Tips for Making Your Move Easy

Moving to a new home is an exciting adventure. Packing up your belongings, however, and preparing to move can be incredibly stressful. It’s easy to become overwhelmed by everything that you need to get done. The last thing you want to do is get to your new home only to realize you’ve forgotten something or can’t find what you need. Fortunately, the process doesn’t have to be stress-inducing. Here are a few tips to help make the process easier.

Start Early

One of the best ways to minimize stress and avoid having to do everything all at once is to start the packing process early. Once you know you’re moving, it’s time to start planning and packing. Create a timeline and set specific goals. By writing everything down, you have a clear outline that can help you avoid procrastination.

Take Some Measurements

When you visit your new home for a final walkthrough, bring a tape measure with you. Measure the rooms and the doorways. When you get home, measure your furniture. This will give you a much better idea of what items will fit where. It’ll also let you know whether or not certain pieces of larger furniture, such as your bed frame or sofa, will fit through the door.

Get Rid of What You Don’t Need

As you go through each room of your home, one of the first things you should do is start collecting things you no longer need. There’s no sense in holding onto anything you don’t have a use for, and it will only take up space in your new home. You can always buy new later on. For instance, if you have old mattresses that you know you’re only going to be replacing when you get to your new house, don’t bother packing them up. You can order a bed in a box to be delivered when you arrive.

Stock Up on Supplies

There are plenty of ways to lessen packing time. Make use of your suitcases. Keep clothes in dresser drawers and use plastic wrap to keep things from falling out in transit. For everything else, stock up on packing supplies such as boxes, packing tape, bubble wrap, and sharpies. You may also want to check your tool supplies to make sure you have what you need to disassemble furniture, carry heavy items, and strap everything down.

Create an Inventory

An inventory list is incredibly beneficial for keeping track of all of your items. As you pack things into boxes, number them. Write down everything that went into each box as well, whether it’s pictures, kitchen tools, or your child’s toys. You can also take it one step further and use colored tape (or different colored markers) to mark where each box should go, such as the bedroom, kitchen, or living room. It might seem like a lot of effort at the time, but it’ll make getting things off of your moving truck and into your home much easier.

Pack Some Overnight Bags

When you start packing, be sure to organize things by need. For instance, things that go into a hall closet might get packed into the back of a moving truck because you don’t need them right away. Kitchen items, on the other hand, might go in last (so they’re the first things to come off). No matter how organized you are, though, you’ll likely be exhausted when you arrive at your new home. Have everyone pack an overnight bag with a change or two of clothes and other necessities so you won’t have to unpack anything for your first night. If you have any pets, make sure that their food and water bowls, and a few servings of food, get included in those overnight bags as well.

When you move to a new place, you start a brand-new chapter of your life. Don’t start it off on the wrong foot. With these tips, you can make the process easy and stress-free.