Moving into a new home can be thrilling…but it can also be stressful. Trying to coordinate sorting, packing, and labeling while juggling a full-time job and/or dealing with children can fray anyone’s nerves.
But, in our expert opinion, moving doesn’t have to be miserable, provided you know this little secret:
The key to a stress-free move is in the pre-move organising.
It may sound simple but getting organised takes practice and preparation. If you’re in the Sydney area and planning for an upcoming move, be sure to save this article to your favorites so you can refer to it as you prep. We’ve gathered 5 tips to help you stay organised—and stress-free—during your move.
1. Begin Prepping Well in Advance
There is no such thing as preparing for a move “too soon”. The earlier you start, the better. There are several phases to moving prep, and one of the first is something we like to call “The Great Purge” (don’t worry—it sounds more dramatic than it is).
About six weeks prior to moving day, you’ll want to commence with “The Great Purge”. Start going through your home, room by room, and making piles of items that won’t make the trip with you. This includes clothing/shoes you never wear, toys your children no longer play with, items that have been gathering dust in the closet since the last time you moved…you get the idea.
It makes zero sense to pay your removalist to move things you won’t use…so don’t do it. Make your piles, decide what needs to be thrown out, and plan a garage sale to get rid of the rest while making little money. Anything that doesn’t sell can be donated.
At four weeks, you can get a jump on packing things you won’t need between now and the day of the move. Think seasonal décor and clothing you aren’t currently using, housewares you won’t need, and any other non-essentials.
2. Build a Moving Binder
Having a binder dedicated to your move is a great way to keep all documentation in one central location. Believe us when we say, this is the single most important step if you want to stay organised during your move.
Things that should live in your binder include:
- Your moving to-do checklist
- Any receipts/contracts related to your move
- School/medical records that will need to be transferred
- Contacts for your local utility/cable companies
- Floor plan of your new home
3. Create Check Lists
There are a lot of tasks and dates to keep track of when preparing for a move—pulling medical records, getting kids registered at their new school, turning utilities off at your old home and on at the new. Remembering what needs to be done and when is virtually impossible without the use of a checklist. Luckily, there are tons of free, customisable moving check list templates that can be found online.
4. Pack Your Home Room by Room
When it comes time to pack, assign each room a color and pack up one room before moving on to the next. As you pack boxes, place a colored sticker on each side of the box that corresponds with the room in which it belongs—all blue stickers belong in the kitchen, red go to the living room, yellow for the master bedroom, etc. On moving day, place a piece of colored construction paper over the doorway of each room that corresponds with the stickers. This will make the move in process go faster as your removalists can just follow the colors to deliver boxes.
Additionally, be sure to label your boxes, describing exactly what is inside. Be as specific as possible—when you’re searching for a particular book your child needs for school you’ll be grateful for those labels.
5. Make a List of Important Contacts
We mentioned this briefly when discussing the moving binder, but it is important enough that it bears repeating. Create a list of the important contacts you’ll need to reach at some point during the moving process and keep it at the front of your moving binder. Contacts to list include:
- Your moving company point of contact
- The schools your children currently attend and will attend (if changing)
- All monthly service providers
- Utility companies, including cable/internet, water/sewer, gas company, electrical, satellite, and phone (if you still have a land line).
If you are planning a move to or from the Sydney area and are looking for a reputable removalist to help make your move as stress free as possible, we hope you’ll contact us at Holloway Removals. We would love the opportunity to earn your business and help you and your family get settled into your new place. Whether you’re making a local move or moving out of state, we have the expertise, equipment, and experience needed to get you where you need to be.
We hope you’ll let us move you the right way…with Holloway.
