Anyone who’s moved more than once in their life knows: that packing up your stuff and moving to a new home is stressful.
And it’s not just the packing and lugging of boxes that makes it so unbearable. It’s the planning and the time it takes to get everything done. Moving house is a huge project, even on its best day—and when you’re overwhelmed by the stress of your everyday life, it can be hard to find the motivation to make a plan, let alone stick with it.
Moving house is a lot of work. There are always things you forget about or didn’t even realize needed to be done. If you’re moving house, here are some things to keep in mind for the moving process:
- Do you have the right boxes?
- Do you have enough boxes?
- Do you have too many boxes?
- What about packing peanuts, bubble wrap and paper?
- Do your movers know where to find your new home?
- Have all of your utilities been set up at the new place?
But there’s good news! Check out these tips for making the moving house easier than ever before.
Three Weeks Before
- Arrange childcare for your moving day – although older children may well want to be involved in your move, you may decide that it will be less stressful for younger children and if you arrange for them to go to relatives or friends on the moving day itself.
- Make arrangements for moving your pets – moving can be very disruptive for pets so you may want to ask your vet for specialist advice on taking care of your animals to avoid distressing them.
- Clear out unwanted belongings – planning a fresh start in your new home is an ideal time to have a good clear out of any unwanted belongings. Local charity shops will welcome smaller items such as books, ornaments or clothing. You should also be able to find local furniture recycling charities that will collect items you do not want to take to your new home.
- Start emptying your freezer – remember that your freezer will need to be empty and defrosted before your move so try to use up as much of its contents as you can to avoid waste.
Two Weeks Before
- Arrange for meter readings and service disconnection – Contact your essential service providers and notify them of your move. You also need to make sure that all the services at your new home are connected on the day you move in.
- Get advice on aerials, satellite dishes, and fibre transfer, they may not be suitable in the area you are moving to. Get specialist advice from your current supplier about the most efficient and cost-effective transfer and instalment for your new home.
- Organise the disconnection and reconnection of domestic appliances – organise for a qualified plumber, electrician or gas fitter to disconnect your appliances (washing machine, cooker, gas stoves etc) in your present home and reconnect them in your new home.
Two Days Before
- Defrost your fridge and freezer – empty and defrost your fridge and/or freezer. You need to make sure that they are defrosted at least 24 hours before removal because moving them while still frozen can damage them.
- Cancel deliveries – cancel any regular deliveries you have to your present home.
The Day Before
- If you have a lot to move, or if time will be limited on your moving day, we may need to begin packing your belongings on the day before your move.
- Prepare as much as possible to make packing on your moving day easier. LoadaLot has a team that can assist with your packing needs.
- To make your moving day run as smoothly as possible, you should prepare some things in advance.
- You can usually leave drawers and trunks with their contents intact, provided there are no breakable items inside.
- Don’t fill large chests or trunks with heavy items such as books.
- Liquids, oils and paints must be placed into sealed containers.
- We cannot transport flammable substances for you so you’ll need to make sure that any petrol mowers, paraffin fires etc are drained before we can move them.
- Unless included as an extra service in your moving plan, you should take down curtains or blinds and pack them ready for the removal team.
- Household plants need to be transported in containers to protect them during the move. Although we’ll do everything we can to move them safely, any tender plants may become damaged in transit because of their fragile nature as well as the effects of extreme temperature change.
- Small furniture keys, nuts/bolts and fixtures and fittings can easily go astray so leave them with the item of furniture and the removal team will secure them to each unit.
- Put together a ‘do not remove pile’ – start putting aside the essential things that you will not want us to remove such as coats, handbags, snacks and cleaning materials.
- Some small valuable items such as jewellery, watches, trinkets, money, bonds, coins, etc are not covered by removers insurance. Pack these separately and take them with you.
The Big Day
- Last-minute essentials – Your moving day has finally arrived. You can leave the hard work to us, but you will need to take care of a few essential things yourself.
- Make sure that all the meter readings you have pre-arranged are taken, leave a copy at your old home and keep a note of the readings yourself.
- If nobody is moving into your old home straight away, make sure that the power and also the water supply are turned off.
- Make sure that your old home is secured, closing and/or locking all doors and windows.
- Drop your keys at the estate agents if you need to.
- Make sure you have exchanged contact numbers with our removal team and, finally, arrange an approximate time to meet them at your new home