Escape Your Chaos™ During Moves
MOVING: The word strikes terror in the heart of the brave. Whether you are moving by choice into your dream home or being forced into a move by an unwanted life change, moving can be traumatic for you, your life, your family and your belongings.
Let’s look at my 10 top tips:
1. SIMPLIFY: Is a year in advance to early to begin? No! If you have advance notice 6
months to a year before the move, get started by hiring a professional organizer to go
through the home with you step by step, inch by inch. Why pay to move something you no
longer need or want. Books are heavy and most are available on Kindle or at
your library. Remember “Love It, Use It or LOSE IT™” (Keep the First Editions, wink)
2. DON’T PANIC: Even if you have short notice, Keep Calm. Keep what you cherish. Keep
what you use. Keep your memories. This is not the time to throw away all your baby
photos and year books. Believe me, I did that and have regretted it ever since.
3. KODAK MOMENTS: Take lots of photos. You may think you have photos but in most of them
your home was in the background. This time go room by room and really photograph e
everything, inside cupboards, medicine cabinets, linen closets, drawers, garage, attic,
basement. What’s on your walls and on your patio. This will be valuable for many reasons.
For insurance purposes in case of damaged goods. To help you remember how you
like those books you didn’t give away arranged on your shelves and for memories.
4. PACKING: Professional move assisters can be life savers when you need to be at work
everyday. You can begin early packing the belongings you don’t use regularly. Stack
boxes in a garage or storage unit. This helps clear your home out for staging if it’s
for sale and helps you feel like you’ve got a good handle on the situation. *My favorite
freebies are produce boxes. They are sturdy, have handles, lids, don’t need taping
and stack perfectly. Call your local market produce department to reserve.
5. CLEANING: Leaving a rental? Check with management. Sometimes it’s less expensive to
pay the cleaning fees than to have your place professionally cleaned or taking your valuable
time to do it. DO have your new place professionally cleaned before you move in. Nothing
feels better than staring out fresh.
6. LEAVING ON A JET PLANE: Pack a suitcase for each family member, and pet, as if they
were going on a 2 week vacation. Hopefully it won’t take 2 weeks to be settled but
emergencies can come up that delay progress. My daughter had 3 emergency kidney
surgeries right after I recently moved. I lived out of my suitcase for about 3 weeks.
7. BOX #1: Is one of the last boxes to get packed because it’s the stuff you use everyday. Ex:
Your favorite fry pan, toaster, blender, salt and pepper, toilet paper, paper towels, bath towels,
sheets, pillows and blankets for beds.