How to make your move stress free

Whether you move seven hours away or seven states away, the experience can be daunting, frustrating, and expensive if you don’t plan ahead. Here are some tips to help ensure this major life event is a stress-free (and even pleasant) one!

Don’t throw everything away

While lots of people who relocate find it the perfect time to (finally) declutter and minimize their “stuff”,  be purposeful about what you choose to keep and what you decide to give away or toss. It’s not unusual for someone to be in their new location and suddenly realize their collection of lighthouses would have been perfect in their new home, or that family heirloom would have fit in the living room after all.  What’s worse, sometimes what you may choose to quickly discard or give to someone else ends up being something you need to buy again for your new home. From holiday decorations and ornaments to summer beach chairs and gardening tools, not everything suddenly loses its value or purpose because you are moving.  If you plan the packing process well in advance, you will have time to go through each item carefully and not make a hasty decision to get rid of something you really ought to keep.

Know where you’re going

The surest way to raise your blood pressure and induce stress is to sell your current home before you find a new home where you are relocating. While it’s understandable that you might not be able to make an offer on a new home until you sell your current home, starting the process of actually looking for a home after your current home is sold can lead to extra expenses and lots of anxiety.  Between traveling back and forth to the region you plan to relocate to in pursuit of quickly finding a home to storing all your stuff because you have to be out of your current home by a specified time, not knowing exactly where you're moving to causes lots of angst.  With easy access via the internet, you can start researching potential communities and neighborhoods where you’d like to live, and you can start perusing homes for sale before you sell your home and be able to move stress free.

Hire professional movers

Once you’ve decided which family treasures absolutely must go with you and which ones you can share with others, you can hire a professional moving company to help you pack your keepsakes safely and securely for the long road trip.  Sure, you can do it all yourself (and add to your already aching back), but why? All that time spent packing and driving a moving truck yourself simply adds to the potential stress of what could be an easy experience.  Instead of wrangling reluctant volunteers from your family to pack boxes and drive the rental truck(s) for you, you can keep your friends and family close by not putting them on the spot and by hiring people who move others professionally to do the job for you.

Start the process well in advance

The longer you wait to start planning, organizing, and packing, the more undue stress you will be placing on yourself and your family members.  If you know you are going to be out of your current home by the next season, start going through your things and packing now.  While you’re watching your favorite movie (for the 10th time), go through some drawers, closets, and those boxes that have been stored away for years. Even if you worked just an hour a day to pack and label boxes, it would add up to that much less to do tomorrow and help make your move stress free.