Planning the details of your move and preparing your belongings for the uplift may be stressful and draining, especially when your time to get everything done is limited. If it’s you’re moving to a new home for the first time or it’s your first time planning and organising your own move, you may look into several guides to help you navigate through everything you need to do.

Planning your house move is a complicated process, especially if you have many belongings that you wish to take with you when you move. Whether it's your first time moving or you're moving frequently, it is still possible to encounter hurdles that may cause delays or additional stress throughout the process.

Whilst the stress during moving can't always be avoided, there are several ways it can be lessened. Here are some tips that you can use for a less stressful move.

Plan the move

Although it may take some extra work, planning out everything that you have to accomplish will make an excellent guide in keeping track of your progress. When possible, create a schedule or moving checklist that you and your family can check as the moving day approaches. You may also assign tasks to certain people to get more work done, as well as dates when certain things need to be accomplished.

Sort and purge

Going through your belongings is a time-consuming task, but it can help a lot in reducing the number of items that you need to pack. If you still have a few months before the move, start going through your belongings during your free time. To make sorting easier, prepare containers for items that you will keep, sell/donate, or dispose of.

If there are items that you barely used or never unused, consider selling or donating them so you won't have to bring items you won't be needing in your new home. Consider disposing of old and worn-out items and replacing them when you reach your new home. You may keep some worn-out linens as they can be used as paddings and cushions for fragile items.

Pack a moving essentials bag

Before things get too busy, grab a duffel bag or suitcase to pack some essentials. Whilst removalists work hard to get your belongings delivered on time, there may be instances that prevent your movers to complete the task. For example, the roads to your new location are impassable due to extreme weather conditions.

Pack your belongings

Depending on how much time you have until your scheduled moving day, you may pack your belongings one room at a time. Another option is to start packing the seasonal items and other things that you won't be needing immediately after the move once you have secured your moving date.

You may have been left with a room full of boxes as your moving date approaches but it contributes a lot to reducing the packing work that you have to complete a few days before the moving day.

Below are other packing options that you can explore when packing your belongings for your move:

Use wardrobe boxes when packing easily wrinkled clothes. They leave the clothes on their hangers and wrap them using large garbage bags. Carefully hang and arrange the clothes inside the box.

Whilst it is usually recommended that you empty dresser drawers for the move, you may the drawers and their contents on the dresser if it's not too heavy. If you opt to do this, you won't have to wrap the drawers individually, just wrap the entire dresser so none of the drawers or their contents would fall out.

Use towels and linens to wrap fragile items before packing them into your boxes. You may also use thick towels to line the bottom of the boxes that will be used for packing breakables. Aside from acting as a cushion for your belongings, it will also help keep the box from becoming too heavy since the towels are bulkier than other wrapping materials.