They say that moving house can be one of the most stressful things to do. Which is why after moving 3 times in the last 3 years we are hoping to stay put for a while and after the the year my family & I have had with illness, I really wanted to keep the stress levels to an absolute minimum.
So how have I tried to do this?
I employed the use of an acronym.
J.O.Y.
Just Organise Yourself!
This acronym has been around for a while and there are entire blogs dedicated to it. I have tried to use it during this most recent house move because there is a part of me that believes deep down that the more organised I am the more joy I will have in my life and therefore, the more joy I can pass on to my family, friends and the folk who read this website.
I have not achieved constant calm or serenity during this process, no siree. There have been pockets of time when my attitude has stunk and this has affected those who I have around me. But we move in a week and I think it’s safe to say that the worst is behind us.
I certainly don’t have the moving process wrapped up (sorry, couldn’t help myself) but I have certainly found some ways of doing it that help me keep half my sanity if not all of it. It was also important to Robert and I to keep disruption to a minimum for our kids. They are very young so they won’t even remember this time but if Robert and I had spent the last four months screaming at each other they may remember more than we think they are capable of. Of course even with all the planning in the world Ned has still taken to climbing the towers of boxes that sit in each room and staring down at me, proudly, from the top and Nye is now very good at telling him off. Neither of these situations are ideal, granted, but they will all be forgotten once we close the door on our new home.
Here are a few tips for moving house
- If you have the luxury of having plenty of time before a move, take the opportunity to go through each room and sort through ALL of your things. A month or two before you move decide what you will be taking with you, what will be thrown out and what will be donated to your local charity shop. Anything you are not taking with you, remove from your house before you begin to pack, this will save extra trips to the tip on the day of moving, or worse still, taking unwanted items with you on the day.
- A few weeks before your move, start to pack up any items you know you will not need until after you move. If possible, stack all your packed boxes in a room that is not used that often so your boxes are out of the way. You don’t want to be tripping over boxes in every room with 4 weeks left until the move, after-all, you do still have to live there!
- This time around I have been really economical when it comes to labeling boxes. Opting for labeling them with the room they have come from and not every item they contain I have also only written across the tape that holds the boxes together. I learnt this the hard way last time; when you write all over the boxes it makes them hard to be used for much else and can get confusing if you use them to store other items in further down the line.
- I have a lot of magazines. A great many have been donated or recycled but I still have many more that make up a reference library of sorts and I don’t want to let them go. It’s a guilty pleasure of mine to pull out an old Martha Stewart Living from back in the 90′s and take a long hot bubble bath with only that for company. She and her team were WAY ahead of their time and we haven’t seem a magazine like it since. I digress….
- Pack an ‘essentials’ box, these are the things you will be using right up until you move and will probably want to unpack first. I packed two essentials boxes, one with all my kitchen items such as kettle, tea, mugs, milk, a few plates and cutlery and some food and snacks for the day. I also included a first aid kit too. The other box contained bathroom and bedroom items such as fresh linen for our beds, soap, towels and toilet paper. If there’s one thing I know for sure it’s that Robert and I will sleep like babies in our new home if the first night has us sleeping on fresh linen, even if it’s on a mattress on the floor. Happy days!
- Try, if you possibly can, to see it all as an adventure. My kids aren’t stressed, they’re just getting on with it. Which is all Robert and I need to do really. In every single house move there is a drama of some sort so I fall back on what the rather fabulous Gloria Steinem says “Life is an adventure, you can’t control it but you can prepare for it”. Amen to that!
I love you and thank you for reading today.
Cherry
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Great tips Cherry! I’m sending this to my son and daughter-in-law. They’re moving soon. Thanks for taking the time to record all this.
Good luck with your move. We’re in our sixth home and this time round we paid the removal men to do the packing. We still did a sort-out of each room and the loft but it was the best money we’ve spent on moving. They just come in the day before and pack each room up, leaving the absolute essentials till the next day. I found that if I do the packing myself I get too emotionally involved in the process and lose hours looking through things rather than packing them and then walking round the house trying to find something to fill the awkward gap left in the box!
Looking forward to seeing your new home and all the things you plan for it.
We figure that we moved around 25 times due to staying one foot ahead of the law!!He he, no my husband was in the Air Force then later in the semi-conductor industry. We lived in England, Republic of Ireland, Washington State, Colorado, Michigan, Virginia, New Mexico, Arizona, Hawaii, Texas, and finally Washington again, and dream big here Hawaii!!! I still have boxes that haven’t been opened in 15 years!!! At one time I would wake up and not know where we were!!! And even now I get the moving “itch”, once a gypsy always a gypsy!!! Good luck and enjoy the process.
I hope it all goes well Cherry. I’ve been thinking about you. xxx
Loads of good luck for the move and I hope all goes well. I can’t wait to see the new house and all that you are going to do to it.
What I can wait for most is the ‘school’ opening and coming to see you (in a non-stalker way!!!).
