5 Golden Tips to Reduce the Stress of Moving

There’s no doubt that the stress of moving is a hurdle. But it doesn’t have to be so bad, as Carolyn Andreason explains.

They say that moving is a challenge, and it’s true. It takes a lot of planning, worrying, and it has the knack of forcing you to think about how much you truly need or want an item in your house. And all of this is often while going through a major life event, whether good or bad.

However, while it’s hard, you don’t have to fall into moving stress and let yourself get swooped up by the burden of reorganizing your entire home.

What you need is to go through all the right steps, make sure you have all the essentials, and change your outlook on the whole experience. It doesn’t have to be a hassle that could ruin the potential excitement of moving somewhere new.

A 2015 study in the UK of 2,000 adults who had moved in the three years prior to the survey reveals that moving is not just one of life’s most stressful moments, but it actually tops the list. Surprisingly, 62% of people claimed that fact, followed by a tie with 43% between getting through a divorce/breakup and starting a new job.

That emphasizes how many people look at moving as a source of constant stress and worry. However, it’s not a burden, but an experience. With a few golden tips to reduce the stress of moving, you could take some of the pressure off.

1. Look at It as A Decluttering Opportunity

The mentality you go in with is vital. If you look at moving as nothing but a necessary hassle, it will likely become one.

However, think of it as an opportunity to remove all the clutter in your home and keep only the essentials. It’s a terrific way to tidy up your future house or apartment by sorting through the old one.

There are plenty of things you can get rid of months before, such as kitchen equipment, clothes, tools, or even broken items on sites such as eBay or Craigslist. There is no point in keeping all that stuff. New home, new experience, new life.

Clutter simply creates stress. Have a garage sale for your old things, give them to your friends, or sell them online. It will enable you to look at it as an opportunity to sort out useless items and earn some extra cash while you’re at it.

Moving doesn’t have to be a source of stress. It can be an opportunity to donate to Goodwill and a gentle nudge of motivation to do what you’ve been putting off for a while.

Just make three simple categories: Sell, Donate, Toss. It will ease your stress away.

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2. Don’t Do It Alone

Facing your entire home by yourself and knowing you have to move every single piece of furniture is stressful. Asking for help may not be easy whether it’s because you don’t want to burden your friends or hire movers.

However, you need to, for your own mental health. If you have a family, get everyone involved, even your children with smaller tasks of packing up their toys.

By turning it into a group activity, it will become infinitely more enjoyable. If you insist on doing it alone, you will feel frustrated, lonely, angry, and tired from all the physical work, which will amp up your stress.

In order to relieve it, keep in mind that there are always people there for you. Don’t be too proud or shy and ask for help. Call your friends over and add pizza and drinks to the mix, make an event out of it. It will help alleviate your moving stress and give you an opportunity to spend more time with them.

In the worst case scenario, hire movers. They will remove the worries of carefully packing valuable items or carrying heavy cargo. Have someone there to help you to make it a more efficient, fun, and calmer experience.

3. Keep Taking Care of Yourself

When it’s all about moving, stress creeps in closer and closer. People often forget to take care of themselves during the process. They don’t sleep enough, worry about the mess, don’t eat right, or remember to take a breath of fresh air.

To reduce the stress of moving, you need to keep all of these in mind. Don’t skip meals, binge on junk food, live on coffee, or get out of your healthy routine no matter how tempting it is.

Eat right and take relaxing showers to keep your energy and patience up while maintaining irritability down. However, you also need to embrace change.

One of the most stressful things about packing up your entire home and moving is thinking that your day will be “business as usual.” It won’t. There will be numerous tasks to accomplish and things to do that will try to force you out of your comfort zone.

That is why it’s crucial not to forget to treat yourself, take breaks, listen to music, and do anything that might make the process more entertaining. Don’t focus just on the move, but on yourself and your family as well.

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4. Get an Early Start

It’s often that deadlines make us feel as if there’s not enough time to get everything done, which only adds more stress. Getting an early jump on things is a valuable method you should remember.

Even if it means starting two or three months ahead, you need to remove the pressure of sticking to a deadline and doing everything last minute.

You need to be prepared. That ranges from anything that concerns the actual moving, such as packing, selling furniture, figuring out what to do with your pets, deciding which items to ship, and getting all the documents ready, to the more emotional concerns such as saying goodbye to friends if you’re moving far away, visiting your favorite places, or taking a few walks around the neighborhood.

Most importantly, by getting an early start, you will remove moving stress by being prepared for everything. You will have time to create a backup plan if something goes wrong, as it usually does.

For example, keep a list of rental services on hand, just in case there’s a problem with the agency you have chosen. If you start early and have everything ready by moving day, you will deal with a potential crisis much easier. It will reduce the stress of multitasking.

5. Envision The End Result

While it’s easy to focus on the monumental list of things you need to do, it’s equally important for your stress level to envision the end result. For the time being, you’re likely going to live in a chaos of boxes, so it’s easy to get lost in the anxiety of the present.

However, a good way to reduce the stress of moving is actually to envision a well-organized process and the end result. This goes from thinking about it in a positive manner, such as seeing yourself calmly loading and unloading boxes, to picturing how everything will look in your new home.

By focusing on the pleasant result instead of the stressful moment, the psychological changes will be easier through the transition. Visualizing it a few times will also aid in identifying and preventing potential risks during the move.

It will alleviate the stress because your mind will already be at peace with what’s about to happen and what could happen. Make a list, consult it, organize yourself, and picture where all of it is going. It will help, no matter how stressed you will feel because, in your mind, you will already know it’s all worth it.

Moving is a complicated process that will take up all your energy and thoughts. It will require time and patience. However, you can make it better yourself, simply by following these few golden tips to reduce the stress of moving and changing your outlook on the entire process.

It doesn’t have to be a burden that weighs on your shoulders until the moment you’re all settled in. It can be a good and stress-free experience that opens the gateway to your new home.

Carolyn Andreason is a creative writer, with over six years of experience, and a deep passion for graphic design. She recently collaborated with FindInternet.ca, an online platform offering detailed information about all the internet service providers in Canada.

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