Moving can be incredibly stressful. Disorganization can make things that much worse. It’s incredible the amount of things that have to get done. You’ve think you could just pack it up, move it and unpack it but no, there’s a lot more that goes into moving then you might initially think. Depending on whether you are moving across the city, the country or to another country also makes the whole process more or less complicated. The best thing to do when you are feeling overwhelmed is make a list. So, here is a list of the main steps that you have to do when moving.
Take Inventory
This is the time where you look at everything that you have and decide whether or not you want to have it in your new home. Keep in mind that the more you get rid of, the less you will have to move. If you move it yourself, it’ll make things easier; if you use a moving company, it could make things cheaper. Plus, who wants to move into a brand new house and still have all of your old, beat up things scattered around? A new house represents a new start and you’ll probably want new things to go with it.
Get Rid of Things
Once you have determined all of the things that you want to get rid of there are several things you can do. Before the movers show up (whether they are a professional local moving service or your friends) you could list the items that are still good on place likes Offer Up and Craig’s List or you could hold a yard sale if you want to make money off of them. Then whatever is left over you can either disperse out through friends or donate to a charity.
Decide How to Move it
After you see how much stuff you actually have, that’s when you will need to determine how you are going to move it. You could hire a moving company or do it yourself, it really just depends on what you want and how much you can spend. If you do it yourself, you could find friends with trucks or you could rent a moving van. Otherwise, you could look into different moving companies and find out which one is best depending on your budget and your needs.
Locate Boxes
If you decide to move yourself, then you’ll need to find boxes. You can buy brand new ones for fairly inexpensive but if you need a lot, it could add up. If you are feeling adventurous, you could visit the backs of all the major stores in your area and pull boxes out of their dumpsters. Sometimes, if you check on local selling websites, you can find private citizens offering boxes for sale that are in decent condition.
Pack it Up
Once you have your boxes, it’s time to start packing. This is pretty self explanatory. Fragile things need to be wrapped before packed and each room should be packed together.
Move it
Then the big day arrives and you move it all out to the new place. This is done in the friend’s trucks, car loads, moving vans, ships, planes or more depending on where you are moving to.
Decide Where it Goes
As the organizer, you should be at the house before the stuff arrives. This way you can let the movers know which room everything goes in. It’ll be a lot easier to unpack if you already have the boxes in the correct rooms right from when they get there. If you just pile everything in the living room, unpacking will be a nightmare.
Unpack it All
This is probably the worst part. Unpacking. But, at least you will have hopefully gotten rid of a lot of stuff so you won’t have too much to unpack.
If you go with a moving company then you might have a much easier time because they offer things like packing and getting boxes for you. Moving companies will usually have insurance and certain things in place to make sure that your items are protected if you decide to have them pack it all up for you. Using a moving company might be more expensive but it definitely makes things a lot easier for you to manage.
