Make The Moving Process Easy With These 5 Tips
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Along with serious illness and divorce, moving house is said to be one of the most stressful things you can go through in life. Even the mere thought of packing up an entire house into boxes and waiting for a moving day, arranging a removal company and unpacking at the other end in your new home is enough to raise most peoples blood pressure.
However, there are some things that you can do to make the process a little smoother and more straightforward, and here, we look at a few of them.
Choose the right estate agent
Choosing the right estate agent or solicitor is essential for a stress-free move. Before you sign any contracts, spend some time with them and make sure you are both singing from the same hymn sheet in terms of timescales and what you are looking for in your new home. Their job is to act as the middle man between your old house and your new house – finding you properties, arranging viewings, organising the financial side of things such as your NHS mortgages and sorting out any issues that may pop up during the process.
Do your research by checking online reviews and comments on their social media profile. These can tell you a lot about a company before you sign up with them. If you do have any problems, let them know as soon as possible so you can get things straightened out before it becomes an even bigger issue.
Choose a reliable removal company
You are trusting all of your possessions to your removal company so, just like your estate agent, make sure that you choose a reliable and trustworthy company. Check out the reviews, about removal companies in your area. Of course, you can do the transportation of your possessions yourself by hiring a removal van which can work out somewhat cheaper. However, do you really know how to get a three-bedroom house on to the back of a truck without damaging anything? Probably not! Some jobs are better left to the professionals.
Be organised with your packing
Packing is one of the most stressful parts of the house moving process. Many new homeowners lose things and break things while packing and moving, or end up with boxes everywhere filled with stuff from various rooms. However, if you are organised in the first place, you will find it much easier.
Go through each room in your house methodically, wrap any delicate or breakable items in bubble wrap and pack them into clearly labelled boxes. If you do not have time, or simply do not want to, many removal companies will do it for you.
Having a big declutter session before you start packing up can also make it easier. Hire a skip to get rid of any rubbish and give any unwanted items to charity shops or sell on Facebook Marketplace or Gumtree. You never know – you might recuperate some of your moving costs!
Consider storage
Once you’ve organised your things and got rid of anything you no longer want, like, or need, you may still be left with many items that you haven’t found a place for in your new home yet.
Renting a storage unit to keep the things you don’t need at the moment, but still want to hold on to, can prove to be a practical solution. Keeping your undecided belongings in a safe place, is a good way to reduce the stress of moving as it gives you more time to decide what you want in your new home.
When looking for storage make sure to choose a company that is both reliable and local such as Now Storage self storage in Reading.
Create a checklist
I’ve found that one of the easiest ways to stay organised when moving home is to have a checklist of all the things you need to do before moving day and on moving day.
Here are some of the checklist items I would include on my before moving day lists:
- Start sorting – sell, donate or recycle old unwanted items.
- Book your moving day van/storage.
- Get moving supplies – boxes, tape, marker pens, bubble wrap.
- Contact schools/doctors/bank/work to change your address.
- Notify utilities – a great time to switch energy deals and sign up to broadband.
- Cook some easy to prepare meals for moving day.
- Pets and kids – make moving day arrangements.
- Keep important documents to hand.
This list is a good start for checklist prompts. The more organised you are before moving day the more stere-free it will be on the day.