Tips to keep it simple when moving.

This article is going to be about a few tips on how to move homes. It will include some specific strategies and approaches you can use to make the moving process go much more smoothly. Moving is one of the most overwhelming things we can do, it’s always more work than we think it’ll be. This post will give you some ideas for what you can do to reduce the stress around moving, to make it go more smoothly. 

The first advice is to start packing and preparing early and the reason for this is just that if you’re able to start early, then you can break down the packing process into smaller pieces and it’s simply less overwhelming by just doing a little bit every day. It just becomes less overwhelming and it just makes it feel more doable, it actually is more doable. But on top of that, it makes it way more likely that you can actually pack intentionally and in the exact way you want to, so you can actually use that period of going through all your stuff to declutter some items. If you’d like to reduce the number of items that you have, it’s a great chance to really downsize your items and focus on what you really need. By starting early, you can be really intentional about your packing and where you’re placing things. As part of this, it’s important to set your move date early so that you have that point that you need to be ready for. Planning early will also increase the likelihood that you’ll get all the packing supplies you need and it might also increase the likelihood that you’ll be able to get more sustainable packing options, like borrowing boxes from friends or from local stores. Overall, packing and planning the move early is just going to make the entire process less stressful.

The second advice is to take everything in a given category, put it in one place and declutter from there. For example, if you have numerous bathrooms in your home, take all the stuff from both bathrooms and bring it together, so that you can really see everything you have in that particular category. That’s going to both help with your organization and allow you on the other end to know where things are. Keeping everything in a category when you pack just makes it easier on both ends as far as organization, but it also provides the opportunity to declutter, because when you bring everything in a category together, it makes it apparent what items really should go. 

The third piece of advice is to not go at this alone. Specifically, if you can swing it, it would be highly recommended to hire some movers, because they are professionals and they know what they’re doing. Especially if you hire movers that are just really efficient, they can get a lot done in a really short period of time and greatly reduce the headache of moving. If you’re on a tight budget, only hiring movers for a couple hours can make a big dent in the moving day process. And if you’re on a really tight budget you could get a few friends to help you out. 

Advice number four. Practice some self-compassion and unpack slowly, take your time, use it as another opportunity to declutter on the other end, because sometimes decluttering does take a few times. A move process forces you to go through all your stuff two times, so take advantage of it and declutter as you unpack as well as packing. Also taking your time to unpack, will allow you to be very intentional about where you place things in your new home and it will allow you to find a specific spot for each item that you have. Lastly, use the move as an opportunity to form new habits in the new space. If you’ve noticed there’s some item that you tend to always leave out, or an area that tends to get messy, use this new space as an opportunity to reset and really be mindful about putting things away and in their place. Also moving is often exciting and you’re excited about your new space, so this is a time where you’re naturally going to have more motivation to be neater and to be taking care of your home. Take this as an opportunity to cultivate a new light airy space that you feel very comfortable in. If you’re not moving you can keep this in mind for future moves and there are probably pieces of this that also just apply for general decluttering.