How to Successfully Move House Stress Free

Well almost stress free…

I’m writing this from my childhood bedroom where the Mr and I are currently living whilst we wait to hear whether we have successfully bought a flat or not. It’s not the ideal circumstance but it’s the only way we could do it without spending more money. We moved out just over a week ago and I feel like I need a holiday after moving day!

 If anyone tells you that moving isn’t stressful they are lying because it’s probably the most stressful thing in the world and I’ve only done it a handful times; so I have compiled a few handy tips on how to make it a little smoother and as stress free as possible.

Start early. Whether it’s moving to another property, back home or out of your home for the first time, start packing early. This is advice I wish we had listened to because it was a little bit of a tight squeeze to get everything done in time.  I couldn’t believe how much stuff the two of us had despite only living in our flat for three years. It took a full week to pack everything as we had to do it round our work schedules, it was lots of late nights and early starts to get it all done.

Speaking of work schedules. If you can take time off work then do. We sadly couldn’t but we wish we had as we ended up with only one day off together to do the majority of the move which meant that that particular day was very tense.

This one really only applies if you’re moving out of a place you need to clean (especially rental properties). Move out a few days early, with all your belongings, furniture etc. so you have a bare space and that makes your deep cleaning a hell of a lot easier. Moving furniture out if you’re not keeping it needs a lot of advance work, I really wanted it to be taken to a charity but we didn’t leave enough time so we had to pay for it to be taken away.

When you move in to a rental it’s super important to take photos (with a newspaper of the day you moved in) so that when you move out your landlord can’t try and blame existing marks & scuffs etc. on you.  Inevitably they will still try and swindle you out of  some money, but stand your ground. We’ve had to have a little bit of a heated email exchange with our ex-landlord but it was worth the slight stress to get the majority of the deposit back and we could have saved a lot of hassle by having the photos as proof.

Just know that if you and your partner are moving out (or in) together then you are going to argue at least once during the process! So make sure you take regular tea breaks to give yourself a bit of a breather and assessing time. A hug and ‘I love you’ at the end makes up for any bickering that’s occurred.

I am hoping that I can carry across some of these tips when/if we eventually move into our new place and it will be a lot less stressful. If you’ve got any other tips or anecdotes about moving please drop them in the comments box below, would love to hear from you.