Published on 12, July, 2020
I am moving home soon, I live alone and don’t have any friends or family to help me. The last move I did was over 5 years ago and I had my mum to help with everything. She did all the packing and sorting out removals.
Does anyone have any tips or advice on how to move and how I can make it less stressful for me?
One thing I did was hire a company to move me. They let me 'hire' boxes, gave me packing tape and paper/padding to wrap things in, when I asked them to come take the boxes back after I'd unpacked I got the deposit back. That was my incentive to unpack everything! If you are thinking of clearing out stuff, do it as you pack. If you're like me you'll be lucky to do it at the other end.
Make a list of 'folk to tell' - utilities, council tax, benefits, banks, building society, work, insurance, library, loyalty / supermarket cards, online accounts with delivery details stored, driving license, in addition to any 'real' people you need to tell.
If you need help with the cleaning at any point, call some cleaning companies or home help companies. Explain what you need - mine helped me pack the breakable things as I am clumsy. I got someone to clean my new place before I moved in, and then my old place after I'd moved out. No way I could have done that with all the packing, moving and unpacking.
If you have mobility issues, make sure you leave a stool or something as the last thing packed on the van, so it's the first thing out. It'll be a while before you have something to sit on.
Label everything with the contents of the box, plus also which room it has to go into at the other end, this is easier for the folk unloading, and you can prioritise unpacking. Keep a towel and loo roll with your essentials bag, they are easily forgotten.