Moving to a new city or state can be thrilling when you have a new job or a unique opportunity to look forward to. However, the excitement is often dampened by the mere thought of packing and sorting your belongings into boxes and transporting them to where you’re headed. Here are some tips that can lessen the stress of the moving day:
Purge and Pack
The KonMari method has made everyone going through their possessions and looking for items that don’t spark joy. If you’re moving and you don’t want to carry ten years’ worth of clutter with you, now is the time to apply this principle. Get rid of clothes that you no longer wear or have no plan of wearing soon. Carry the still usable items to Goodwill or donate them to a shelter, especially if these are jackets or sweaters that can be used to make other people feel comfortable.
The things you do end up with should then be sorted, packed, boxed, and labeled before your moving company carries them. If you’re in Salt Lake City, ask for recommendations from friends and family members to find the right professionals.
Take pictures before packing.
No, this isn’t a photo shoot for posterity. It’s so you remember how everything is arranged and what items go together. For example, your home entertainment system has to be broken apart into several parts, and you will have to put everything back together once you’ve unpacked. Having the photos will help you have everything up and running in a short period.
It also helps to take snaps of your bookshelf, your display cases, and even your wall art. It will make it easier for you to reconstruct your living space (if this is what you want to do) since people are usually creatures of habit.
Use your luggage for clothes.
Contrary to popular belief, you can use your luggage to transport your clothes. Instead of putting everything in cardboard boxes, some people wrap the clothes inside their closets in plastic wrap or trash bags and lug them inside their cars. Luggage is also helpful when moving clothes and unmentionables. The last thing you want is to the movers and packers open up a box full of underwear when they unpack. The plastic wrap helps keep the clothes clean so that you can use them immediately after settling in.
Prepare a moving kit.
Packing doesn’t happen in a day, and it can be messy, crazy, or chaotic. Have a small box where you have your markers, cutters, all kinds of tape, labels, scissors, and other things that you will need to get the sorting and packing done. Having the kit in one place will keep you from looking for things every few hours.
If you have the money and you don’t want to be bothered by packing and sorting, you can ask the moving team to handle the packing and unpacking for you. This service can hurt your budget a little, but it’s certainly worth it when it comes to saving time, effort, and freeing you from stress.
