Moving home is, generally speaking, a pretty stressful process to have to go through. It’s absolutely possible to be excited about the prospect of living in a new home, in a new area, but the actual nuts and bolts of moving all your stuff can be a lot to deal with.
There are lots of little strategies that you can adopt to help make things easier. Here, we take a look at a very common one that few people manage to get totally right - the home move checklist. We try to take you through some general pointers, so that you can create one that you’ll actually use.
Make it your own
The problem with taking a template and trying to apply it to your move is that no two moves are the same. You may have to get the whole move over and done within just a few weeks due to time constraints, or you might have months to spread it out over.
Either way, it’s important that you adapt the checklists you find and make them fit your own situation. Pick and choose from the different options you come across, ditching the bad and taking the good to create your own perfect, personalised version.
Start off with the basics
To start off, you can write down all of the things that you need to get done. From finding a new place to booking a service like Bright Movers, take your time and try to make sure you’re not forgetting anything. You’ll likely continue adding things to this list right up until the day of the move itself, but the earlier the important parts make it on, the better.
It’s a good idea to do this with as many people who will be involved in the move as possible. Different people will likely remember different aspects of the move that need to get done, and with your collectivised memory, your chances are much higher of getting everything down.
Break down the timeline
Next, you can set deadlines for when you want to get each thing on the list done by. Working backwards from that date, you can try to judge how long each thing will take, based on your normal life duties (such as work and childcare) and the impact that the other parts of the move will have on your free time.
You can use other checklists that you find online for inspiration, but ultimately you’ll have to judge how long each part of the process will take on your own.
Make it digital + share it
To make the checklist maximally effective, make it in a digital format and share it with everyone involved in the move. Whether that’s in a special checklist app or Google Docs, this will make it far more practical for everyone to use as a reference point than if it’s just in one paper diary.
Taking this kind of approach when creating your moving checklist should allow you to end up with a result that you can actually use. Keep on tweaking it as you go along, and remember that it’s not fixed - you can add to it whenever you need.
