Moving to a new home is stressful – most of us know this from experience. However, a long-distance move can open up a whole new world of chaos if you aren’t properly prepared!
Planning for a cross-country (or even international) move takes a lot of meticulous thought and preparation, but it can be done without pulling all your hair out. Here are a few of the very best tips for planning your move and executing it with ease to avoid the chaos you’re dreading.
Go Professional
If you’re moving down the street, it’s pretty easy to get away with a trailer and some help from a few friends. Long-distance moving is a whole different level of hard work, and you should probably think about checking out some moving companies.
and figure out if it’s within your budget. If you can afford to get professional help, it will make the stress of coordinating your move a whole lot more manageable, and make the process way easier on you and your mental health.
Start Packing
As in, yesterday. We all have those things that we don’t really use very often. Start as soon as you possibly can to get those non-essential items into boxes and seal them up in a room where they won’t be in the way. Labelling your boxes correctly is important (especially if you have movers) as it will help to make the unpacking process go a whole lot smoother.
Packing as early as possible will help you reduce the chances of sitting up at midnight before moving day, frantically trying to get everything packed while you’re half-asleep and hating yourself.
Take Measurements
Hopefully, you’ll have time to make a trip to scope out your new home in person before you’re set to move in. When you do so, it’s a good idea to go in with some measurements of your furniture in mind, so that you can give yourself an idea of how (and if) everything will fit in place. Knowing this in advance will allow you to be able to plan ahead if there’s a chance something might need to be bought, thrown out or replaced in order to fit your new space.
Meal Prep
This sounds like a tip for a health and fitness article, but meal prepping will be useful in this case too. During the week of your move, you probably won’t have a whole lot of kitchen equipment and fresh food available to you.
Unless you’re willing to live on takeout for a few days (which we don’t recommend), try to prepare and freeze a few healthy meals that you can simply defrost or throw in the microwave when you’re waist-deep in boxes and running low on time and resources. Another option is to use a healthy meal service – so long as you’re taking care of yourself.
Final Thoughts
Having a smooth and easy moving process really comes down to how well you planned it ahead of time. Make sure that you have your checklists ready and you know exactly what’s going on well ahead of time, and then just make the most of the experience.