It’s no secret that moving house is notorious for being both stressful and expensive. In fact, the house moving process can easily prove to be overwhelming for people who don’t have any previous relocation experience.
Under specific circumstances, a house move may even become unbearable in terms of difficulty. With so many things to do in such a limited time, first-time movers are likely to get seriously confused about what they should do next or particularly unsure how to complete the tasks at hand.
And when you yourself are moving for the very first time, then you should know upfront that you have to work extra hard to pull it off the way you want.
The good news is that the experience you will gain from your first move will help you have a much smoother relocation the next time you are forced to move out. But until then, it’s your top priority to make this move more manageable for you and your family.
Here are 7 practical tips that will make moving more bearable.
1. Seek guidance from a moving checklist
When you’re moving out for the first time, one of the major difficulties is that you’ll probably have no idea how to organize your time efficiently. As a result, improper time management – wasting precious time in wondering what to do next – will create a number of related problems, forcing you to start losing control of the situation.
The pressure to finish all tasks on time as Moving day approaches fast is likely to keep increasing until the stress becomes simply unbearable. So, what’s the best way to organize your time and thus keep the infamous moving stress at normal levels?
Make moving more bearable by following a moving checklist – a detailed to-do list of personalized and prioritized moving tasks that will enable you to make the most of your time prior to the move-out date.
Must-see: Moving Checklist: Interactive week-by-week moving timeline
2. Ask friends for timely assistance
Another good way to make moving more tolerable is to ask friends to give you hand, either with packing or with lifting heavy items, or both. Most of your friends should know how hard it is to move house, so hopefully, some of them will agree to help you out during that tough transitional period.
In most cases, you’ll only need friendly assistance when packing for a move and when lifting heavy stuff such as furniture. So, once you realize that you won’t be able to manage it by yourself and when you can’t afford to hire professional moving labor, then you have no choice but to resort to asking your pals for help.
Your good friends will also provide moral support and positive encouragement to make moving more bearable for you. Organizing a farewell party for your helpers is the least you can do to thank them for their immense help during the move.
Read also: How to thank friends for helping you move
3. Move only what you’ll need
Before you can begin to pack up your things in cardboard boxes, you’ll have to carry out the task of inventorying and sorting your possessions. In other words, you’ll need to decide exactly which items you’ll be moving with you.
Packing up and moving all your personal belongings without sorting them out first is usually a serious mistake since there are almost always things that have become useless over time. And moving unwanted or worthless things will not only increase the cost of the move, but it’ll also force you to look for sufficient storage room for them in the new home.
Make your move more manageable by moving only the things you like and intend to use in the foreseeable future. Moving experts are unanimous that if a person has not used an item in over a year, then they don’t really need that said item.
See also: How to declutter your home before moving
4. Use a good packing strategy
One important thing that you should know when moving house is that packing will be the most challenging and time-consuming task in your personal moving checklist. And that’s exactly why you’re strongly advised to come up with a good packing plan even before you’ve packed the very first box.
To make packing endurable, here are a few critical packing principles that you should always keep in mind:
- Initiate the house packing job as soon as you possibly can. Even when you’re confident in your packing skills, double the time you think you’ll need to pack up your stuff.
- Begin packing from the premises that are really tough to sort and pack. Generally speaking, those are storage areas (basement, garage, attic, closets), spare rooms, and the kitchen.
- Prepare all packing supplies in advance so that you don’t have to go through unexpected interruptions later on, thus slowing down the packing process as a result.
Good to know: 5 Golden rules of packing for moving
5. Minimize moving expenses
Budgeting for a move is an important first step to prepare you both mentally and financially for the final bill. And, as a rule of thumb, your move will remain manageable as long you keep moving expenses within that preliminary budget.
Nevertheless, you can’t always predict which tasks will suddenly require more money to be completed, so you should constantly make an effort to spend as little money on each job as you can. Saving a few bucks here and there may not seem like much, but it’s usually the small cost savings that will make the biggest difference in the end.
Whenever possible, do consider using free packing supplies (especially free moving boxes) to keep packing costs to a minimum. Also, opting to pack whatever items you can by yourself (you should still leave any specialty items to professional packers) is likely to save you hundreds of dollars.
Ultimately, it’s your conscious decision to seriously reduce the number of your belongings prior to packing that will enable you to make moving more bearable in terms of moving costs.
Must-read: How to cut moving costs
6. Keep moving stress in check
The bad news is that moving house can be an extremely stressful experience for first-time movers. The good news is that you can make moving more bearable by using proven tricks to reduce the stress of moving.
In order to learn how to handle stress when moving, you’ll need to understand where that stress comes from. All in all, there are 5 major stress-inducing factors when moving house:
- Money. You may need to rely on your savings to cover the moving costs. Ouch!
- Time. The less time you have until Moving day, the more stressful you will feel.
- Comfort zone. Moving out means moving away from family, friends, and familiar surroundings.
- Safety. You worry that you or a family member may get hurt during the chaotic move-out day.
- Uncertain future. You have no idea what awaits you at your destination, so the fear of the future is likely to stress you out even more.
Address each distressing factor individually to reduce the overall stress of moving.
Read also: How to handle the stress of moving
7. Hire full-service movers
The best way to make moving easy is to hire reputable full-service movers. A full-service moving company will take care of each relocation aspect, offering a full range of moving services to fully satisfy their customers’ needs.
Without a doubt, hiring full-service movers will be the most effortless way for you to move across the country. In a way, the whole house moving experience sounds too good to be true… until you realize that because of the extra services such as packing, furniture disassembly, temporary storage (if needed), unpacking, and furniture disassembly, the price of moving will be much higher as well.
Ultimately, you get what you pay for. The extra money you spend on full-service movers can be well worth it, especially when you’re moving out for the first time or you’re facing an emergency move. What’s more, thanks to the various ways to save money during a move, your decision to make moving more bearable by working with a full-service mover can easily be the right choice when you take into account the great number of risks and dangers of DIY moving.
Get a free quote from the best full-service movers in your area to set the wheels in motion.
Learn more: What is full-service moving?
