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Pro Tips and Tricks for a Stress-Free Moving

Posted in Moving Essentials,Moving Tips & Tricks on May 10, 2021

When asked what they consider the most stressful event in life, most people wouldn’t say having kids or switching workplaces. Staggering 45% of Americans think that relocating brings the most tension and anxiety, and you probably think this is true if you’ve moved before. So, is stress-free moving achievable? While it’s a common thing to be a bit stressed when going through such a big change in your life, you may reduce your relocation anxiety down to a minimum with some smart tips and tricks.

Albert Einstein once said, “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” But, with all the organizing we have to go through, we tend to let tension overflow us and forget that relocating to a whole new place is exciting and opens up a whole new world full of possibilities. We have to admit that planning and executing everything that relocation involves does take a lot of resources, even the mental ones. We usually forget that we can stop and enjoy ourselves even for a second. But, if we approach the whole ordeal armed with some simple yet fantastic long-distance relocating tips and determination in our mind, we can battle the tension away.

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Why Is House Moving So Stressful?

When we think about the relocation process, we realize that there are so many steps we must take and so many details we mustn’t let slip our minds that it can take a toll even on the most composed of us. Have you found a work position already, or you’re stressing about getting a job before you move? Or are you relocating for love and wondering is moving stressful if you’re in a relationship and bringing up the tension levels just by overthinking it? Then, there’s the part where you have to search for reliable long-distance movers and to wonder how much do movers cost and will it fit into your budget. But most people start panicking when thinking about packaging fragile items and every other household item. Just remember – if you create a plan and stick to it, everything will go much smoother, and you’ll have a stress-free move.

How Can I Stay Calm While Moving?

Going through a move is not easy, and it’s hard not to let anxiety overwhelm you. While it’s perfectly normal to be a bit stressed, as it can help you focus and stay on the task, feeling too much tension can take a serious toll on your organizing and disrupt your meals and sleeping schedule. You must let yourself take a break and do something you love for yourself (if you are relocating to another state alone) or your family, and that’s a great solution to the problem of how to make moving less stressful.

A woman with packages smiling
Being calm amidst the chaos is achievable

Use Stress-Free Moving Tips to Make a Plan

One of the first tips to help you reduce levels of tension is to start preparing early. There are a lot of things that can be done ahead of your move, even up to eight weeks before. While it may seem like a good idea to procrastinate on some of these tasks, don’t let it wait until the last moment. The first step you should take is to create a relocating binder that should be used to store everything important, like receipts, loan documents, and above all, a written timeline for you to follow.

Take Utilities and Other Providers off Your To-Do List

As soon as you know the exact date of the move-out, you should contact your utility company and providers for the internet, cable, and phone services and set the connection and disconnection dates. This will save you from panicking when you arrive at your new address and realize there’s no water, gas, or electricity. That way, your unpacking can become a nightmare, so be sure you take this step in organizing your move on time.

Clean Your Way Through and Get Rid of Unwanted Stuff

There’s an awesome relocating hack if you’re looking for “how to make moving easier and less stressful” tips, and that is to declutter your home thoroughly. Start with the less-used rooms, such as the attic and garage, and throw away anything unusable. Continue through the rest of your home, and make piles of stuff for throwing away, for giving away, and for selling. Making a sale will be good for your relocation budget, and the stuff you want to give away can be donated to charities like Green Drop. Decluttering means that you won’t bring any unwanted items to your new address and that you will have much less stuff to worry about, so this is a win-win tip for reducing tension.

A woman and man piling packages
Give away all the things you don’t use

Call the Cross Country Movers

Let’s face it, you are going to need help for a stressless move. Your friends and family can help you with a lot of tasks, but hiring a reliable company and using their cross-country moving services will help the whole ordeal go much smoother. Search for several companies that fit your needs, call them to get an estimate, and decide. Your friends and colleagues can give you some referrals to help you choose and avoid relocating scams. Do all of this as soon as you have the move-out date, and don’t leave it for later. If you can, book your move for the middle of the week, and consider relocating in winter, as the cost of your move can be a lot lower. Saving money can save you from unnecessary tension, too.

Create a List to Avoid Unnecessary Prices to Pay

One of the relocating essentials needed to master stress-free moves and packing is creating a household inventory list. This is crucial if you’ve decided to hire professionals for moving cross country, and especially because of insurance. Write down every single item you plan on transporting with you, and if this seems like a lot of work, remember it will be easier to find out if anything is missing when you start to unpack or to file a claim if something is damaged. While reliable companies do have crews trained to handle everything with the utmost care, accidents may happen, and it will be less stressful if you know you can be covered by a policy.

