How to Plan and Organize For a Less Stressful Household Move

September, 2018

For anyone that has organized their own household move, you know that it can be a stressful experience. It is likely that at some point before, during or after the move, you felt overwhelmed.

Many times, people don’t even know where to start when it comes to organizing and planning for a household move – especially if it’s your first time.

This article will give you insights, tips and strategies to help make your household move go a little smoother. With proper planning and organization, you can expect to have a far less stressful move.

Let’s get to it!

Start Planning Your Household Move Early!

Once you have your moving date set, we suggest that you start planning AT LEAST eight weeks out for a less stressful household move. This involves breaking up your plan in smaller, more manageable steps.

There are a lot of steps that go into a move including:

• Sorting and purging rooms
• Researching and hiring a moving company (if applicable)
• Ordering Supplies
• Packing the contents of your home
• Labelling boxes
• Notifying all important parties (banks, post office, schools etc) that you are moving.

We suggest creating a moving plan that outlines how you will tackle each one of these steps. Once you have a logical plan in place, complete each task week over week leading up to your big day!

Get the Necessary Packing Supplies

One of the crucial tasks you’ll need to do to make your household move a less stressful experience is gathering all the proper supplies. The most important part of this process is gathering the right boxes for your move.

If you plan ahead of time, this can save you a lot of money and last-minute stress.

Here is a quick list of the types of boxes that best suit your household contents:

• 2 cubic foot boxes: good for books and heavier items (up to 60 pounds)
• 4 cubic foot boxes: good for medium density items
• 5/6 cubic foot boxes: good for bulky light items (fabrics and clothes)
• Wardrobe boxes: good for clothing (dresses, suits, shirts, pants) on hangers

In terms of how many boxes you need to buy, we suggest going room by room and predicting the number of boxes you will need. Typically, a 2 bedroom apartment might need 50-100 boxes while an entire home could have the need for 100-200 boxes or more.

You can get boxes from many sources including grocery stores, the LCBO or SAQ, online, office supply stores and of course, from moving companies.

Audit Each Room and Decide What to Pack and What Should Go

Moving is a perfect time to audit the contents of your home and decide what stuff will be coming with you. We suggest going room by room and deciding what items you should keep, sell, give away or throw out.

A good way to do this is to create a list and go through each room noting all the things that will stay and what you don’t need anymore. A good rule of thumb is if you haven’t used an items for 6 months or more, consider getting rid of it.

Once your list is complete, separate your items into two piles: the “keep” and “don’t keep” pile. When you have your “don’t keep” pile, decide whether or not you want to sell, give away, recycle or throw out those items.

Auditing each room in your home will save you time in packing and unpacking, but also money in terms of the amount of boxes you need to buy for your household move.

Should you Hire Movers for Your Household Move?

When moving, you will need to weigh your time and energy against the cost involved of hiring a professional moving service. Do you really want to ask your friends and family to help you move on their free weekend? Renting trucks can be costly, requiring multiple trips and besides, what’s your time and efforts really worth? That three-piece sofa bed with pull out couch is really heavy too!

Even if you organize and plan your move properly, it can still cost you a lot of money and time. If cost isn’t an issue, hiring a moving company for your household move might be the way to go.

The type of services these companies can provide to make your move a stress-free experience include:

• Home Assessment: the company will list all the items that need to be moved in the home and estimate the moving supplies accordingly.
• Full Service Packing: the moving company will make sure all furniture is packed and handled with care during your move. Should anything break, the moving company covers the cost.
• Moving Heavy Appliances: the moving company will move all heavy and awkward appliances to your new home.
• Unpacking Service: the moving company will help to organize and unpack your contents once you arrive at your new home.

If the thought of having someone else take care of all of these tasks for you sounds better than doing it yourself, hiring a professional moving company might be in your best interest.

Do You Need Help with Your Household Move?

There you have it. Our insights, tips and strategies to help make your household move go a little smoother and be a stress-free experience.

Ultimately, it’s up to you whether or not you need to hire a moving company to help with your next household move. If you do, we would love to help.

Boyd Moving is a proud family-owned and -operated company, and that simple fact drives everything we do. We would be more than happy to assist you in your family’s next move and make it a positive experience.

Contact us here to learn how we can help you.