Love Marge x
Hello! We’ve moved back into our house following a 10 week building and decorating programme, so effectively we’ve moved twice since Christmas. It seems so easy now, although we are still moving things around. Anyway, here’s my tip: we found that we had kept household items we didn’t need any longer, so instead of freeycling (and apologies to that organisation but please, having to make appointments to give things away?), just put them at the bottom of our path with a cardboard sign saying “Please help yourself”. Everything went quickly, and some nice people even put thank you notes through the letterbox. Lovely.
Hello Cherry…. I absolutely LOVE moving house! Done it many times, often moving ‘myself’ (with help from friends) so have got it down to a fine art now!!! You seem to be organised anyway…
))) Very, very best of luck and much happiness in your new home… xx
Forgive me, but my favourite part of this blog is as follows: ” … Ned has still taken to climbing the towers of boxes that sit in each room and staring down at me, proudly, from the top and Nye is now very good at telling him off.” That made me giggle – with my twin brother and I, it was inevitably my brother (Gordon) who was getting into trouble, and me telling him off (or, rather, putting him up to it, as you will discover as the twins get older and Ned gets more gullible, as Nye becomes more creative and cunning).
All best wishes for your move. Cx
Oh Cherry….we have another move coming up shortly but this one is not filled with J.O.Y. OR Joy quite yet, but it will be!!! Right now it’s filled with panic, pressure and a bunch of other not very nice things….
So enjoy the adventure and I’ll keep you posted about where/when we’re going as well!!!
Fun!!!! Keep eating delicious and nutritious food all week….keep yourselves healthy!!!
xo
Joann
Gosh, moving is so awful! Good luck for the move, can’t wait to see and hear all about your new house
I so enjoyed reading this. You seem like a friend to me and I love reading your posts. This one “hit home” as my husband and I are planning on moving in a few months from the house we have lived in for 32 years. I do this with mixed emotions……leaving our home filled with with loving memories of raising our family, while looking forward to new ones!
Very glad to hear things are going well for your move! It’s almost like the last connecting flight for a fabulous destination, which your new home is surely to be.
My husband was in the army and we moved many times. Your tips are all very good! I always tried to book a visit to the spa for a pedicure or massage about 3 or 4 days after the move, just to de-stress. Even though all the work wasn’t done, it was nice to take some time for myself! Best of luck!
That seems like a dream right now! Cx
Good luck with the move ! Can’t wait to see your new abode.
You’ve given a few good pointers for an almost stress free house move. We’ve done it many times and we are planning just one more move to a forever house …. abroad….again.
xxx…x
Brilliant ideas for making moving house a bit less of a hassle!
I have one suggestion to add: if your new house isn’t too far away, an extra truck is available, and your helpers are plentiful, have the beds and mattresses removed from the house you’re leaving during the morning on moving day. Provide the extra team with a map to get to the new house and bedroom diagrams for bed placement, and send them off to set up the beds. They can take the box of first night bed linens, the kettle, and such, too, as long as these boxes cannot be buried when all the other boxes arrive! When this team has completed these quick jobs, back they come to help with the rest of the boxes and furniture. It will be sheer delight to have beds to tumble into at the end of moving day.
Ta for keeping us updated during this busy adventure!
Hugs!
Could not agree more! LOVE this. Cx
Hi Cherry, I am looking at my recent flat move and changes in my life as adventures too and so far that’s going well! Thank you for your post today and for telling us about J.O.Y – I love this! Your blog always helps me to look at things in a really positive way. Good luck with your move, hope all goes smoothly xx
Hello Cherry, I am so pleased to have you back! I have been missing your posts. Off to read this one now in my lunch-hour – it will brighten my day!
All the best,
Liz x
I am pleased to be back. I miss writing on my site!!!!! Cx
Hi Cherry
It will all be worth it in the long run and although it seems tough on your children now, it will benefit them in the future.
I can totally understand your stress as we completely gutted our house when my 1st daughter was 18mths old and at one point we only had a small 2 metre square patch for her to play in, in one room. But now,its done we have a nice home to live in and I am sure she isnt damaged by that crazy year. And besides, she now knows more about DIY than most adults. Good Luck x
Good luck with the move, Cherry. We had to do the same last December, after living in our previous house for 10 and a half years. I had 8 weeks notice, so had to really get organized very quickly. I am still trying to create homes for everything (we went from a big old house, to a not so big, but definitely not small, new house), but we are getting there.
Humour and JOY really do help!
Kate x
You’ll soon have the peace of ownership, and you will really feel it like never before!
Try labelling each box with the room it is to go into as well – less hassle at the other end!
totally agree, but my joy is not to move! Too much faff & hassle and I like our home.
Best wishes with your move. see you on the other side!
x
My joy is not to move either, certainly after this one! Cx
I love the JOY thing! Organisation is the secret to stress-free living, I truly believe that….now, if I could just persuade my husband and children…
Good luck with the next week or two, Cherry, although I’m sure you’ll cope like a pro.
x x x
I truly believe that is the secret also. Cx
I never thought of writing on the tape instead of the boxes…genius!!
Good luck with the move Cherry and I can’t wait to see you settle in your new home x
Thank you! Cx
I feel more organised just reading this post! Good luck to you all in your latest adventure, I look forward to seeing the new home and all the wonderful things you have planned for making it yours xx
Thank you. You have no idea how many things are being planned right now. Bit excited!!! Cx