16 Feb Moving Home with Less Stress • 10 MORE Tips and Tricks (Part 2)
1. Time to Defrost
Start to use up what is in your pantry and freezer. Only shop for the essentials between now and the move. If you are moving to another city defrost your fridge and freezer the day before the move and drain all the liquids out of them.
2. Make Moving A Family Affair
Get everyone involved, including extended family. Accept all offers of help. Making children a part of the process can be a big part in helping them adjust to the upheaval and associated changes they are/will experience.
3. Make the Kids’ Rooms a Priority
Moving can be a stressful time for everyone but it can be even more so for children. You may have a lot on your mind but for children it can be quite unsettling for them. If their rooms are the first to be set up in your new home with all their familiar pictures and toys then they will quickly regain that ‘at home’ feeling even if the rest of the house is yet to unpacked.
Make the next thing any outside toys that can keep them out of harm’s way while the rest of the big furniture is being moved in.
If you are using the garage as a place for placing boxes ready for the move put the prepacking toys, etc from your children’s bedrooms at the front so they are the first thing to move. If you have lots of helpers put 2 people in charge of the kids’ rooms. Get them to take photos of the room before they start so they can try to have everything in as close to the same position at the other end of the move. See if they will need Allen keys or other tools to dismantle beds or other furniture for the move and have those ready for them along with small sealable plastic bags for screws, bolts, nuts, picture hooks, etc that will be reused at the other end.
4. Leave the Big Stuff
It is great to clear rooms totally but leaving the major pieces of furniture can be useful. When your help arrives on moving day it is usually best to move the big stuff first and helpers know that the furniture from the lounge can go directly into the new lounge/master bedroom/office, etc without having to ask.
It also saves having to move a lot of boxes out of the way to put furniture where you want it if the small stuff has arrived first.
5. Keep Those Fragile Items Safe
Professional movers know all the tricks for protecting fragile items but if you are using family and friends then assign one of them to fragiles and breakables. Things like paintings, vases and mirrors need to be carefully wrapped and this person is responsible for loading them into their vehicle, driving carefully to the new house, unloading them and either hanging them or storing them in a safe place until the rest of the move is over.
6. Socks & T-Shirts
One of the safest ways to protect your long stem glasses is to put each one in one of your socks. Use your teatowels to stop crockery banging against each other when moving.
7. Wrap It
You may like to buy some industrial sized rolls of plastic cling wrap to wrap things like chests of drawers to protect the contents.
Tie your clothes on coat hangers into bunches of 20 and then drap a rubbish bag over them.
Keep self sealing plastic bags handy for bits and pieces from dismantled furniture like the screws that hold the kid’s beds together.
8. Insurance
Check with your insurance company to see what is and isn’t covered while you are moving.
9. On The Day
Get up, hug your family and thank them for all the help they will be today.
Make sure your phones are fully charged. Put their chargers into your Emergency Box, that has everything you’ll need today in it, in case you need it later.
10. Take Photos
Take photos of your empty house when you have moved out and your new house before you move in just in case there is a dispute that someone damaged something moving out or in.Regards
Wanly Tsang
Wanly is a trusted and experienced real estate agent selling on Auckland’s beautiful North Shore and based at the Harcourts Cooper & Co Real Estate office in Browns Bay.