In a poll in which 2000 participants were asked what they found the most stressful, nearly two in three people rated moving house as more stressful than getting divorced or embarking on a new career, as reported by The Express newspaper online. To alleviate some of that stress and turn moving a house from a nightmare undertaking into a doodle, here are five houses move hacks that every buyer needs to know about.
- Snap Those Chords
To avoid getting into a tangle when setting up televisions, computers, video games consoles and just about anything that involves what can otherwise feel like being tasked with devising a spaghetti junction of wires, use your iphone or smart phone to take pictures of how your wires are configured already before packing them. Then, when you unpack at the other end, you can simply use the photographs to remind yourself how it all should look and work. This is a particularly handy hack for families whose children need keeping busy while you get on with reassembling your home in a new property.
- The Art of Packing Clothing
Instead of wasting hours removing all the clothes hanging in your closets or wardrobes from their hangers, folding them with the precision of an origami master and arriving at your new home with nothing to wear, simply invest in a roll of decent strength bin bags and tape. Use the tape to bunch whole sections of your clothes whilst they are still hanging from their hangers, slide over a plastic bag and pack them as is. As soon as you arrive in your new home you can hang them directly up, cut the tap, rip off the bag and you will be good to go.
Another handy hack for packing clothing kept in drawers is to simply leave it there rather than have to move everything out only to move it back in again. To prevent folded items from moving or becoming creased, simply seal individual draws with Press’n’Seal to keep everything in place. For those wondering how to purchase Press’n’Seal wrap in the UK, you can get it via Amazon, and will no doubt wonder afterwards how you ever survived so long without it.
- Don’t Part With Your Tool Box
If you don’t have a designated tool box in which to keep all the essentials such as a hammer, assortment of nails and tacks, washers, hooks and the usual tool box staples, now is the time to invest in one, not least because a tool box is the perfect place to keep all of those bagged up bolts and screws removed from furniture that has had to be flat packed for your move.
Further, keep your tool box with you. A tool box is almost always the last thing you will need in your old property and the first thing you will need in your new one.
- Get into the Habit of List Writing
Love them or loathe them, lists are a must when moving house. So, it is best to get into the habit of writing them and knowing what to list and what not ahead of the big move.
Ahead of compiling a cleaning, packing, redirecting or last minute bits list, get online. The internet is swimming with moving list templates and tips on what you need to remember. Take, for example, The Property Scene blog article; ‘Top Tips for a Stress-Free House Move’. By reading and comparing a number of such articles written by property websites and the likes you’ll soon know whether your lists are lacking or can even be made far less lengthy.
Lastly, because you are likely to have a number of lists on the go at the same time, invest in a binder, notebook or folder in which you can keep them all. Think of this as your own Moving How-To Guide and keep it handy. A good place to store it, if you have room, is in your tool box.
- Colour Coding
We all know to label boxes on their sides as well as their tops in order to be able to clearly see where they belong, whatever state and way around they arrive at their new home. It is worth going a step further though and saving yourself the hassle of even having to write along with what is in each box in which room it needs to go. This is also a hack that will make your removal people love you.
Invest in some coloured parcel tape. Many companies, such as Global Packaging who sell this via their online, UK based store do so because the experts have long been using this hack. Then, tape up all the boxes meant for each room of the house in a different colour. This will save masses of time having to read and find where you have written the instructions for where each box needs to go and won’t cost you anything more than your would have spent as you will need tape to seal all the boxes anyway.
