Moving to a new home can be an exhilarating time of your life full of new opportunities and exciting prospects. However, the process of moving your entire home to a new place can also be quite exhausting, if not stressful.
Fortunately, there are things you can do to make things easier for yourself.
Table of Contents
- 1 1. Start Collecting Boxes Early
- 2 2. Start Packing Early
- 3 3. Declutter and Purge
- 4 4. Change Your Mailing Address
- 5 5. Take Care of Utilities and Services
- 6 6. Consider Hiring a Moving Company
- 7 7. Set Aside Essential Boxes
- 8 8. Stay Organized
- 9 9. Get Friends and Family to Help
- 10 10. Be Ready to Roll with the Punches
- 11 Want an Easy Moving Day?
1. Start Collecting Boxes Early
As soon as you know you will be moving, start collecting boxes to save yourself from the hassle of last-minute scrambling.
While you can invest in some higher quality boxes from a moving company, you can also try your luck hunting for free boxes. Check out local recycling centers and retail stores.
Go to 24-hours stores like Walmart early in the morning while the shelves are being restocked to find empty boxes by the cart-load. Alternatively, you can check nearby book stores, furniture stores, department stores, etc. You’ve got nothing to lose by making a quick phone call to potential free box sites, but it could lead to an easy moving experience.
2. Start Packing Early
If you’re like most people, you probably have entire rooms of your house that you rarely use. Start boxing up these rooms ahead of schedule to save yourself the anxiety of packing up the entire house at once.
For example, if you know you’re moving in a month, start packing up your things from storage spaces, spare bedrooms, and extra bathrooms. While it may create small inconveniences here and there, it’s much better than trying to cram it all into one effort in the future.
3. Declutter and Purge
If you want an easy moving day, move less stuff.
When you move to a new home, you’re confronted with a fantastic opportunity to downsize and declutter your life. Use this time to get rid of all the stuff lying around your house that never gets used. Be ruthless.
For example, did you know most people only wear about 50 percent of the clothes in their wardrobe? Instead of packing all that dead weight with you, purge it out of your life.
Try to avoid adding to the planet’s already excessive waste problem by finding a new home for your stuff, rather than dumping it. You can sell it online, host a moving sale, donate it to charity, or any combination of the three.
4. Change Your Mailing Address
Next, make sure you take care of your mailing address. You don’t want the next residents of the home you’re leaving getting all of your mail. If you aren’t moving to a permanent location yet, ask a relative or close friend if you can redirect your mail to them in the interim.
Otherwise, you could miss out on important mail such as bills, legal documents, important letters from friends and family, etc.
5. Take Care of Utilities and Services
Another important step to ensure an easy moving experience is taking care of your utilities and services at both locations. These include:
- Waste removal
- Water
- Electric
- Gas
- Cable services
- Internet
- Phone lines
You’ll want to be sure to cancel the utilities and services at the home you’re leaving to avoid paying for the next owner or renter’s power or cable. Additionally, call in advance to set up your utilities and services at your new home, that way you don’t have any unfortunate waterless or powerless days when you move in.
6. Consider Hiring a Moving Company
One of the best options for an easy moving day is hiring somebody to do it for you. While you’ll have to consider the costs, hiring a moving company may be a fantastic option if you don’t have the help, ability, or time to move your possessions yourself.
Whether you’re physically incapable or simply to busy to take the time, a moving company can be a saving grace. Some companies that specialize in removals will even box everything up for you. You’ll barely have to lift a finger.
7. Set Aside Essential Boxes
One of the biggest mistakes people make when they move is losing their essential living items (temporarily). It’s easy to lose track of where you packed things when you’ve got dozens of boxes moving from one location to the next.
We recommend setting aside several specially marked boxes for the essential items for given rooms.
You’ll want a bedroom box with your sheets, blankets, pillows, and a few changes of clothes. Additionally, set aside a bathroom box with shower essentials, toilet paper, and everything you use to get ready for the day. Next, keep a kitchen essentials box with everything you need for a couple of meals, including necessary cookware and dishes.
8. Stay Organized
Staying organized is one of the most sure-fire ways to ensure an easy moving experience, and it all starts with packing boxes. Label all of your boxes by room and/or item type. This will help you and whoever is helping you move to place the boxes in the right room of your new home.
Part of staying organized also means knowing how to pack items properly to ensure their safety during the move. Put fragile items together and use plenty of packing materials to cushion them. Additionally, make sure you’ve clearly labeled the box as ‘fragile’.
9. Get Friends and Family to Help
Depending on the size of your home and how much stuff you’re moving, doing everything on your own may be impossible. However, if you can’t or don’t want to afford a moving company, you can always enlist the aid of your family and friends.
Be especially careful when it comes to moving and lifting heavy items. The last thing you want is to throw out your back and have a miserable first week at your new place.
10. Be Ready to Roll with the Punches
It’s said the best-laid plans often go awry. While we hope this doesn’t happen to you, one of the best things you can do to ensure an easy moving day is to stay relaxed and positive, no matter what happens.
Be ready to roll with whatever punches come your way. It could be a flat tire, broken dishes, or some of your help not showing up on moving day. Regardless, your attitude greatly affects your experience in any given situation.
Want an Easy Moving Day?
If you want an easy moving day, plan ahead and get all the help you need, even if that involves hiring a moving company to help you out. Moving your entire life to a new home is stressful enough, why make things harder on yourself.
And if you’re looking for more great advice or information on anything from moving to travel, be sure to check out the rest of our articles before you go.