Professional relocation crew
Call the professionals to avoid being stressed about the move

Things You Require to Accomplish Stressless Packing

In theory, you could pack your home without a system, but being chaotic through such a difficult task won’t help you avoid too much pressure and tension in the end. The first thing that you should do is to get your hands on packing supplies. You will need:

  • Sturdy cardboard boxes of all sizes. The medium-sized ones will probably be most handy, but small ones will be perfect for heavier belongings, so either you or your movers will be able to lift them without too much strain.
  • Packaging tape and painters’ tape. The first one is a must for closing the boxes, as it’s really solid and it will keep the packages closed. The other tape is a great solution for any glass surface like mirrors, photos, and artwork, and you will use it by making an X over them to avoid damage.
  • Cushioning materials that can range from paper, bubble wrap, and packing peanuts, to soft household items that you can use to envelop breakable items. An awesome tip is to pack glasses in socks to prevent breakage to your glass and your nerves.
  • Scissors, a tape dispenser, and markers are going to be your essential tools.

Specialized boxes for framed items must be bought, but other packages can be found for free in a local retailer or a liquor store. They will probably be happy to get rid of them anyway, and you will save a bit more. And for completely stressless packing, invest in packing services and let the relocation company do its magic and save you from the back-breaking work.

Tape and carton
Gather the right supplies for easy packaging

Pack the Survival Kit, or the First-Day Essentials Bag

Having an essentials bag with you has time and time again proven to be a life-saving tip. This bag should contain basic toiletries, a change of clothes, chargers, kitchen utensils for making some quick meals and coffee, and your documents. Keep this tip at the top of your new apartment checklist, because if you find yourself rummaging through piles of packages looking for toilet paper and a towel, it’s a one-way ticket to start panicking, and that’s something you should avoid.

Toilet paper
Keeping bare necessities with you is crucial

Let the Packing Begin

Now it’s time to be off with your things into packages and crates, but doing it with a plan in mind will make sure you won’t have to rush and start to panic. A great tip for packing clothes is to leave everything on hangers and use garbage bags. Grab those hangers and bundle them up, and slip the hanging clothes inside the bag. Finer clothing items should be placed inside wardrobe boxes.

To pack the kitchen belongings properly, you must approach the task with special care because there are too many breakables, as well as sharp and irregular items. To avoid any damage to these things and completely skip going out of your mind if you open up the boxes and find your favorite plates smashed, remember to be generous on the cushioning materials.

Packing tips for relocating heavy things like books include using suitcases. This is a pro-tip because suitcases have wheels, and that will make carrying something this heavy much easier. If you want to use boxes instead, either take the smaller ones that will be easier to carry or put heavy items on the bottom and much lighter (like pillows, towels, and clothes) on the top.

Labeling Will Save Your Sanity

Put that marker to good use and label the boxes by rooms. You can even write down the contents of each box, or if you want to save time, number the packages and take a quick photo of the contents. Another tip that will save your nerves is to color-code each box by the room. That way, the movers will place them right where they belong in your home-to-be. You will have a stressless unpacking experience with this simple yet effective trick.

What You Can Expect on the Move-Out Day

The dreaded move-out day can be a catastrophe and may create nerve-racking chaos if you didn’t follow any tips for organizing. And there’s a big chance that something will be forgotten amidst all that frantic work that is involved in moving across the country. But, if you’ve checked out most of the tips in this guide, and above all, hired reliable movers, you can expect most of the day to go smoothly, with low levels of stress. Driving across the country is sure to take a toll on your body and mind, so investing in car shipping services is an awesome tip, too. That means you can relax and set your mind on your reasons to move and start feeling excited about this new chapter in your life.
Additional tips for stressless packing can be seen in the following video.

The Last Tips in This Guide for a Stressless Move-Out

Before you leave your former residence, it’s common courtesy to leave everything neat and clean for the new owners. If you are a renter, a move-out cleaning may mean you’ll get your deposit back, and that’s going to lower the stress levels. Don’t forget to pack some of those cleaning supplies to take them in your car with you, to your new place, as you will need to do a move-in cleaning, too.

If you have any excess furniture, out-of-season clothes, Christmas decorations, and all the other belongings that you have no clue where to put it until you organize all the stuff in your future residence, don’t start panicking. A simple solution is to invest in a storage unit to give yourself enough time to think about arranging the place you’re going to call home.

Relocating is too big of a change to go through without any tension and strain. But it can be reduced to normal levels if you stay on track with the plan and take breaks to breathe in along the way. In the end, you should enjoy it because everything will be fresh and unknown, and full of opportunities. And it’s as Confucius said – “Wherever you go, go with all your heart!”.

Kate Holland

A true grunge and rock music fan born in Seattle, Kate has moved across the country and started writing about her experience.

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