On the move again

We are about to embark on our third move in three years - this time, we are heading south and setting up home in Hobart (for hopefully more than one year). These past few weeks have been filled with packing, decluttering, organising, and emailing/calling various companies regarding the move. I wrote a post this time last year on my packing tips, but I thought it might be useful to put together a bit of an updated packing and moving guide for anyone else who might be moving homes, whether to a place 5 minutes down the road or to a completely new city.

1. Declutter away

One of my favourite things about moving is the chance to declutter all the items in our home that we never use and from which someone else can get better use. I started out with a declutter of all the kitchen utensils, glasses, cutlery, bowls etc that we haven't used in the past year, before moving onto other areas including my wardrobe, books, sports items, jewellery and makeup. This process has definitely been made easier after watching quite a few You Tube videos of people decluttering their homes, inspiring me to donate or sell any items that are just sitting around and collecting dust in my home.

2. Get organised with packing

I included a similar point in my last packing post, because I find that starting the packing process early means that you only have to do a little bit every few days, rather than exhausting yourself in the week or two leading up to the move. We stored our packing boxes from the last move in our garage, and after brushing away the cobwebs (and quite a few spiders) in December, we were able to slowly start packing up the house, beginning with those items we don't use very frequently, but that we definitely want to keep. I've kept a note on my phone of all the areas in the house that needed to be packed up (e.g. bookshelves, cookbooks, pantry, kitchen, linen cupboards, study, etc) and have ticked each item off as they've been completed.

3. Changing your address

For the past three years, Dave and I have kept a Google Docs list of all the companies with which we need to change our address. This has made the process far easier, as we can just set aside a couple of hours to work our way through the list. I tend to start with the companies that allow me to change my address online, then highlight the ones that I need to call. Once I've changed the address with a company, rather than deleting it from the list, I'll just write DONE, so that next time we move, I'll still have the complete list ready to go.

4. Researching your new area

If you're like us, and are moving to a completely new town or city, one of the more fun parts of moving is doing a bit of research into your new area. Even doing a bit of research into where to find the closest supermarket, what the best cafes or restaurants are (a priority for me), or where the best dog beaches or parks are located (a priority for Moose), really helps you feel a bit more settled in those first few days and weeks.

5. Taking fragile and valuable items in your car

After having a bad moving experience a couple of years ago (when Grace Removals lost a few of our boxes and broke a few fragile items), we are now a lot more cautious about what we move ourselves and what we give to the removalists. This time around, I am picking up the keys to our new house a few days before our official moving day (when the removalists will come and we officially leave Burnie), and so will take a car load of fragile and valuable items that we'd prefer to keep with us. On moving day, we'll also take similar items in our car, so that we can have the peace of mind that they won't be lost or broken. While this involves a bit of driving, it means that we can be sure that we won't lose any of our favourite items, and also gives us a bit more time to unpack our boxes.

Hopefully these tips can make any future move that you may embark on a little easier and less stressful!