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Ask anyone who has moved at least once in their life, and they will likely be more than happy to let you know how awful the experience was and that they are never doing it again!
This is fair enough since most folks have no experience in this sort of thing, but the reality is that with the proper undertaking of how things work and the processes involved, moving needn’t be an activity akin to something extraordinarily terrible.
Instead, with the proper knowledge at your fingertips, the process can go exceptionally smoothly, and you can pack, move in, and unpack all within a small amount of time and back into a state of normality before you know it.
This is the post to provide you with this knowledge, and by the end, you should be able to move house without feeling as though your world is imploding and you have become addicted to paracetamol to deal with the headaches.
When it comes to the moving company, most folks will check online to see any that have the best reviews, see what they cost, and call it a day. This is the usual way because although the movers are an integral part of the process, there is just so much more to get done (along with work and family responsibilities) that most simply can’t spend too much time here. However, as you might not be surprised to hear, this is absolutely the wrong way to go about it. Instead, you ought to look at the various companies and see what additional extras they might offer. For
instance, choosing a moving company that offers extra Packing services could be the difference between you missing your self-allocated deadlines and moving in stress-free. Even if you plan on saving some money and doing it all yourself, check to see if you can purchase the packing materials from the mover, as they will have a range of packing materials that have been designed to protect and secure a range of items (not to mention that it’s actually far more complicated to find the correct packing materials than most people think). Outside of this, other services that might be beneficial include:
Furniture assembly: If particular furniture needs to be disassembled to fit through doors, this service can be a real boon, helping you get set up while you focus on other things. Moreover, if you bought a set of new furniture for your new home, check if they can also assemble those for the same reasons.
Oversized/ overweight items:Anything oversized or overweight will always cause issues, and simply moving them into your new place can be problematic.
Storage: You might not be able to decide what stuff you want or need right away. By choosing a moving company that offers storage, you can keep these things safe and secure until you’re ready to move them in.
Fine art transportation:This might be a niche point, but if you do happen to own any form of fine art, it usually needs to be packed and transported in a certain way.
Every great move begins and ends with the humble checklist. There are various ways to approach this checklist, including opting for a master list that lists everything you need to do or breaking it down into task-specific lists. How you go about it is up to you and how you prefer working, but as long as you have something to look at and check off jobs, you can remove a lot of the strain from your brain. You can find plenty of templates to use by looking online and simply tweaking them to meet your needs.
Before you even begin thinking about the actual move, you can save yourself a lot of time and effort by going through your belongings and seeing if there’s an opportunity to declutter your life. We all have a habit of hoarding various things throughout our lives, but we never really know how bad it’s become until we are facing down the barrel of a move and it suddenly hits us that actually, we have probably got far too much stuff than we ought to have. So what can we do about it? Well, the most obvious is by going from room to room and separating all of your stiff into three distinct piles:
Keep: Anything you believe you still need or want will go into this pile, but make sure to go through it at least once more so you are happy with what’s left over.
Donate: Donating old stuff you no longer need or want is a great way to get rid of things while giving it away to those who might be unable to afford anything new.
3.Discard: Anything that no longer serves its intended purpose and is in no fit state to be given away will end up in the discard pile. Just make sure you have rented out a dumpster because you’re going to find that this pile is going to fill up pretty fast!
Getting in on top of your utilities is vital to ensure that when you move into your new abode, you aren’t left in the dark and also that you’re not still paying for the new occupant of your old home. In most cases, this is a simple case of contacting the various utility companies based in your new location and setting up a contract with them. Just remember to include things like your internet connection, as this is something you really don’t want to be without these days, especially when you’re in a new home and need all the online help you can get for specific tasks.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of running around the place and doing a little packing here and a little bit of packing there. But this is not really a great system as it leaves you open to mistakes and that sinking feeling that no matter how much work you’re doing, nothing seems to look any different. Instead, you should work room by room methodically, focusing on the least used rooms first. In many cases, starting with a room like a garage will be your best bet as it will free up space to store your other belongings as you move throughout each space. You can also add a packing system to your checklist, which will make the process easier to follow and, therefore, less stressful.
If there is one trick that will save you an inordinate amount of time and anguish, it’s to label your boxes. This might sound like a blindingly obvious tip, but believe us when we say you should always label them based on what they contain and which room they are intended for. You don’t need any fancy stickers here; a simple Sharpie and some time are all it takes to write down everything contained within the box so that when the time comes to unload it all, you can prioritize things based on need. For instance, there is no use unpacking all of your makeup before you’ve even unpacked your clothes, and knowing what’s in each box will help you to achieve a level of packing organization unmatched by anything more complex.
Anyone who needs to know about your move and your new address should be notified in advance. This includes your job (you’d probably tell your HR department where you’re going) and having your post redirected. This will allow you to get settled in much faster and ensure that any valuable mail or notifications are directed to where they need to be, rather than having to chase them around while you’re also trying to settle in.
An essentials box will help you and your family move in without having to worry about rifling through all the boxes just to get to the things you need to live a normal life. You can create one for each member of the family, and it should contain things like your most used toiletries, any electronics, chargers, and really anything you require to make your first few days more comfortable. This simple step will reduce an innumerable number of headaches, particularly if you have small children who are constantly asking you where their favorite toy or phone charger might be.
If you have taken the time to measure the doorways in your new home and synced them up with your existing furniture, you will make your life a lot easier when it comes to moving everything around. Obviously, if you’ve selected the options mentioned in the first paragraph, your movers will perform this step for you. If, however, you have chosen the path of most resistance and opted to go it alone, then this step will let you know if you need to take anything apart before you chip the paint and damage your future, attempting to force things through where they don’t fit.
Moving needn’t be overly complex or stressful as long as you follow a set of guidelines and move through the process efficiently. These tips should get you started, but with a little more research, you can find lots of online resources to help you further.
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