Without the right planning, moving into your dream home can be a logistical nightmare. Whether you’re moving across the country or down the street, it’s important to start preparing for your move early. This gives you the time to spot and fix problems, to pack your items properly, and to book services to help you, like a removalist or home-packing service. Here are the top tips to make sure your move goes smoothly.
Book a Trusted Removalist Service
The easiest way to start your move is with a web search for “removalist in Adelaide,” or whichever city you are moving from. It’s not cheating to let someone take care of all the hard work for you. But remember, you have to trust this service with all your treasured possessions, so be sure to check their reviews and see how communicative and professional they are before booking.
It’s also wise to get an itemised quote before going ahead with your move. Movers’ fees entail many different things, from packing materials and labour to vehicle hire and insurance. Make sure you understand what’s included and what’s not, and don’t rely on verbal estimates. The price at the end could be very different.
Declutter Before Packing
Whether you pack your belongings yourself or you hire a prof0essional home-packing service, you will benefit from decluttering before packing begins. The period before you move is an ideal time to start thinking about what items are truly essential to you and which ones are just taking up space. Take this opportunity to throw away the latter, and your new home will be less cluttered, it’ll be easier to pack and unpack, and the moving process will be cheaper.
If you start this process nice and early, you might even have time to sell some of your unwanted items online or organise a garage sale to get rid of them. You could also donate them to charity, or take certain items to recycling centres.
Create a Detailed Moving Checklist
There’s a lot to remember when it comes to moving: What day will your new home be available? What day are your packers arriving? Are any of your items going into storage? And, if so, for how long? Then, you’ve got to remember to update your dress with all the companies who have your details. You might also have to cancel things like utilities, and get your mail redirected.
If you try and remember everything all by yourself, things are bound to get overlooked. This could end up causing problems further down the line. Around six weeks before your move, take an hour or so to think thoroughly about what needs to be done and turn it into a checklist. Add deadlines for when things need to be done by, and add them to a digital calendar so that you don’t forget.
Organise and Label Boxes Clearly
If you leave packing to the last minute, you’ll end up stuffing items into any old box where there’s room. That means that once your move is over and it’s time to unpack, it’ll be a nightmare trying to find things again. This is especially problematic if you’re starting work straight after your move and won’t have much time to sort through the boxes. Start early, and you can make life much easier for your future self.
Simply organising and labelling your boxes clearly can make a huge difference to how moving into your new home feels. Knowing where to find things when you need them makes the whole experience of moving and unpacking a lot less stressful.
Prepare an Essentials Box
Most people organise and label their items by room or by the person to whom they belong. This is the right approach in general, but it’s smart to also include an “essentials” box, one where you pack items that you know you’ll need right away. Think of it as a bit like an overnight bag. It contains the basics that you need to get by until you’ve had time to settle in and unpack everything properly.
Your essentials box might contain things like clothes, toiletries, medication, important documents, phone chargers, toilet paper, bedding, and some basic kitchen items. Everything that you need to live for a few days, basically.
Prepare Address Changes in Advance
One thing that you really want to go smoothly while you’re moving house is getting your services and utilities switched over, or cancelling your old ones and getting new ones up and running. Not getting this sorted in advance can cause major disruption. Little could be worse than moving into your new home to find that there’s no running water, electricity, or Wi-Fi.
Make sure that everything is prepared well in advance to ensure a smooth transition, and remember to update your address with other important services, like your bank, insurance company, healthcare provider, and any relevant government departments.
Take Photos of Setups
If there are things in your old house that work really well, like an entertainment system setup, or a display cabinet that you think looks really good, take a picture of it so that you can recreate it in your new home. Otherwise, you’ll end up frustrated when you unpack all the items and can’t get things back exactly the way they were.
Snapping photos of your belongings just before you move can also help you if any get damaged and you end up in a dispute.
Clean as You Go
Cleaning your old home is another aspect of moving that you can hire someone else to do, but many people choose to do it themselves to try and save money. If that’s your choice, it’s smarter to clean as you go than to leave it all until after you’ve packed. Packing is tiring enough, and having a lot of cleaning to do after is going to leave you exhausted.
A better approach is to pack up a room, or even an area like a kitchen cupboard, then clean it.
Conclusion
You cannot just hope for a smooth relocation. To make everything as easy as possible, you need to plan and act early, using tips like those in this article to guide you.
You may alsor read (moving home with your family a guide to a smooth transition).
