I recently read an article in the New York Times about the psychology of moving. Growing up we lived in the same home that my parents still live in today. For our family of four this was move number nine and in case your just tuning in you can check out this post to see why we moved and what our plans are for the future. At this point I consider myself a professional so today I’m sharing some of my tips & tricks to keep your day as stress free as possible.
Our moves have changed over the years. They started off with minimal furniture, no children to worry about and were simple enough that Nick and I managed to do it on our own. As our family and ’stuff’ grew they became more and more complicated. About three moves ago I made the decision to hire movers and man did they make my life so much easier. I still took care of the clothes, linens and kitchen but didn’t have to worry about the heavy lifting.
Around the time we were moving into our last house work was crazy, the kids were finishing school and I just didn’t know how I was going to get everything done in time. I had never hired packers before so when I called around for pricing I was pleasantly surprised at how reasonable it was. The company I used charged hourly so I was only paying for what they were packing. I will never forget the morning they came, it was a Saturday and the kids went to their grandparents for a sleepover. Nick and I were home and they just rolled in with all their boxes, wrapping paper and quickly got to work. We showed them around and just as my anxiety was starting to set in we hit the beach for a long walk. We ended up spending most of the day out of the house and when we came back the house was stacked floor to ceiling with boxes. I remember telling Nick — this was a game changer.
Moving is expensive, it's stressful and sometimes emotional. I have found that over the years (and doing it as much as we have) that the more pressure I take off myself the better it is for everyone around me.
With this last move I thought I was up for an ‘easy’ move, the new owners had bought all of our artwork and the majority of our furniture. The only thing I needed to worry about was the kitchen, our clothes and some accessories and toys. Easy, right? Boy was I wrong.
Pro tip: If your selling your house and the buyer wants to buy your furniture - do it! It may sound strange at first but I can almost guarantee that not everything will fit in your new house. Of course there will be those few special pieces you want to keep but otherwise just buy it new!
We will spend the next 14 or so months in the cutest 1930’s home that is perfectly situated between our old house and new build location. It’s incredibly charming with a white picket fence and close proximity to the girls' school. The only downside to it’s old charm is the lack of storage space. This is where some serious de-cluttering and downsizing came into play.
In years past our personal belongings went to the same place however since we couldn’t fit everything in the rental I had to come up with another plan. With 3/4 of our things needing to go to storage I needed to figure out what I could/couldn't live without for the next year. I started in the kitchen where I only took the necessary appliances, pots, pans, plates, and a few serving dishes — to be honest this was probably the hardest part! Next I moved to our decorative accessories. While I didn’t want to live with bare shelves for the next year I only took a few of my favorite things and had the rest boxed up. For our clothes I had to separate by seasons, most of our bulky winter/ski clothes are in labeled plastic totes that can be easily grabbed when needed.
The day the packers came I had already moved all the kitchen items, accessories and toys that were moving to the rental. This kept some of my costs down for not only the labor portion but also the costs associated with packing materials. Everything that the packers packed was then taken to our climate controlled storage unit. Pro tip: If your looking for short term storage options lock-in the online rate but call and ask to pay up front for the time you need. The small print allows them to increase the price every few months!
It’s been said that moving is one of the top 3 most stressful events in your life. With our 9th move complete I’m sharing some tips & tricks to help keep your sanity -
Here are some of my favorite moving essentials - Sterilite bins. As I mentioned above these are great to haul anything you want to move yourself. I typically have 3 to 4 on hand to move my kitchen which is a lot easier than boxes in my opinion. Vacuum seal bags. Whether for moving, storing, or just organizing and consolidating these are amazing. I recently used the XL size for storage of all of our extra pillows, blankets and comforters. We have been in the rental now for about two weeks and are feeling more settled by the day. I’m still working on some organizational storage ideas for our small spaces and will share in a separate post once I’m finished. A special thank you to my parents for watching and entertaining the girls.
Yarnall for packing and moving us, and In Order to Succeed moving for being the best organizers in the business!
If you have a special tip to share make sure you comment below!