While nobody can possibly possess all human abilities at once, ideally, you’ll have those skills that matter the most during a house move.
In the majority of cases, hiring movers – specialists with a specific set of expert skills – proves to be the reasonable way to move across the country. The truth is that you’re going to need a variety of skills to be able to pull off an exemplary move, especially if you choose not to hire professional moving services.
Are you skillful enough to organize a smooth move with minimum stress and no major problems of any kind?
Read on the learn the top 5 skills you need to have when moving to guarantee the success of your relocation project.
1. Organizational skills
Without a doubt, the most useful skill to have when moving from one house to another is to organize your time in the best possible way – from Day 1 until the day you move into the new place, and even after that. It’s important to understand that no matter how many days you have to prepare to move out, good time management is critical for the success of the entire house moving operation.
Your abilities you have to stay completely focused on your various moving tasks and to use your time and energy effectively and efficiently will be your greatest asset when planning a house move. If you happen to be proud of your organizational skills in general, then you shouldn’t find it too hard to achieve the desired outcome – to have a smooth, trouble-free move from start to finish.
Your strong organizational skills will enable you to establish order and structure in the typically chaotic pre-move period. Perfect time management should be your ultimate goal, and to achieve it, you’re going to need the perfect time management tool – the secret weapon that will increase your overall productivity and performance.
So, what’s the tool that will ensure the operational efficiency of your move? It’s the MOVING CHECKLIST – the super-detailed to-do list full of all essential moving tasks you must complete before your move-out day.
Read also: How to organize a perfect move
2. Packing skills
Another super-important skill to have when moving house – especially when organizing a Do-It-Yourself move – is to know how to pack up your things quickly and safely. Taking into account that packing for a move is the most time-consuming and energy-draining task in your moving checklist, you should definitely use your acquired packing skills to bring the packing marathon to a successful end.
Unless you’ve hired a full-service moving company that will pack up all the household items you’re moving, you’ll have the perfect opportunity to put your packing skills to the test. Obviously, the first thing you’ll need to bear in mind is that there’s a huge difference between packing clothes for moving and packing kitchen plates for a move.
No matter confident you are in your masterful packing skills, the 3 most important things to remember before you start packing up your stuff are:
- Follow a good PACKING TIMELINE, always. A well-made packing calendar will guide you throughout the entire packing project, getting you mentally ready for what’s to come next.
- Prepare all packing supplies in advance so that you don’t interrupt the house packing process, thus wasting valuable time in searching for extra packing materials.
- Use packing paper and bubble wrap generously when packing fragile items that can easily get broken during the haul. Don’t skimp on padding materials as that could only backfire on you later on.
Must-read: Hand-picked packing tips
3. Negotiation skills
You’re probably wondering why you may ever need negotiation skills when moving house. Who am I supposed to negotiate with? you may ask.
The thing is that you can always use good negotiation skills in almost every aspect of your life, but when it comes to a house move, there are a couple of instances where your honed ability to reach a mutually beneficial agreement between two parties will pay big dividends:
- Negotiate with your movers. By now you should know that hiring the best movers in your town or city won’t be cheap. The good news is that moving company rates are not set in stone, so you should always try to negotiate a better deal with your movers.
First of all, ask the pros about any ongoing deals, promotions, or discounts you can take advantage of to pay less in the end. And secondly, tell them that you have a lower cost estimate from one of their competitors and see if they will be willing to price-match or even beat that alleged offer. - Negotiate with your friends. Why would you ever need to negotiate with your pals? When moving by yourself, you’re going to need to ask your buddies to help you out, either with packing or furniture moving, or both.
And that’s exactly when you’ll need to use your negotiation skills – if not, then you may not be able to summon enough friendly helpers to pull off a successful DIY move.
Read also: How to negotiate with moving companies
4. Problem-solving skills
Another skill that will help you tremendously during the transitional period of moving between two homes is the ability to quickly identify underlying issues and implement a good solution to those problems. Without a doubt, such problem-solving skills will definitely help you resolve various move-related issues quickly and effectively.
The first step, of course, is to use your analytical skills to identify the nature of the problem. Once you do that, you should look for, find, and apply the best solution to that specific problem under the presented set of circumstances.
Here are a few examples of effective problem solving during a house move:
- Problem: You’ve got too little time to prepare to move out.
Solution 1: Use a great moving checklist to organize your time perfectly.
Solution 2: Hire the best full-service movers in your city. - Problem: You have no idea where to begin packing and what to pack first.
Solution: Start from the rooms you use least frequently, usually the storage areas in your home – basement, attic, garage, closet, spare rooms. - Problem: Your big couch won’t go through the door.
Solution 1: Disassemble partially the large furniture piece.
Solution 2: Call up furniture movers for help. - Problem: The price that movers have asked is too high for you.
Solution 1: Reduce greatly the number of household items you’re moving.
Solution 2: Pack whatever you can by yourself to cut packing costs.
Good to know: What can go wrong during a move
5. Ability to work under pressure
It’s no secret that moving house is believed to be one of the most stressful events in a person’s life. You may already know this from personal experience but if you don’t, then it suffices to mention the major reasons for the great doses of move-related stress:
- you’ll have to pay good money, for moving is EXPENSIVE,
- you’ll likely have LITTLE TIME to get ready to move out,
- you will be taken way out of your COMFORT ZONE, and
- you’ll get to feel the FEAR of the uncertain post-move future.
This is why your ability to work under pressure will help you immensely during the stressful days of hyper-busy preparation. Mostly, it’s about managing to stay calm during the move and not becoming too overwhelmed or stressed out by everything that’s happening around you.
Needless to say, it won’t be easy to keep your cool when your money, time, and future are all on the line. However, if you tend to respond effectively to pressure and stress, then you should be able to perform better in those critical moments where most people will just panic and become ineffective in their actions.
See also: How to stay calm when moving
One of the most efficient ways to stay calm under the stress of moving is to give yourself as much time as possible to prepare to move out. Another tactic to keep stress in acceptable doses is to learn how much your move will cost in advance so that you eliminate the stress of not knowing the sum you will have to pay in the end.
And of course, knowing that your good friends are there for you and will give you hand when you need it the most will reduce greatly the stress of moving house.
Useful advice: How to reduce stress when moving
