving equipment to move heavy objects, and
- WEAR appropriate clothes and shoes to prevent injuries.
Must-read: How to prevent accidents and injuries when moving house
10. Save money with proven cost-saving techniques
One of the major reasons why residential moving tends to be so stressful is because a house move can be a rather expensive affair. And whenever your savings are at risk, it’s only normal that you’d want to spend as little money as possible to cover the moving expenses.
Keep your sanity when moving by knowing that you’ve done everything you possibly can to reduce the moving costs as low as they can go. Without a doubt, the three major ways to save money when moving to another home are:
- FIND an affordable mover that still offers high-quality services. Yes, it does sound like an impossible task, but in reality, it’s quite possible.
- GET rid of any items that you no longer want and need to move only the things that make sense to be moved.
- PACK whatever items you can by yourself so that you won’t need to pay professional movers to do it for you.
See also: How to save money when moving [10 Tips]
