How To Move House Quickly and Efficiently
Moving house is a stressful experience. This experience is only made more stressful when, for whatever reason, you have to move quickly. Then, all the stressful things are compressed into one short time period, and it can feel like you’re drowning in all the things you’ve got to do.
Luckily, here are outlined some tips for making a quick moving process efficient and smooth.
Prepare, prepare, prepare
When moving quickly, you don’t have as much time to prepare as usual. That being said, it’s still essential that you do some preparation.
Calling the utility companies as quickly as possible once you know for sure you’re moving is essential. This will allow you to avoid any extra costs that might come with doing this late. On top of this, one of the first things you should do is book your movers as fast as possible. Use a comparison website to find a good mover at a reasonable price. Once you’ve got your movers booked, you know the date that marks your deadline. This is useful because, once you’ve got your deadline, you can schedule the rest of your time to ensure everything gets done by the time you must move.
Once you have your deadline, your schedule, and your bills sorted, the next thing you want to do is budget. Moving can end up quite expensive. When you are under a time crunch, it can be even more costly. This is because you have to take the quickest option, not necessarily the cheapest. By writing up a budget, you can make an effort not to overspend. Your budget will need to be flexible, but its existence should ensure you don’t end up spending a ridiculous amount, no matter what comes up.
Tips for quick and effective packing
Packing is the most integral part of the moving process, so getting it right is extra important.
To make your move swift, easy, and cheap, it can help to go out and look for free packing supplies. There will always be crates leftover at restaurants or cardboard boxes you can take from office supplies shops. Ask around and see what you can get for free to help with your move. If local shops can’t help you out, friends and family will often have moving boxes left over from their moves.
When it comes to packing boxes, multi-purpose your items. Use your bedding and soft items (i.e., towels, blankets) to wrap up fragile objects, such as glasses, mirrors, or lamps. This way, you aren’t taking up space with soft packaging, but your fragile items are still protected from breaking.
You can multi-purpose your items in other ways too. For example, use pots to carry smaller items. For example, if you have a large Tupperware, fill it with your spices, cutlery, and other smaller items, then put the lid on, and pack the Tupperware. This is much more space-conscious and so will save you money on movers and packing materials.
This can work on a larger scale too. For example, if you have furniture with storage (such as a chest of drawers), don’t empty out the drawers; fill them with smaller items you want to take with you. Then, tape up the drawers so nothing will fall out during the move.
Once you’re all packed, there is still something you need to do. Labeling your boxes will make your unpacking job much easier once you reach your new home. However, labeling can take a while, especially if a box contains more than one thing. Therefore, it can be smarter to color code your boxes. How you color code is up to you, but doing it by room of the house can help you unpack quickly. Whichever way you do it, color coding is likely to be quicker, as all you have to do is run a swipe of a color or two onto the top of your box.
Throw away anything non-essential
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Throwing non-essentials away will lift the load of your move. The fewer things you have to move, the smoother and quicker the process. For this reason, throwing away anything you don’t absolutely need is key. Then, when you arrive at your new place, you can refill it with new things, adding to the sense of restarting that moving brings.
When throwing things away, there are a couple of tricks you can use.
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Clothes: Be ruthless with your wardrobe. If it doesn’t fit anymore, throw it away. If you haven’t worn it in the last six months, the likelihood is that you won’t wear it again. Throw it away. Ask yourself when looking at your clothes: would you buy them again? If the answer is no, chuck it.
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Objects: Ask yourself a lot of the same questions – do you still use it? Would you buy it again? If these offer up answers of no, throw it away.
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Donating: If you are donating large objects, like items of furniture, ensure you have made arrangements for collection ahead of time. Remember: you are running on a tight schedule. You need these collections to go smoothly. The only way to ensure this is to prepare for them well. When it comes to smaller objects and clothing, check beforehand where you can donate them. Some charities don’t take everything, and you don’t want to waste time going from one charity to another, hoping they’ll take your things.
Non-essential isn’t necessarily meant to be taken literally. Non-essentials can also include things of sentimental value. Technically, your child’s first cuddly toy might not be essential, but considering the memories it carries with it, it can be classed as essential.
How to adjust when moving is a question a lot of people ask themselves. When this move has to be quick – especially if the speed at which you have to move is unexpected – the question of adjusting is even more relevant. You might think it best to simply focus on the act of moving when moving quickly and think about adjusting afterward, but the truth is it can help to think about it while moving also. Moving might require you to throw away sentimental objects – something that might be difficult to do. Don’t ignore this emotion; let it help you realize what to keep and what to throw away.
Unpacking in the fastest fashion
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So. You’ve moved out quickly and smoothly. Now you need to unpack in your new home. Unpacking is always stressful, but it can be made more difficult when you move out in a rush. The way you’ve packed might not be the most well-thought-out, leading to a more difficult unpacking job.
However, you can do a few things to help yourself make the unpacking process more efficient.
Start with the hardest room first. At the beginning of your unpacking journey, you’ll have the most motivation. You won’t be exhausted by unpacking you’ve already done, and the process will still feel novel and exciting. Use this energy to get the hardest room done first. Then, when you feel exhausted a few days later, you’ll only have to deal with easy rooms. Manage your energy effectively to get the unpacking done quickly.
When the unpacking is feeling difficult, use your resources to make the process easier. This will look different for everyone. For some, this might mean putting on music to distract you while you are unpacking. For others, putting an episode of a TV show you love in the background can help to keep your mind off the mindless unpacking.
However, the best way to unpack quickly is if you have a few extra pairs of hands. Of course, this becomes difficult if you’ve moved somewhere where you don’t know anyone, but if you can call in some friends or family to help out, the process will go quicker for two reasons. First, more hands equals more things put away in a shorter period of time. Secondly, with friends around you, you can talk and chat to distract yourself from the boredom, meaning more will get unpacked. Perfect!
If you are really struggling to find the motivation to unpack, there is one last-resort plan you can use. Take a box, and dump it out in an annoying place. This could be on top of your bed or on top of the dining room. Maybe even right in front of the door. This way, you have to tidy things into their places, otherwise, you won’t be able to sleep, or eat, or leave your house. The ultimatum this method presents requires you to unpack your things if you want to continue on with your life.
Use these tips to move quickly
Moving quickly is a tricky business, but done right, it doesn’t have to be too stressful. Hopefully, these tips will help you make your move quick, easy, and cheap.
