Five Steps to a Stress-Free Move, Part One

Let’s face it. Moving is never very much fun. In fact, there is considerable scientific evidence suggesting that moving is just as stressful as other major life events, like birth, death, marriage, and divorce. Very few of us go through our entire lives without experiencing at least a couple of moves, but that commonality doesn’t seem to quell our fears or manage our stresses when it comes to our own impending moves. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to take care of yourself in preparation for your move. After you’ve called Man and Van Simply and arranged all the nuts-and-bolts details of the event, it’s time to pack up and stress down; here are some ways to accomplish that.

A Matter of Time

Firstly, you will need to give yourself enough time to coordinate your move. In certain situations, this may not be possible, time may be crunched, and the organizing/wrapping/packing might need to happen, well, yesterday. But if at all possible, plan your move weeks (or, if you’re a particularly good planner and time manager, months) in advance. After you hang up with scheduling Man and Van Simply removals in Manchester, leave as much time as is feasible between where you are standing in that moment and the day the moving van arrives to load up the contents of your home.

The longer you can take with the organizing/wrapping/packing process, the saner you will be. No one needs to deal with the stress of a disorganized move, which often result in situations like the following: You arrive in your new home and realize it will take months of going from box to box just to find what you’re looking for. And if, like me, you’ve ever rummaged through a box of Barbara Cartland novels looking for the Oreos at 3:00 in the morning, you see the challenge here.

So time is of the essence. It will be the sane, calm springboard from which you plan your move and pack your belongings effectively. Look at the number of days you have until the big day. Then, each day, tackle one room. Larger rooms can be spread out over two or more days, depending on your time. Be sure to save all the necessities (clothing, toiletries, food) until the very end so that you’re still able to live your life even as you’re packing it up.

As You Pack, De-Clutter

It’s amazing, the treasured things we thought long lost that suddenly reappear when we start to pack up our moving boxes. On the flip side of the coin, it’s sometimes downright repulsive the things we discover we still own when starting to pack up our moving boxes. In situations like these, there are a few helpful questions we can ask ourselves:

  • Do I truly NEED this item?
  • I’ve lived without this item for so long, is it something that can be of use to me now or was my life just fine without it?
  • Are there any distinct advantages to holding onto this item?
  • Are there any distinct disadvantages to holding onto this item?

Once you’ve answered these questions, you can make an informed decision as to keep or donate/throw away the item in question. De-cluttering as you go can help you get rid of unwanted items, lighten up those moving boxes, and make your life a little easier, following Thoreau’s call to, “Simplify! Simplify! Simplify!”

In Part Two of this post, we’ll look at the remaining three steps to staying calm and stress-free during your upcoming move.