By Edward Lim
The very thought of the stress associated with moving a house makes one stressful. But you can always reduce the stress if you plan for a careful, organized move. Here are some very practical tips that you can follow.
Couple moving in new home house. Young interracial couple in moving in mess.
1. Start off as early as possible
A number of people tend to go for last minute packing, but this involves the risk of missing out on a lot of essential things. Moreover, you would find yourself getting totally stressed out, if you start packing everything at the eleventh hour. Being overburdened, you will definitely try to pack things as quickly as possible. Hence it is highly probable that you will simply pack up things in a random manner, causing damage to certain vulnerable items. For instance, you need to take a lot of care while packing glass and ceramic items, and in a hurry you might club them up with something else, leading to breakage.
2. Systematically maintain a file
This is one of the most common advices given by established storage and moving companies to their clients. Create the file and use it for storage of all the documents that are in some way or the other related to the move. If you are appointing a moving company to help you out in the relocation process, it would be a great idea to keep the contact details of the company in that file so that you can refer to it as and when required. Include vital packing tips, and also contact information of new schools (if you have kids) and new neighbors.
3. Do away with clutter
It might seem a bit rude, but you should not be emotional with your belongings while planning for the move. If you are too emotional, it will result in your new house getting filled with certain items that should actually be discarded. You can always discard old clothing, old toys which your children no longer play with or furniture like broken stools or a broken table which is no longer functional. Why clutter your new house with items that are neither in use nor add to the aesthetic beauty of the house? It is true that the more clutter you plan to carry with you, the more stressed you will be while organizing the move. Moreover, it is time-consuming as well as expensive to move anything that you no longer need.
4. Accept any kind of help that comes your way
You are not a Superman or a Superwoman! Well, even if you can do everything alone, what’s wrong in getting some help? That will make things much easier for you, because a lot more will be done with lesser effort on your part and in lesser time. So as you organize your move, call in friends, acquaintances or family members who can help you out in packing and moving. Before starting off, discuss what each person would do and come to a final decision as to how the task would be divided. This will take out a lot of stress from your head because you no longer have to do everything single-handedly.
5. Collect a number of boxes
Rather than packing and transporting items in a scattered way, it would be good to pack your belongings in several boxes and label each of them. First make an estimate of how many boxes you will need, and then start your collection from local merchants, friends or neighbors. In case you are engaging a moving company, you may also buy the boxes from them. It is advisable to collect boxes of different shapes and sizes. Liquor boxes are great for packing and moving since they are durable and come with dividers, which is quite useful for packing vases, goblets or glasses.
Also, you need to take special care of frozen items, if you have any. You may collect packing materials from local businesses which undertake frozen parcel delivery.
6. Go room by room
If you pack things going by rooms, it will help you keep things organized, thereby avoiding a lot of unnecessary confusion. Pack contents of each room as per the category of items and store them in separate boxes. This saves you on time both during packing and also when you are unpacking in your new home.
7. Make use of colored labels
Purchase colored labels for the packing boxes to give your move as organized as possible. You may also create your own labels with color codes. The best thing is to choose one color for every room, and to go for highly detailed labels. For instance, you may pick pink color for the bedroom and label every box as per the category of contents stored within. This will effectively help you in distinguishing between bedroom items, kitchen items or bathroom items. To make things all the more convenient, you may create a master list containing brief details of all labels, so that you will readily get to know what is inside each box.
8. Keep a survival kit handy
If you keep a survival kit ready, you would be able to conveniently spend the first night at your new home. The survival kit should contain items that you would be requiring through the night in case you are unable to unpack on time, or your movers have informed that they would be turning up the following day. Some of the helpful things that you can keep in this survival kit include plastic utensils, paper plates, can opener, non-perishable food, a flashlight, bottled water, a few towels, toilet paper, old newspapers, a set of clothes so that everyone can change for that night, and so on. Off course, it goes without saying that if you have kids or infants, you must keep their food readily available.
Following these tips will definitely go a long way in making your entire packing and moving process seamless. Also, you can take the help of an acclaimed packing and moving company, and if you are a business.
Author Bio: Edward Lim is a logistics professional and blogs over at http://richresources.sg/. He loves to help people save money in their logistics.
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