I have moved home a lot. In fact, in the last seven years I have moved five times. Twice with my dad, three times with Craig. From each of those experiences I've learned something about moving home that will definitely help me the next time I inevitably get bored and pack up everything to find somewhere new.
Don't leave packing until the last minute.
This one seems obvious, however, if like me you're a complete and utter procrastinator and the most common things uttered from you is "I'll do it in a bit" or "I'll do it tomorrow", then learn from my mistakes. The very first time I properly moved was with my dad, when my mum moved down to England and I stayed here in Scotland. The day my mum was leaving and packing the entire contents of the house into a lorry I was still running around trying to organise the rest of my room into boxes. I delayed everything and my poor wee mum had to wait on me finishing. She wasn't happy. I try to organise what I'm packing and when. I've found that by packing the things I know I'm taking with me but I use least into boxes and bags first then whatever is left at the end of it can be packed away closer to the moving date. I've also found that keeping an inventory of what you've packed and what you still have to pack is motivation to get things sorted as well.
Label your boxes.
This one has helped me countless times over. Even if it's just taking a permanent marker and roughly writing what is inside each box. This helps for two reasons - When you get your boxes into your new home you can pop them into the relevant rooms that they'll be unpacked into meaning you don't need to do that later when you're exhausted and probably want nothing more than a bath and glass of wine. It also means that before you unpack completely that looking for something is made ten times easier when you don't have to look through every single box.
Organise your bills, banks, internet etc before you leave.
My last move was so organised that I genuinely surprised myself at how smoothly it went. The internet was set to be disconnected and reconnected, the council tax has been stopped and moved across, all addresses had been updated to the new address, the van hire had been booked weeks in advance, all letters had redirects organised, the gas and electricity had been given the final meter readings and set to be started for the move in date. I found this helped hugely! I've moved before where everything like that was left until after we were in the new place which made thing so much harder. This time it was so simple and easy.
Leave enough time to clean once you've moved your stuff out.
When we left our last flat we had two days left on the lease to go back and tidy up, which meant that cleaning was a doddle. I've always found it harder trying to clean as I'm packing so this time we made sure there was an overlap of getting the new keys and handing the old ones back. This meant that we got almost our full deposit back from the previous letting agent, they deducted a small bit for defrosting the freezer, that I forgot to do. You don't want to move all your stuff out and not have enough time to clean the place properly, as you run the risk of not leaving the place in a good condition and getting your deposit back.
Pack a case like you're going on holiday.
This one definitely helped me the most. Basically you want to have a case that you can survive out of for at least a week once you've moved. Stuff like clean clothes and underwear, shower/bath stuff, make up, straighteners, shoes, chargers etc. Pretty much everything you'd need to get by for a little while until you unpack and get your stuff sorted. This helped massively when we moved. The flat we're in is unfurnished, so everything stayed in boxes for at least a week or two until we managed to get some furniture together. The case I had with everything in it meant I didn't need to go hunting around in boxes for a clean pair of socks or phone charger. I just kept all my essentials together and it made everything so much easier.
Hopefully if you're moving in the near future then these will help. They're all pretty obvious ones, but I like to think everyone is a little like me and forgets to be organised for the big stuff.
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