5 Ways to Make Your Move Easier
Who knew that 80% of moves occur from April to September in the US? If you’re one such human making moves in the coming months, I’m offering up my top tips to make your transition much smoother. It’s no secret that moving can be overwhelming and stressful, especially if you’re moving in the steamy summer heat. With a little preparation and some (okay–maybe a bit more than some) decluttering, you’ll have a lot less sweat on your brow. So here’s what I recommend:
1. Declutter *BEFORE* your move. Please, for the love of your bicep muscles and quads, reduce your number of moving boxes by simply editing your stuff beforehand. A few weeks prior to your move (or a month if you’re feeling ambitious), start decluttering each room and be prettttyyy prettttty ruthless about it. One of my favorite decluttering questions to ask yourself, “would I take this with me if I moved?” applies here quite literally. If you can’t see yourself using it in your new space, donate it to your local charity shop, thrift shop, or pass it onto friends and family. If you’re moving across the country (or outta the country), donate unused food items to your local homeless shelter. Same goes for cleaning supplies! If there’s only one thing you do from this list, let it be this one thing. There is truly nothing worse than arriving at your new place with boxes upon boxes of big question mark items, like the novelty beignet maker and collection of wine aerators. Edit now, sip wine later.
2. Create a simple key of moving box contents. Instead of writing random items in Sharpie on each moving box, simply number each box and then notate exactly what’s inside elsewhere (e.g., in a google doc or a note on your phone). This will save you time, and you’ll have a chance to be more specific if you type it out. Simple yet effective tip that makes searching for your WiFi port at your new place so much easier.
3. Color code each box to correspond to each room. To make moving in more swift and seamless, color code your boxes to match each room in your new home. Maybe orange is kitchen, green is bedroom, purple is bathroom, etc. etc. Those little circular stickers work great, and if you don’t want to buy those stickers, use colored markers instead! This way, when you’re first carrying box after box into your new home, you’ll know exactly where to plunk them down.
4. Stop buying unnecessary moving materials. Forget the packing paper and bubble wrap. If you have dish towels, towels, and even yesterday’s newspaper, you’re in good shape (specifically, your glasses and dishware will still be in good shape when you make it to your new place). Not only are you cutting down on waste, but you’re saving yourself the added hassle and expense of packing materials. And pro tip: if you live near a liquor store, you can pick some boxes up gratuit! No need to schlep over to Home Depot.
5. Designate a moving essentials box. Stock it with dishware, towels, silverware, some snacks, cleaning materials, basically the basics. Anything that you need to have a more pleasant first night in your new home, toss it into this here box. Your future self with thank you tons. You can of course pack all this stuff in a duffel as well. Just remember to keep it off to the side, as these things tend to get lost in the shuffle.
Happy moving season!