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Are you planning on moving house this year?

There may not be a better time to do so; after a year of considerable increases in property values, the market is calming down, allowing homeowners to capitalise on their property gains properly. But moving is a tough process to start, and always more stressful than you intend it to be. Here are three tips for preparing for a house removal, to limit the stress levels on the big day.

Label Your Boxes

Whether you are moving your belongings yourself, or booking a professional home removal service to move your possessions, you should endeavour to label all of your boxes. Even with the best of intentions, your boxes may not arrive in the same order they left – and before long, you’ll find yourself rummaging through every single one to find the right items, making a mess of your unpacking in the process.

Labelling your boxes with their contents can be useful for keeping track of valuables, but can also be a time-consuming endeavour. A quicker, more useful way to label is to simply write the room in which they were packed on the top. This way, when you arrive at your new home you can have your boxes delivered to their destination rooms, saving you time figuring out what goes where.

Pack a ‘Moving’ Bag

Before you commit fully to the packing process, though, there is something you can do to ensure your first few days in your new home are as stress free as possible: packing a ‘moving bag’. This should be a sports bag, filled with items you’re likely to need in your first few nights at the new house. Fun as unpacking can be, you shouldn’t have to hunt through boxes for simple conveniences on your first evening.

Obvious choices include clothes, underwear and toiletries, but you should also think to include bedding to ensure a restful night’s sleep. A few items of crockery and cutlery can also go a long way, enabling cooking and eating without unpacking your entire kitchen.

Make Arrangements for Children and Pets

The moving process is complicated enough with inanimate objects alone, but other members of the family – human or otherwise – can make things even more difficult without the proper provisions. Children are at heightened risk of injury during a removal, as heavy and sharp objects are in motion; they are also more likely to experience stress and anxiety as a result of the move. Likewise, pets can sense anxiety and stress in the removal process, and feel stress themselves.

As such, separate plans should be made for children and pets, to ensure they are supervised and safe until the vast majority of the move is complete. Hiring a removal company can take a lot of the stress out of managing both sides of a move, meaning you can concern yourself more directly with looking after family. Alternatively, other members of your family may be able to pitch in and host until you are finished moving.

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