No-one ever said that moving home was a stress-free enjoyable experience. Most people would agree that it is a stressful, hellish experience.
Death and divorce are probably the only two things that can claim to be more stressful than moving your life from one place to another.
In order to make your move go as efficiently as possible you need two things, a plan and a list of tips to help you get through it. Here is our offering for the latter.
-
Get the Keys Together
Most houses have a lot of keys aside from the obvious front door key. There’s the back door key for a start, there might be a side door key too, and a key to the patio doors?
What about window keys, shed keys, garage keys?
Not only that, have you got all the copies of these keys? Have you got the keys you lent to the dog-walker, babysitter, in-laws?
-
Prepare a fact file about your property
The kind of thing you might find when you rent an apartment for holiday. You can include meter locations, rubbish collection days, alarm codes, tradesmen you frequently use or even your recommended takeaways.
Why do this? Because it’s a nice touch, and you might also want to ask your vendors if they would do the same for you?!
-
Find Meters and Fuse Boxes
If your vendor isn’t going to leave you a nice fact file, ensure you ask ahead of time where the gas and electric meters are, as well as the fuse box. Don’t forget to find out who the energy suppliers are and take a reading as soon as you move in.
-
Arrange Parking
Will the removal vans have somewhere to park? Not only to park, but space to unload all of your stuff? Moving home is stressful enough without upsetting your new neighbours.
-
Get Rid of the Kids and Pets
Don’t get over excited, you’re not getting rid of them completely! Asking a friend or family member to look after them whilst you move home will make it all that little bit easier.
Doors are open constantly and your attention is always going to be elsewhere. Not having to worry about a dog or a child running into the road will be an added bonus.
-
Survival Kit
Pack a bag with some absolute essentials. Include food, drink and any instructions you may need on the day. If you’re planning on giving the house a clean when you arrive, make sure all your cleaning products and equipment are easier to access.
-
Label Everything
Maybe even go the whole hog and invest in a label maker? Make sure every box is labelled with its contents and the room it is to be delivered to in the house. Label the doors in the new house too, after all how is anyone going to know that’s a dining room if there’s nothing in it?!
-
Pack Early
Talking of boxes, make sure you have them ahead of time and start to pack as early as possible, putting non-essential items into boxes first. Do you really need to keep your childhood teddies on the shelf until moving day?!
Anything you can do to make the actual moving day itself less stressful will make the overall experience of moving home less stressful.
-
Consider Using Professionals
As someone who has moved home themselves and used professional movers I cannot recommend using the latter enough. If you can afford it of course. Especially if everyone in the house is trying to work full time too.
A standard removal service for a local move is surprisingly good value. You can even upgrade to a deluxe service where the removal company packs your boxes for you too!
-
De-clutter Now!
Think about how much stuff is in your house and then think how much of it you really need. Do you really want to drag that running machine you last used in 2009 from one house to the next?
Moving home is a fantastic time to de-clutter and throw out or recycle all the things you don’t need.
Start in the loft/garage/cellar if you have them. That’s where you’ll find the greatest amount of junk!
Need an EPC in Anerley or any other town ion the London Borough of Bromley? Give EPC Bromley a call to arrange an appointment. Most EPCs are completed in less than an hour so we’ll be out of your way in no time.
Renting out your home and need an inventory, we can help with that too.