How to make moving less stressful
When my boyfriend and I decided to move from Birmingham to London, I somewhat naively thought that the stress would end once we’d found somewhere to live.
It’s hardly an original observation to say that the rental market is brutal right now - and our joy and relief at finding a room that was actually within our budget (and not a complete rip-off) definitely overshadowed any consideration of the stress we had to come.
I’m sure that moving home is even more high-pressured when you’re buying, given the sheer amount of things you have to think about. But when you’re renting, there’s also the overwhelming sense that, in spite of all the stress, everything is just so temporary. As you don’t know how long you’ll be in your new home (or how relaxed your landlord will be when it comes to eventually refunding your deposit), you can never set it up exactly how you’d like - and you certainly don’t want to spend a fortune doing so.
And as an almost-25-year-old, I firmly belong to Generation Rent: those Gen Z and millennials who, for the time being at least, appear priced out of buying. A 2022 study by the flatshare site SpareRoom found that a quarter of 20-30-year-olds have already lived in twice as many homes as their parents’ generation has over their lifetime - so it seems like shifting our stuff every few years is something that lots of us are going to have to get used to.
I’m finally settling into my new flat, but I’ve spent lots of time over the past couple of weeks chatting to friends and older, wiser adults about how to take the stress out of moving. Here’s what I’ve learned along the way.
Don’t take any junk with you
I absolutely love a clear out. There’s something about putting on a podcast and sorting through loads of stuff that I find almost meditative, plus it feels great to take a pile of old clothes to the charity shop at the end of it.
That said, if this objectively very boring task doesn’t bring you the same joy, why not give yourself a financial incentive by selling your unwanted items on eBay or Vinted? Extra cash always comes in handy when moving, and it means you won’t waste money or energy on transporting things to your new home that you don’t really want or need.
Give yourself enough time
If possible, try to book a few days off work around the time of your move. While it’s theoretically possible to get everything packed in the evenings and on the weekends, doing so will probably result in a lack of sleep and you feeling even more stressed.
But while I tend to find that packing - whether for a holiday or when moving house - always takes longer than I’ve bargained for, my friend Hannah has the opposite experience. “Packing takes as much time as you give it,” she told me. Do you agree?
Bite the bullet and hire a van
Moving into an unfurnished room is a mixed blessing: great for putting your own stamp on a place, but also pretty impractical.
Thankfully, my mum had a load of old furniture in storage so we didn’t have to buy any new items - but this meant that my boyfriend and I spent a lot of time debating how best to transport it from Birmingham to London (a two and a half hour drive).
We soon gave up on the idea of hiring a van ourselves (my driving skills are not quite on that level…) but splashing out on a removal service felt pretty OTT for a rented room. In the end, AnyVan proved to be an easy, cheap and green way for moving just a handful of oversized items (like a mattress and chest of drawers).
Some more practical advice:
Keep clothes on their hangers. Put them into a black bin bag or laundry basket to give yourself one less thing to unpack on the other end.
If you’re moving furniture, keep all the screws together.
Wear grippy gloves! I was sceptical when my mum handed me a pair, but they are an absolute game-changer when it comes to moving boxes with ease.
Don’t skimp on the bubble wrap. Individually wrapping glasses is a chore - but it’s so much better than arriving and finding everything in hundreds of pieces.
Never throw bubble wrap away - save it for the next move! If you do need to buy more (or couldn’t resist the temptation to pop all the bubbles…) then opt for these more eco-friendly alternatives.
Buy mindfully
Before I left for university, you could not keep me away from Dunelm and IKEA. To be fair, my keenness to buy shiny new things was partly because I needed to kit out my own place for the first time - but now when I move home, I enjoy the challenge of buying as few new things as possible.
It’s always worth asking friends or family if they have spares of the items you’re missing - and Gumtree, Facebook Marketplace and charity shops are all great bets for buying second-hand. Just watch out for bed bugs.
Embrace the uncertainty
My sister began university this September and when I asked her how she’d managed to take the stress out of moving there, her reply was simple: “I didn’t.”
I think that kind of sums it up. While the above tips will hopefully make a move that little bit less fraught, relocating in any form is fundamentally stressful and unpredictable. Once you accept that, the easier moving will become - and, in my experience at least, the pain is always worth it.