Moving house is always an exciting experience, but it can also be the cause of great stress. Whether you hire a removalist or whether you are moving your furniture into self storage, you still need to plan carefully to make certain that your move is a smooth one.

With a little planning, there is no reason why moving day cannot be a fun time. After all, you are moving into a new location, there will be new friends to meet and new places to visit.

In the planning stage, the move can totally dominate your life. You have to plan your packing, work out where the furniture will be placed in your new house, and then arrange for your old place to be cleaned.

Faced with these many challenges it’s important to have a plan of attack so that moving day can be as efficient as possible. Let’s take a look at how to go about setting up a plan.

• Start your planning as many months in advance as you possibly can. This gives you time to choose a removalist by obtaining as many quotes as you can muster, and it also gives you the chance to keep costs under control.
• Start packing your least used items a few weeks in advance so that you aren’t left having to pack everything on the night before you move. This also gives you a good opportunity to think about where the furniture will be placed once you arrive in your new residence.
• Label your boxes according to where they will be unpacked. This means you will have to plan the layout of your new house and make sure the boxes for each room are labelled properly so it is easier to unpack at the other end.
• If time allows, have your new house properly cleaned before you move in. Don’t rely on the old tenants or owners doing this for you. Check with the agent and try to get access to the house at least a week before you move in so you can be sure it is spick and span. It is also a good time to think about replacing any worn or old floor coverings, especially carpets.
• Take advantage of any time delays by doing some touch up paintwork. If necessary, you can have the inside of the house completely repainted in the colours you like so that you when you move in, it will feel like new.
• For safety’s sake you might want to consider changing the locks in your new house. Do it all before you move in and it will be one less thing to worry about.

If you don’t have sufficient time to perform all the preparatory work before you move into your new house, you might want to move some of your furniture into self storage. This will give you sufficient time to get all the painting and redecorating done before you finally move in.