On the move: a stress-free guide to moving house
Here is our stress-free guide to moving house!
Consider your moving dates carefully when you’re moving house.
When moving from house to house in the past, we have always ensured some overlap between leases to allow us time to actually move. Ensure that your move does not coincide with a big family or life events. I would strongly advise against moving during the first or last trimesters of pregnancy
Do not lose track of your new house keys.
During one move, in a fit of efficiency, we dropped off our newly acquired front door key at a local key cutter to have copies made. Labels, labels, labels
We have moved so many times that our boxes have numerous content descriptions scrawled down their sides.
Use small boxes for heavy items.
This is a basic rule which hardly seems worth mentioning yet, 11 moves down the line, we still cannot seem to grasp it. Every single move, we manage to fill a big cardboard box with books. The result is either an impossibly heavy box or a box without a bottom. Having a box dump paperbacks all over your feet does little to improve the mood on moving day.
Return all library books before you move.
This is especially important if you are moving internationally or interstate. You will need to make this mistake only once before library borrowing becomes a banned activity.
Try not to stab anything.
Opening boxes in your new home should be carried out with extreme caution. Particularly if there is any kind of sharp implement involved. Similarly, if you plan to cut handles into the sides of cardboard boxes, do so before you fill them up.
Keep children entertained.
If you are moving children, especially young children, keep the puzzles, DVDs or sticker books on hand until the bitter end. And whatever you do, keep their most treasured belongings accessible. If you have accidentally not only packed up everything they love but also sent it in a crate to a different country, expect to find yourself buying exactly the same talking Elmo that you were not overly keen on purchasing the first time around.
