5 Tips to Successfully Move Your Home and Your Home Based Business
(our new view)
Last week, we moved our 3 daughters, 3 cats, 1 dog and basically every possession we own 400 miles south of San Francisco to the Newport Beach area of Southern California. My mother was diagnosed with a serious illness in April and we want to be near she and my father to support them during this battle. It wasn’t a planned move, but once we made the decision that it was what we needed to do, we figured, “why wait?”
So… we did it!
Within 5 days of signing a lease, we packed up our SF house and left. It was a whirlwind of tape, cardboard and bubble wrap, but we tried to be as organized as possible and now we are completely moved in and settled in less than a week!
Everyone keeps asking how we did it so fast.
So… I have 5 tips to share with you if you ever find yourself in a pinch to move your home, business and life quickly.
- Don’t be afraid to purge! Get rid of anything you don’t use regularly (ie: if you haven’t used it within the last year, chuck it!) Store things that are of significant meaning for you, but don’t hang on to things that you don’t know what to do with. Take a picture and donate it, pass it on as a gift or trash it. Less is more, especially when it comes to moving!
- Try to pack in an organized fashion. Don’t just throw things into boxes and tape them up without a system in place. This is how people end up with boxes that sit for years. Pack your boxes according to specific areas of rooms and specific functions. For instance, if your desk is in the living room, pack desk items together in their own designated box so that you can be efficient when you unload. Make sure to mark which room each box will go into and which area it should be unloaded.
- Use bubble wrap to protect your valuables! I tried newspaper, rags and bubble wrap in different boxes to see which provided the best protection and bubble wrap was BY FAR the most effective. The rags were second and the newspaper just made our hands dirty
Get a role of bubble wrap and call it a day! - Allow your children to be a part of the action. We let our girls decorate the boxes for their rooms and we also let them help us decide which toys should be donated. They loved being a part of the process and we excited to help out. When we unpacked, they loved telling us where things should go in their rooms and putting things away themselves. Giving them a say about where their belongings went empowered them and made the process more fun. Then, when it was time to unload the family areas, they helped unpack and clean up the boxes. Team effort helped things to move much quicker! So, don’t be afraid to put those little helpers to work! Extra hands are a good thing in this instance.
- Take short breaks to enjoy your new home and set a timer so you stick to them! This was a challenge for my husband on the first day, but by day 2 he really needed to take a breather. We are both type A personalities, so taking a break doesn’t come easily to us. However, when you are moving you need to take time to enjoy your new home (or else you just get crabby and irritable). Plan four to five times a day when you are going to take your 15-30 breaks from unpacking and decide beforehand what you will do to celebrate your new surroundings. Don’t forget to eat healthy meals and snacks too! Apples, nuts, precooked chickens and prepared meals from the market are a must!
Moving can be a very stressful endeavor, but the more organized and focused you can be, the better.
My husband would open a box, get half way through emptying it and then move on to the next. I found it easier to go through one box, top to bottom at a time instead of opening a bunch of boxes and then having to go back to them later. Everyone has their own pace, style and system, but the key is to do what is best for YOU and to have FUN with it!
The more you can get rid of before you move into your new place, the better! And don’t let tension build about where to place things or how to set things up. Go into your new home with the idea that you will probably shift things around a little as you go. So, just get through it and then fix things that aren’t working to suit you as they arise. Moving is a great way to get a fresh start and to create surroundings that help you function optimally. So, be thoughtful while also giving yourselves some slack.
PS: Notice that I said, “moving can be stressful”, but what I left out is that it doesn’t HAVE to be! Look for ways to have fun with it and before you know it, you will be sitting back and relaxing in a new home that you LOVE!
Have you moved recently, are you a neat freak or do you specialize in organization? Then we’d love to hear your 2 cents in the comments!
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http://alidavies.com/ Ali Davies
