Ok, maybe that was a lie โ no move is ever 100% stress free โ but Iโve gotten close! As many of you know, Iโve moved a tonโฆ more than I care to admit, actually. In my 12 years of adulthood alone Iโve moved 10 timesโฆ10 times!!!! It almost makes me sick to think how โunsettledโ Iโve been the last 12 years of my life but hopefully (Iโm crossing everything I can cross) this last move (my 11th!) was my last for a very, very, very, long time! Itโs comforting to know that this move was into a place thatโs all OURS! It sorta takes the sting outta of having to pack and unpack one last time.
To say that Iโve acquired a few tips and tricks over the last 10ย 11ย moves would be quite the understatement. I thought maybe Iโd help a girl, or guy, out and share a few of the things Iโve learned along the way in case youโre preparing for your next move too.
Donโt procrastinate
Nothing like waiting the last minute to pack an entire house, am I right? No matter how much you try to convince yourself that โyou donโt have that much to packโ or โit wonโt take that longโ, IT WILL. Itโll take more time, youโll need more tape and boxes than you originally thought. Guaranteed.ย
As soon as you know youโre moving โ start packing! Pack a few boxes each night. Pack up all the non-essential items and live with less in the weeks leading up to your move. Pull everything off the walls, patch the holes, trust me…you donโt need that ceramic antelope head hanging while youโre in this transitional phase of life! Your house will eventually feel like a barren wasteland but in the last few days at your old digs youโll be so glad didnโt procrastinate instead of having to pull all-nighters packing to make up for lost time.
At 2 weeks away from move day we were living with no couch pillows, 3 towels, plastic plates, 2 cups and 5 rolls of TP. And guess what? The entire house was packed and we survived. The TP situation was a little precarious there for a minute but it all worked out!
Less is more
Moving is the BEST excuse to downsize your belongings. When weโre forced to physically set eyes and hands on every.single.thing. youโll be surprise at how willing you are to part with items you probably wouldnโt have before. If you havenโt touched it, worn it, or even looked at it in quite some time, get rid of it! Set it aside to donate, sell, or just toss it. Nowโs the time!
As soon as we started house hunting I began Craigslisting items I knew I didnโt want to take with me and the items I couldn’t Craigslist got set aside for a yard sale. If you sell it or donate it before you move, guess what?! You donโt have to move it! Plus you get a little cha-ching in your pocket too.
Pack like items with like items
In the early days of packing and moving Iโd go room to room and pack up the room as a whole without a thought to what I was actually putting inside the box. Iโd tape that bad boy up and write โBedroomโ or โDining Roomโ on the outside and thought I was the most organized person ever. When we needed to find the sheets Iโd have to open 8 boxes labeled โBedroomโ before I could find what I was looking for.
So I got smarter. Or so I thought! I started writing a laundry list of items on the outside of each box as a way to inventory the items inside. But letโs get realโฆwhen youโve moved all day, itโs the end of the night, youโre exhausted, do you really want scroll through a laundry list of items on the outside of 80 boxes to find what youโre looking for? The answer is no.
I found the reverse to be true as well. In the following days after the big move when weโre unpacking boxes, Iโd see words like โpaperโ or โmiscโ on the outside of the box and say to myself โoh hell noโ and wouldnโt touch any box with certain words for days, weeks, sometimes even months (!), just to avoid having to deal with whatever lurked inside.
After a lot of trial and error I found that the best approach to packing
and unpacking is to pack like items with like items. But what does that mean?
For me it meant gathering all the sheets, towels, home decor glass, etc. I had scattered throughout the house in various closets, cupboards, cubby holes, and packing them all together in the same box. When I got to the new house, it allowed me to survey the entire group of items and make the appropriate storage choices going forward.
What I’ve learned over the years is that every home you move into has different storage offerings. Some homes offer more, while many offer less. Maybe in the new house you’re able to store all your towels together whereas in your previous home you had to store your towels in each individual bathroom. Packing like items together allows you to make those storage decisions inย one glance. Had you packed your boxes by room, as most people do, you might end up touching your towel collection 2 or 3 different times because you’re pulling towels out of 2 or 3 different boxes. Make sense?
Pack a 1st night box
One of the most helpful things I started doing was packing a 1st night box. After a long day of moving, all you really want to do is relax and go to sleep. But getting to that point can be hard when youโve got to go to the bathroom (whereโs the TP?), you want to hop in the shower and clean off (what box is the shampoo in?), or just need to wash your dirty box moving hands (who has seen the hand soap?).
