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How To: 15 Tips to Help Your Move Be Less Stressful

by on Mar 29, 2016

Source: JoJotastic

Moving to a new home is exciting as you start fresh and begin a new adventure. Moving can also be stressful, but it doesn’t have to be. Here are 15 tips to help your next move be stree free.   

1. Slowly start packing soon after you decide to move. If you are selling your house you will need to remove clutter and personal items to best stage your home anyway so you might as well get started. Set goals that are realistic such as “pack a box a day” or “pack a room a week.” Jojotastic has some great packing tips.

Quick Tip: Don’t load large boxes with heavy things because it makes them harder to move.
15 Tips For A Stress Free Move
Dource: Design Mom

2. Pack things by rooms, label the boxes, and store them together. Design Mom has a great system for labeling and packing boxes.

3. Get rid of things…even furniture. Take the items to their designated places each week. Check out these decluttering tips from Pretty Handy Girl.

Quick Tip: If you want to donate furniture, but don’t want to haul it away, call a thrift store with local pick-up. You can also stick it on your curb with a “free” sign attached.

4. Sell the items you don’t love or need anymore. If you do this before the move you won’t have to load and unload it and have it waste space in your new home. Here are some great tips for selling furniture on Craigslist.

 

15 Tips For A Stress Free Move

 

 

15 Tips For A Stress Free Move

 

5. Take pictures of electronics and keep the cords neat. Pack all these things together with the printed out photo. [Photo source: Apartment Therapy

Quick Tip: If there is no one to watch your kiddos while you move, unpack your television quickly and set up a movie on the floor for your kiddo.

6. Pack a suitcase of necessities you will need for a week. Do this for every person in your family. Place it where you can get to it first.

Suggestions for your Suitcase: Clothes, shoes, toiletries, medicine, towels, and laundry bag
15 Tips For A Stress Free Move
Source: The Wetherills Say I Do

7. Pack a box of household necessities. Again, place it where you can get to it first.

Suggestions for Household Necessities: Cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, toilet paper, hand soap, and paper towels
15 Tips For A Stress Free Move
Source: DIY Home Right

8. DON’T paint your entire house before you move. Painting an entire house on a short timeline is stressful. Of course the exception is if you are paying a professional to do it, but most homeowners tackle their own painting. It always takes longer than you think and you will find yourself tired before you move. Give yourself a break, move into your home, relax a little, and then paint your rooms one at a time. Simply Designing has some great tips on how to paint a room like a pro.

Quick Tip: If you must paint before you move, don’t try to tackle it all. Pick the rooms that will be the most inconvenient to paint after the move, such as a kids room. You could also paint only one wall where a large piece of unmovable furniture will be placed and tackle the rest later.

 

15 Tips For A Stress Free Move
Source: Brute Box

9. Pack your truck well. Here is a great diagram to help distribute weight and maximize your space. Broken things create stress so this is important. 

Quick Tip: Load the boxes of things you will need quickly last so they will be the first things off the truck.

10. If you have a little bit of transition between moves consider a POD. If you have to move out but can’t move in immediately, a POD storage is a great option. Load it into the POD one time, schedule it to arrive on move-in day, and unload it one time. Upack has bigger versions of the POD moving storage. 

11. Hire a cleaning service for the home that you are leaving. Do yourself a favor…you have a lot of work to do at your new home and the last thing you need to do is spend more time at your old one. 

12. Board your pets or ask a friend to take care them. Moving can be stressful for these guys and keeping track of them while doors are open and people are in an out will be stressful for you.

13. Schedule service “turn-off” and “turn-on” in advance for both places a week before you move. 

Quick Tip: If you are buying a home, ask your realtor if the seller is okay with you turning on/switching your utilites the day before your closing date. If you have a final walk thru you can check for any problems with your utilities before you move in the next day.

14. After getting your furniture in place, Unpack each family member’s necessities suitcase. Now you don’t feel like you need to live out of a box, and you don’t have to tear up ten boxes to find something you need.

15. Set up your bed first and make it. Now you have a place to crash and get a good night sleep. You will need it you have unpacking to do and new adventures to begin.

Several clothing items are folded up and ready to be moved.
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If you are reading this because you are about to make a big move…Good luck on your new adventure.

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3 Comments

  1. I placed a strip of lime-green duct tape on boxes with fragile items. It took less time than writing “Fragile” on all four sides of the box, and everyone could see at a glance which boxes needed careful handling.