4 Suggestions to Make Your Move Less Stressful

Moving into a new home is exciting, challenging, and a lot of work. If you have a large family, the challenge becomes even greater. One of the best ways to take the headaches out of moving is to be prepared.

You need to be organized and get all your belongings ready for the move. You also need to help your children so that they are emotionally prepared to move. The following suggestions can help you make the transition from your old home to your new home as smooth as possible.

Set up and Follow a Plan

If you literally write down all the necessary steps you will need to follow before, during, and after your move, you will be giving yourself a path or map to follow.

Keeping an organized checklist will help you not miss any important steps. You should start collecting packing materials such as boxes, tape, bubble wrap, markers and tags.

It will help you to start packing early. If you find items in your home that you know you won’t need for a while, put them away in a box or a storage unit to get a head start.

Determine How Much Your Move Will Cost

If you aren’t prepared to pay for all the costs associated with moving, you might suffer from sticker shock when moving day arrives. Some of the costs to consider are:

• Moving supplies such as tape, boxes, bubble wrap or padding
• Truck rental or moving company costs
• Travel costs
• Car maintenance, gasoline, and tolls for long-distance moves
• Extra money for unexpected events, emergencies, or accidents

If you are moving as a result of being re-located by your employer, make sure you know up-front specifically how much and what costs they will cover.

Get a Storage Unit

There will be times when the closing date on your old home does not align with the closing date on your new home. What can you do with your belongings if your new home isn’t ready?

Instead of getting stressed, rent a storage unit to hold your furniture and other personal belongings. Another reason you might want to get a storage unit is if you are moving into a smaller space than the one you are leaving.

If you are downsizing, you can keep your things in the rented unit until you decide what you want to do with them. You might decide that you would prefer to use a piece of furniture you put in storage in place of one that you moved into your new home.

Or you might decide to try to sell the items you will no longer need online or at a garage sale.There are two types of storage unit options from which you can choose.

A self-storage unit is a facility where you can store your belongings. It is your responsibility to move your own items into the unitand to take them out when you no longer need to store them.

A full-service storage unit, on the other hand, provides a solution for all your storage needs.Companies that provides these services include options where you can choose how involved you want to be and how much you want the company to handle for you.

For example, if you live in the Portland area, you can choose a temporary storage service where they will do all the work for you such as:

• Coming to your door
• Packing for you for an extra fee
• Moving your stuff into their storage warehouse

Get Rid of Stuff

Moving can be an excellent opportunity to get rid of things you no longer use, like, or need. Even furniture that is just taking up space can be sold or donated if you don’t use it or like it.

To make the best use of your time, it makes better sense to go through the rooms in your home, drawers, and closets, and determine if you want to pack each item you come across. The alternative is to throw everything into boxes and have to deal with them when it is time to unpack.

When you are going through your things, a suggestion is to create three piles; donate, sell, or toss. You can sell your items on Facebook Marketplace, eBay, or Craigslist. Local thrift stores and Goodwill will accept most donations and some might even give you a tax deduction. The “toss” pile is self-explanatory. A very large garbage bag or a dumpster is where those items belong.

The most important thing to try to avoid when moving is stress. Stress can cause you not to think clearly and make poor decisions.Creating and following a well-organized plan will help make your move run smoothly.