When it’s time to move to a new home, one of your goals should be to make it as stress-free as possible. There’s a lot that goes into a move, but if you can take a few preventative steps, you can remove a lot of the stress that’s involved. This is especially true for long-distance moves, which have more factors involved than when you’re just moving to the next town over. Below, we’ll offer some simple tips you can use to prepare for your long-distance move and make it much simpler.
Start Preparing Early
The most important thing you can do to prepare for a long-distance move is to start early. Moving from one location to another is hard enough, but moving a long distance away makes this even harder. You won’t want to try and get everything done the night before your move. Instead, you should give yourself as much time as possible to get things done.
Once you know you’re definitely moving, make a checklist of all the things you need to do. As you think of more items, add them to the list, then remove items once you finish them. It’s also helpful to create this list in a place where you can share it with others, such as on your smartphone. That way, you can create an interactive list with your spouse and ensure you’re not forgetting anything or tackling a project that someone else already completed.
Find the Right Moving Team
The next thing you’ll want to focus on is finding the right movers. Trying to move from one home to another is a big process, and it’s one you likely won’t want to do on your own. Working with a good moving team removes a lot of the stress, as they literally handle all the heavy lifting for you.
When searching for a moving team, you specifically want to find long-distance movers. These are movers who know how to safely transport things over long distances and who have the right expertise for this type of job. If you were to hire a moving team that only knew your local area, you might find that you have more stress when it comes to your moving day, as your movers aren’t as experienced as you’d like. Call around a few movers and ask them about their long-distance rates, including if they have any experience driving to your intended location.
Stock Up on Packing Supplies
After you find reliable movers, the next thing to do is stock up on packing supplies. Many moving companies will offer to sell you packing supplies as a part of their moving services, but these supplies are often more expensive than if you got them yourself. In fact, there are many ways to find affordable or even free moving supplies if you’re willing to do a little searching.
Make sure you get more supplies than you think you’ll need. You’d be surprised at how quickly bubble wrap disappears as you’re packing or how many boxes you actually need per room. In the end, it’s better to have more supplies than you need than not enough.
Make a Plan for Kids and Pets
Parents and pet owners have even more to worry about when it comes to moving. It’s important that you make a plan for your kids and pets so that you know exactly what to do with them when it comes time to move. For example, if you have a dog, you may not want them running around the house while the movers are coming in and out. Finding a daycare center for your dogs for the day would be a great way to remove one more thing from your plate.
If you have kids in school, think about how moving day impacts their schedule. Do they go to school that day? Do you need to take them out of school early to drive to your new home? Or, if you have your move planned for a weekend, is there someone who can watch your kids while you deal with all the other things you need to do that day? Get a plan in place so that when moving day comes, you can focus solely on the move.
Tackle One Room at a Time
Finally, as you’re packing up, try to focus on one room at a time. If you try to pack up every room simultaneously, moving from one room to another and doing a little at a time, you may start to feel overwhelmed. It will feel like you’re not making progress and that you won’t finish before moving day. Instead, start with a single room and pack up anything you don’t need before moving day. Then move on to the next, then the next, and so on. You’ll feel a sense of accomplishment after each room, providing momentum to keep going.
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