Moving House Can Be a Nightmare: Here’s How to Reduce the Stress

Moving house can be both an exciting and stressful time. For some, it’s a downright nightmare, but it doesn’t have to be that way. In this article, discover the reasons why making the move can be a headache and what you can do to drastically reduce moving day stress.

Why moving house can be a nightmare

Whether you’ve sold your home and are moving somewhere new or you’re going from one rental to the next, if you have a lot of furniture and possessions, it’s a major event that requires loads of organisation. Therefore, one of the main reasons why moving house can turn into a nightmare is due to a lack of preparation, forethought and organisation.

Another contributing factor is leaving everything until the last minute, such as packing boxes, preparing furniture for moving day, changing addresses, organising removalists, and the list goes on.

The weather can also play a crucial role when moving. While everything is generally smooth sailing on a clear sunny day, it’s a totally different scenario if it’s windy and raining. Extra preparation and precautions are required when moving house during inclement weather.

To lower the stress levels and make your move a seamless one, let’s highlight some things you can do to prepare and make moving day a breeze.

Create a moving day plan

Everything in life runs more smoothly if you have a plan, and it’s the same for moving house. If you have the time, it’s best to start planning your move as soon as possible. Draft a plan or a to-do list that includes everything you need to accomplish between now and moving day. You won’t think of everything at once, so just keep adding tasks to your plan.

Don’t just write down tasks to accomplish, but also include a moving day budget. You’ll need to factor in things like sturdy moving boxes, tape, notepads, packing materials, pens, removalist costs and more.

Once you create a moving day plan and to-do list, you’ll immediately feel more confident that you’re on top of everything that needs to be done.

Declutter the home

If you’ve been living where you are for some time, chances are you’ve accumulated quite a bit of clutter and possibly hung onto some unwanted items as well. Now is the ideal time to declutter the home and ruthlessly get rid of the things.

Go from room to room and collect everything you no longer want or need. Anything that’s worthless or has seen better days can be discarded as rubbish. Any items of value you can either sell to make some extra cash to cover moving expenses or give them away to friends, neighbours or charities.

Decluttering is practical as well as therapeutic. The other major advantage is you’ll be left with fewer items to pack and move.

Start packing early

Whether moving day is weeks or months away, you have plenty of time to pack many of your possessions early on. If you go around the home and do an inventory of all the items in each room, you’ll soon discover that loads of things can be packed sooner rather than later. Don’t pack anything you’ll need to use in the interim, but likely more than half of your possessions could be packed immediately.

Packing early really saves you a lot of time and stress as moving day approaches. With fifty percent or more of all household items safely stashed away in boxes well before the big move, you’ll have way less things to pack in the lead-up to the big day.

Another tip is to clean everything thoroughly before you pack it. This way, when you unpack on the other end, everything will be sparkling clean and free of dust.

Label everything

Labelling everything also saves you headaches. Before the move, for example, you might need to find something you’ve already packed. When you do move, having everything itemised makes it easier to unpack on the other end. Let’s highlight some tips for this.

For one, you could label boxes according to rooms. For example, kitchen items are only put in boxes labelled as ‘kitchen’. With this method, you simply unload boxes in the corresponding rooms in the new house and then unpack them.

Another method is even more detailed. This is where you number each box and write out a list of every single item you packed in that box. This makes it so much easier to find something prior to the move if you need to.

You can even colour code boxes if you like, using different coloured markers or highlighter pens for different rooms.

Disassemble and flat-pack furniture

A major hurdle on moving day, whether you hire professional removalists or not, is moving heavy and bulky furniture items. There is the risk of physical injury and damage to furniture, so it’s wise to disassemble or flat-pack any items that you can.

For instance, if you have a slat bed, you can easily disassemble the entire bed down to its individual components. This makes carting those components easier and packing them into a moving truck so much easier.

Another example of how you can lighten the load is to remove everything from inside the fridge. Take out all the shelves and drawers. Pack these separately and leave the fridge as an empty shell. There will be less likelihood of damage, and the fridge will be a little lighter to move as a result.

This practice can be applied to many pieces of furniture to make things easier.

Change addresses before moving day

Don’t leave this until the very last minute. While you can’t change addresses for banks and other places too soon, you can do it a week or two from moving day so your mail makes a smooth transition from one place to the next.

Write out a list of every place where you need to change your address. This way you won’t forget any of them.

Move things closer to exits

It’s a good idea to move things closer to the front door or into the garage in the lead-up to moving day. This saves a lot of time and maneuvering on the actual day and can also save you money by making the removalist’s job quicker and easier.

If you don’t have a garage, you can start stockpiling furniture and boxes in the centre of the living room.

Book a removalist in advance

If you need professional removalists on moving day, don’t leave this until the last minute. Book them early so you’re guaranteed they can make it on moving day. You’ll want a removal company that has a positive reputation, offers a fair quote, and has experience. Once you book your removalist, you’ll have peace of mind.

Adlam Transport is here to help

A successful moving day that’s stress-free is all about being as organised as possible. Make a plan, declutter, and pack early. To ensure your move is safe and free from headaches, hire the experts at Adlam Transport. We have the experience and expertise to do it right. Contact us today for further information or a quick quote. We won’t let you down.