5 Common Moving Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Let’s face it – moving house isn’t most people’s idea of fun. Upping sticks from one residence to the next takes up a lot of your patience, your time, and your money too. The process can often become a stressful one as your to-do list seems never ending, and you inevitably experience hiccups along the way. So to help your move go as smoothly as possible, we’ve put together a list of five common pitfalls when it comes to moving and how to avoid them…

 

1. Struggling to let go

Without realising it, you seem to have over the years amassed quite a collection of, well – everything! Six corkscrews, two slow cookers, a whole bookshelf of magazines, and let’s not even get started on the ‘junk’ drawer in the kitchen… Although you may not consider yourself a hoarder, we’re all a little guilty of keeping hold of things ‘just incase’. But just how exactly do you plan on getting everything over to your new place?

The solution:

Before you pack up your place, spend a good couple of days sorting through your home and being totally honest with yourself about items that you haven’t used in the last year. If you struggle to bin things then why not take a trip to your local charity shop and see if any of your items can be of use to others? Either way, you’ll find that parting with the items you truly don’t use or need can be quite liberating, not to mention the space and time it will save you when it comes to moving day.

 

2. Procrastination

It’s mere days before the big move, but you’ve barely started packing things away as you figure that things will sort themselves out on the day. Surely it doesn’t take a genius to pack up and tape a couple of cardboard boxes?

The solution:

Avoid this type of thinking if you want to spare yourself a lot of stress on moving day. There’s no getting around the fact that moving house requires planning, care and attention. The key is in the preparation, so we recommend getting started as early as possible. Begin around a month before the move and tackle one room at a time, every week or couple of days. This way you can steadily chip away at your packing, and the task won’t seem as daunting or chaotic as panic packing 48 hours before the moving vans arrive…

 

3. Going it alone

Whilst you initially may think that recruiting friends and family is going to save you a ton of cash – there’s simply no safer option than hiring a team of removal professionals just like Britannia Fleet Liverpool. Going through the entire process alone, while not impossible, can be far more time consuming and stressful than hiring a helping hand.

The solution:

Hire a moving company to help out with the parts of the move that you feel you’ll struggle most with. Here at Britannia, we take care of everything from packing up your items to delivering them straight to your new home, even helping you put things in their new place room to room. Hiring a team of professionals can certainly lighten the load and allow you to free up more time to concentrate on all of the other things on your moving to-do list.

 

4. Forgetting to pack an essentials bag

Your dining table is safely unpacked, the plates are in the new cupboards, the sofa is in place – by where on earth is your phone charger? And which box did you pack your toothbrush in?

The solution:

Trust us, it’s always the most important items that are the hardest to find after a move. Which is why it’s helpful to pack a smaller bag or suitcase to take with you on moving day containing the essentials that you’ll need straight away. Think of this as your moving survival kit. You’ll need pyjamas, a fresh change of clothes and toiletries etc. This will save you having to rifle through hundreds of boxes on your first night.

 

5. Not taking an inventory

So you’ve packed all of your things into boxes, taking care to bubble wrap delicate items and not make any one box too heavy. You assume you’re good to go, until you realise that you have no clue what’s inside each of your boxes – nightmare!

The solution:

As you pack, make a list of what you’re putting into each container, then number the boxes and label the contents, as well as what room of your new house they should go in. Making an inventory will save you a lot of time when it comes to unpacking and you’ll be able to quickly determine if anything has been left behind.

 

For more information on our home removals at Britannia and household storage services in Liverpool, contact us today on 0151 482 0432, or fill out one of our enquiry forms.