Do you know, in the UK, people move to a new house on average 5 times before they turn 30, and 3 more times later in their life, making a total of 8 moves! And each moving time is as stressful as the other. There is so much to pack, clean, paperwork, handling, and then set up again.
Since moving house requires all your attention, you cannot avoid stress altogether. In fact, all these planning is a positive stress as it would help you in successful moving to a new place of comfort. But there are certain things that can really spoil the moving day and force you to have an anti-stress medicine.
The following are the absolute No-Nos for the big day. You can thank us later.
- Don’t pack clothes and stuff which can be donated or thrown away
It is true that you won’t be picking up stuff on your own and carrying it to the new place; you have other people and a pickup van to do this for you. But that does not mean you should pack everything. There is no good in packing the stuff which you are no longer going to use like old clothes or a half-broken Chester. This will only increase a load of packing, moving, may inflict additional moving cost and then this stuff will occupy unnecessary space at your new place.
If you can, just donate the items prior to your moving day. You can ask your friends to have somethings like furniture, that won’t go with your new home décor. Also consider renting a London self storage to keep your valuables if you’re not ready to throw them out yet.
- Don’t do last minute packing, if you are doing it on your own
Last minute packing is a bad idea. It wastes everyone’s time. And with unexpected unforeseen things happening like your children’s resistance or pet’s interference, the whole moving day will just get ruined. Take at least a month to sort things out (if you got this much time margin) and pack everything prior to a day of moving. And what if you may need somethings on the day of moving? This leads to our next point, in this list of “don’ts”.
- Don’t forget to pack a separate bag of essentials
Everything must be packed prior to the day of moving but it is not 100% feasible. You may have to use, for example, toothbrushes, documents, some stationery. Well, of course, you do need some things on the same day and even after moving into the new place. That is why it is recommended to pack a separate carry-on bag for essential items for the whole family.
- Don’t miss minute details from telling your movers
You may have forgotten that you have a narrow lane at the front of your doorstep and you went to hire a big yellow van and man services. This seems like a problem unless you share this with the company’s customer representative. They may come prepared with the alternate methods like bringing a trolley to carry your stuff up till the van. Think of all such minute information which you should share with professional movers and with your friends who are helping you on your moving day.
- Don’t forget to treat your movers
This is one thing you should do out of courtesy. Treat your professional as well as friends’ movers with a little treat of snacks and refreshment drinks as a thank you for their help and giving them some relief from all the laborious work.
- Don’t pack carelessly
Packing carelessly by overloading boxes, not labelling boxes for fragile items, leaving any sharp-edged stuff popping out of a box, can lead to the major cause of stress on this important day. Make sure you cover the basic requirements of packing. You can check online for some packing hacks to organize everything neatly.
- Don’t let your pets stressed out
Pets get stressed out too due to all moving and packing going on in the place. They may interrupt you while packing the boxes or they run around confusedly, making movers getting tripped over them. Understand their emotions and try to calm them. you can assign a duty to a family member who should just keep the pets entertained all the time. You can also drop your pets at your relatives or you can opt for a daycare service for your pets.
Make a list of things-to-do handy before, during and after moving house. Refer to it at every instance. This moving-out and moving-in won’t be that tough.
Happy moving!