You can avoid the frustration and crankiness if you pack a box that contains all the essentials you might need on your 1st night in the new digs without floundering around to find what you need. I always pack:
- ย ย ย ย ย A set of freshly washed sheets for each bed
- ย ย ย ย ย A roll of TP for each bathroom
- ย ย ย ย ย A roll of paper towels
- ย ย ย ย ย Plates, cups, utensils (I always have a stash of paper products leftover from parties)
- ย ย ย ย ย Trash bags
- ย ย ย ย ย Band-Aids
- ย ย ย ย ย Aspirin / Tylenol
- ย ย ย ย ย Tape
- ย ย ย ย ย Screwdriver
- ย ย ย ย ย Hammer
- ย ย ย ย ย Batteries
- ย ย ย ย ย Hand Soap
- ย ย ย ย ย Shampoo / Conditioner / Body Wash / Bar Soap
- ย ย ย ย ย Any important documents
- ย ย ย ย ย A Ziploc bag of dog/cat food for your furry friends โ theyโll be hungry (and scared) too!
Let the pros handle it
Moving is already a huge expense and I never wanted to pay more than I had to. For me that meant leaning on friends and family to schlepp boxes instead of hiring a moving company to do all the heavy lifting. While my friends and family were always willing to lend a hand, often times it took several trips and an entire weekend to move from point A to point B. After much convincing from my better half, we hired movers the last time we moved and let me tell you โ itโs 100% worth the money. What normally would take us an entire weekend took them about 4-6 hours. We too lent a hand to the professionals by carrying down boxes and loaded up our own vehicles with the more breakable items but these guys know what they were doing, our mattresses and furniture was shrink wrapped for protection, and they got us loaded and unloaded in record time. It saved us from having to inconvenience our peeps and it saved our backs (and theirs too). Itโs a small price to pay and I would absolutely do it again in a heartbeat.
Something to Remember:
If you decide to hire a team of movers be aware that theyโll be walking in and out of your home a billion times. If youโre a renter and wish to keep your carpets as clean and intact as possible, or a new homeowner with freshly laid flooring, consider asking that one person stays inside with booties or without shoes to relay boxes and such items to the team outside. That way theyโre not tracking dirt or debris inside.
This time around not only did we hire movers, we seriously considered hiring a cleaning service as well. Moving out of a rental requires you to return the unit in the condition in which you received it โ read CLEAN.ย And if Iโm being honest? I didn’t really want to waste my time and energy cleaning an apartment that my heart wasn’t invested in anymore. Not to mention the horrible experience we had with the leasing company to get our money back after cleaning the apartment ourselves.
My mom and I spent an entire day cleaning that place top to bottom. We even cleaned all the baseboards and trim in an effort to get our deposit back. A week later they invoiced us $250 for a cleaning fee. When I questioned them about it, they sent over pictures of a few dust bunnies on top of the fridge and what they said were hard water spots on a bathroom faucet. And Iโm not even kidding. Unreal. I fought it and eventually got them to drop the fee but it was an unnecessary headache I didn’t want to repeat. At least this time around Iโll have a receipt to show that the apartment was cleaned โ and it wonโt to cost me $250 either.ย
Some times it’s best to leave these things to the pros and the few extra bucks are worth your sanity in the end.
Take inventory
Whether you want to be super detailed about it or just want to do a quick box count, itโs important to take stock of what youโre moving. Itโs true โ sometimes things get lost in the shuffle. If you do a quick count while the boxes are being loaded and another as theyโre off loaded you can quickly see if youโre missing any boxesโฆhard to do when youโre taking several trips โ all the more reason to hire a pro to do it in one! If youโve come up a box or two short rack your brain and try to think about where it might be. Did you leave it on the porch as you were locking up? In the garage? Itโs better to know whatโs missing early on than after youโre moved and settled in but still canโt find the box with your coffee makerโฆ
And speaking of losing items in transit โ always carry with you any valuables or important documents you keep close by – jewelry, birth certificates, social security cards, money…etc. At the end of the day, the only one you want handling those items are you and your hunny.
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Well guys…I think I’ve done enough rambling for today! Don’t you think?! I hope you find these tips helpful. I know any move can cause stress and anxiety – I would know – but it doesn’t have to! Are you preparing for a move too? Or if you’ve moved before, what are some helpful tips we should all keep in our back pocket? Chime in below!
Check back in next week for a little house update – things are moving along over here!
2 responses to “Tips for a stress-free Move”
Dishes – Plates, saucers and other dishware can be stacked and wrapped three or four pieces at a time and placed on edge, not flat, in the bottom of medium-sized packing boxes lined with crumpled packing paper. Delicate cups and glasses should be filled with crumpled tissue or packing paper and wrapped individually. Place these delicate items near the top of the box with crumpled packing paper between each layer to ensure there are no gaps.
Thanks Robert! That's such a great tip! Nothing worse than broken dishes upon arrival.