A Few Tips to Make Moving Day Less Stressful

Having moved quite a few times myself, I know first hand how stressful moving can be, especially if you have children. In my opinion, the packing and unpacking is the worst and most stressful. Oftentimes, I would find myself standing in the middle of the room, spinning in circles while surveying the room, and wondering to myself, "Where do I begin?" That overwhelming feeling that comes over you when preparing for the big move can be daunting at times.

After the first few times I moved I realized that I needed to become more organized. I had to find a better way to do it and here's what I came up with….

First of all, if you are planning on using a moving company or renting a moving truck to do it yourself, make your arrangements as soon as possible to reserve your moving vehicle and to get the best rates.

The easiest way I found to pack was to do it in "rounds". What I mean by that is, start in one room and, doing each room individually, pack away the things you know for sure you will not need until after your move. This is round 1. Then, each week leading up to your move, do a sweep through of your house and pack away the things you know you can live without for the time being. Not only will this help to lessen the stress of moving, but at this time you can also decide to sell or give away the things you don't ever use instead of moving them with you.

If you will be using cardboard boxes to pack your things, use a permanent marker and somewhere on the box write the name of the room that the items in the box belong in. Then when you move, you can put the box in its designated room right away to make unpacking that much easier. If you will be using plastic storage containers instead of boxes, pick up some cheap, easily removable labels to place on the containers and write the names of the rooms on the labels instead of writing it directly on the containers.

Another idea would be to mark each box with a number according to necessity. For instance, if the items in a box are personal toiletries those would be something you would need unpacked right away, so you could mark that box with a "1" so you would know to unpack that box first. Then follow suit with the other boxes using the number "2" for items that you wouldn't need unpacked right away but would need soon, and so on and so on.

If you have children, give them a box or two and have them pack up their own toys and personal belongings. This always works great with my kids. They love to help me out in anyway they can and they're always so proud of what they've accomplished when they get their packing completed. Then when your move is over and it's time to unpack, the kids can then unpack and put away their own things.

Hopefully, these few moving tips I've given you will help to make your moving experience a little more pleasant, organized, and less stressful.