Moving home. Surely one of the most exciting – and also stressful! – events that we ever do! That moment when you fiddle around with the unfamiliar key, open the front door for the first time, gaze around you and think, I live here now, this is my HOME (a very evocative word … which we’ll come back to).
Writing this as someone that has done both, it’s a little bit like the feeling you get as you finish a marathon. All that horrible training on cold nights (dealing with lawyers); times when you thought you couldn’t do it (problems with the buyer/seller/mortgage company); and then the big day itself, the 18 mile marker when cramp sets in (waiting for the solicitor to say that the transaction is completed) …. all that is put immediately behind you as soon as you cross the Finish Line (close the door behind you) and breathe a sigh of relief!
Why is moving house so stressful when it doesn’t really need to be?
Well, we’ve touched on it above. Lots of things can, and sometimes do, go wrong. And because we’re dealing with something so important – our HOME; because (usually) quite large sums of money are involved; because there are several aspects to moving that are outside our control (not least the behaviour of others in the chain); and because we know how smoothly it should and could all go and it’s therefore so frustrating when it doesn’t … it’s actually a wonder that moving house isn’t more stressful than it already is!
Home …
We said we’d come back to this very evocative word. The place where we live, where we have our things, our safe place, our “nest”. It’s arguably these reasons that make moving home so stressful – we’re uprooting ourselves from one home to another, and anything and everything that appears to get in the way will inevitably upset and anger us.
“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.”
(from ‘The Wizard of Oz’)
Moving Home Check-list
Here’s a simple check-list to help you, with special thanks to the B.B.C.
Six weeks before moving:
- Confirm the date of your move
- If you’re renting, notify your landlord of your moving date
- Check your home insurance – make sure you have cover from the day you move in to your new home. .
- Obtain written quotes from several removal firms. Get references and check the limits of their insurance.
- If you’re not using professional removers, ask friends to help.
- Book extra personal storage space if required.
- Notify the relevant utility companies of your departure.
- Start getting rid of possessions you no longer need. Decide which items can be taken to a charity shop, sold at car boot sale, or offered to your friends.
- If you need new furniture or carpets – order them now and arrange delivery for when you move in.
Two weeks before moving:
- Start packing non-essential items such as books and non-seasonal clothes into boxes.
- De-register from your doctor, dentist and optician if you’re moving out of the area.
- Visit the post office and arrange for your post to be forwarded (you will be charged a fee for this service).
- Notify your milkman and newspaper shop that you’ll be moving and give them a date you want the service to stop.
- If you have children or pets, arrange for someone to look after them during the move.
- Make a list of everyone who should know about the move. Send out change of address cards or emails.
- Finalise arrangements with your removal company. Confirm arrival times and make sure your removers have directions to your new address.
- Arrange a time to collect the keys for your new home from the estate agent.
- Notify the bank of any changes to direct debits and standing orders.
Personal storage
There are a lot of things on that check-list (which we’re not saying is exhaustive by the way, it’s just a guideline or “Starter for 10”), most of which is outside the remit of this article. But as we’re specialists in personal storage, we clearly wanted to highlight this one key area which can help to reduce the stress of moving house and make the entire process much more – well, perhaps enjoyable is too strong a word … so how about “acceptable”?
We’ve covered the benefits of personal storage in previous articles. If you’d like friendly and expert advice on how much it can help the process of moving home, then please call us anytime on 0808 168 1310 (Freephone) or 0207 351 6800
Alternatively, click here to go straight to our page on personal storage, here for our home page, or here if you want to contact us on-line. We’ll be delighted to help you.
