14 Top Tips For Moving House

Moving house is up there are one of the most stressful things that you can do during your lifetime. But there are plenty of good reasons to move to a new home. You may need more space because your family is growing, or you may be relocating to be closer to friends, family, or your career. 

If you’re planning to move house any time soon, then you’ll want the whole thing to go as smoothly as possible. You will want it to be quick and easy after all you have a lot to think about from packing through to choosing a moving company and planning the logistics of the move.

In this article, we’ll give you some top tips for making your house move go smoother and easier. 

Label All Of Your Boxes.

There is nothing worse than moving to your new house and not knowing where everything is when you get there. Being lost in a mess of boxes that are all in the wrong room is not ideal. It’ll add time and stress onto your unpacking. 

There is a very easy way around this. Labelling your boxes will make it much easier at the other end to work out which room the box should be sent to. 

If you would like to make it even easier you could colour code your boxes by using coloured labels, where each colour will represent a specific room. 

Take A Photo Of Your Wiring.

Taking everything in your house apart and starting again is stressful and time-consuming. When it comes to electrical items, it can be a nightmare working out where all of the different wires belong.

If you have a lot of wires and you are worried that you won’t remember where everything belongs, take photos of all of your wiring in your old house before you disconnect everything. By doing this, you will have something that you can follow when putting everything back together again. 

When packing up wires, make sure that you neatly coil up each one before you box them up. That way, you won’t be greeted by a stressful box of wire spaghetti when you get to your new home. 

Book A Removals Company.

One of the biggest steps that you can take to lower the stress levels associated with moving to a new home is to hire a removalists company. 

Not only will having more hands helping you out save you time and effort, but you will know that your possessions are in safe hands. A good removal company knows how to handle people’s possessions. 

Some removals companies may offer a service where they help you to pack up all of your possessions. If this is an option for you, you may be able to save yourself even more stress. 

Pack Your Clothes On Hangers.

When packing up your clothes you may be inclined to fold up each item and pack it into a suitcase. This is quite a time-consuming way of packing and it will also be time-consuming when it comes to unpacking too. 

One way that you could save time and effort when unpacking your clothes is to pack them on their hangers. Simply use a garbage bag with a small hole for the hanger hooks. Put this around the outside of the clothes so that they can all stay on the hangers. Don’t forget to label the bag so you know who the clothes belong to and which room they need to go to. 

Start Packing Early. 

Packing will always take you a much longer time than you may expect. Start packing your possessions early, ideally a few weeks before you are due to move. Do a little bit every day and the job will be much easier than you would have imagined. 

Start off by packing up possessions that you know that you won’t need until after the move. Create an area in your current home to start stacking all of the boxes that have been packed. Eventually, you will have all of your possessions stacked up.  

Declutter As You Go. 

Throughout our lives, we accumulate a considerable amount of stuff. Sometimes our possessions end up controlling us because we have so many of them, we just can’t escape. Don’t get trapped by your possessions. See the move as a great opportunity to go through everything that you own and to get rid of anything that you neither want nor need anymore. 

As you start to pack up your boxes, look for items that you no longer need. If you have not used or thought about something for a very long time, then it may be a good time to ask whether or not you actually need that item in your life still. 

If you need to get rid of anything you could either sell it using a site such as eBay or Facebook Marketplace, or you could donate it to a charity store. 

The less that you have to pack, the easier it will be.  

Don’t Leave Empty Space In Your Boxes.

You can make life much easier for yourself if you make sure that all of your boxes are full. If there is an empty space in your boxes, fill it with packing foam, cloth, or paper to stop the items inside from rattling around. 

Be careful not to overfill any of your boxes. If your boxes are too full they may be too heavy for you to lift. They may also break due to the weight leaving your possessions strewn all over the ground. 

Pack A First Night Box. 

The first night in your new home you will be exhausted. You may have struggled all day getting everything out of your old home and into your new one. 

When you’ve had a long day moving into your house, the last thing that you’ll want to do is to have to hunt down all of the essential items that you’ll need on your first night. 

Create a bag or a box of items that you’ll need immediately. This should include a change of clothes, some toiletries, toilet roll, the kettle, and everything you need to make a cup of tea. 

Use Quality Moving Boxes. 

You could use boxes that you get from the local store to pack up your possessions. While it is a great idea to recycle all of the boxes that a retailer no longer needs, it is important that your possessions are safe. 

Don’t let your boxes fall apart. Make sure that you use high-quality moving boxes that are fit for purpose. 

A good sturdy box will withstand being stacked up under other boxes.

You should also ensure you are using a good quality parcel tape to secure the boxes shut. You may wish to consider buying a tape dispenser to make your life easier when taping the boxes shut. 

Get More Boxes Than You’ll Need. 

However much stuff you have, you can always guarantee that you won’t have enough boxes to fit it all in. You may think that you have enough, but it’s so easy to run out. It is far better to have too many empty boxes than too few. 

Contact Your Utilities Early. 

Nobody wants to spend hours or days on the phone to the various different utility companies after they have moved. But you do need to get in touch with them. 

Start off early by making a list of all of the companies that you need to get in touch with about moving to a new address. You’ll need to cancel services or have them moved over to your new address, so the more advanced warning you can give, the smoother the transition will be. 

If you can tell most of the companies about your move before you actually move, then you will be able to save yourself a lot of stress after you have moved when you can focus on unpacking and settling into your new home. 

Create an Inventory. 

An inventory will help you to keep track of everything that you own while you are moving it. If you hire your removals firm to pack your possessions, an inventory can be especially useful. 

You may also want to make up some moving house checklists to make sure you have done everything that you need to do. 

Keep Your Cupboard Doors Open.

On the last days before you move and on the actual moving day, leave all of your cupboard doors open. That way, you’ll be able to see whether you have missed anything much easier. 

Take a Final Meter Reading.

As you depart from your old house for the very last time, make sure that you take a set of meter readings. Take photos of the meter with the reading displayed for reference. You will need to get in touch with your utility company with these final numbers so that they can close down the account associated with you in that house. 

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