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5 Steps to a Less Stressful Move
To say that moving is a stressful experience is an understatement. Moving is an involved process, in both cost and energy. But proper planning does go a long way. The better you plan for your move, the more prepared you are for the inevitable challenges you will face. Learn what you can do now to make moving day more manageable.
Declutter Your Home
Clutter only adds chaos. The more clutter around your home, the more stuff you will have to transport on moving day. You can save yourself a great deal of work by decluttering your home first. Go through each room and create three sections — donate, trash and move. Make it a point to get rid of all the items that don’t fit into the move category before moving day. Decluttering can also help you save money since you aren’t moving as much.
Purchase Quality Shipping Supplies
The goal of a move is to transport your household belongings from your old home to your new home, safely. If you don’t invest in quality moving boxes and materials, you may not achieve this goal. Try to resist the urge to visit your local grocery store to get boxes or to use old boxes from a friend. The boxes you find from these sources are often flimsy. When you pack them with your new belongings, they could quickly fail. You get better protection, and greater confidence, when you rely on quality supplies.
Pack Like You'll Unpack
Moving isn’t just complicated in terms of packing; unpacking is just as bothersome. But, you can make the process easier for yourself by packing your boxes in the same manner that you will unpack them. For example, don’t put bath towels in a box with sweaters that you plan to store in the garage. Your boxes should be room specific. So, the towels should be in a box with other bathroom supplies, and the sweaters in a garage box.
Know the Specs
The dimensions of your new home may not be the same as your current home. While the variances might seem like a minor issue, you need to know about any differences up front. For example, if your couch won’t fit through the front door, you need to know this information beforehand so that you can make other arrangements. If you wait until moving day to consider this step, you will only send yourself into a frenzy, unnecessarily.
Keep a Positive Attitude
The brain is a powerful muscle, and don’t be afraid to use it on moving day. Moving is an exciting time, somewhat of a new beginning; keep this in mind while you move. As much as things might seem to be unraveling around you, if you keep a positive attitude, you will make the day go by with far less stress. Keep happy thoughts and don’t be afraid to take breaks throughout the day to get your happy back.
Don’t let moving day get the best of you. Apply these tips to ensure you’re prepared for anything.
Office Supplies to Always Have on Hand
Do you often think about the essentials you need in your desk at the office? If you said yes, then you’re clearly underprepared with the supplies you should have. And you know it kind of sucks when you really need a pair of scissors yet don’t have any. (Or when you’re out of staples because you didn’t think you would need to refill for awhile.)
Making sure your desk is filled with everything you need and at the ready on a daily basis shows you’re thinking ahead, on track, and prepared for the unexpected. The problem is, where do you start if you haven’t ever done this before? Look no further. You can avoid looking underprepared by having to ask around for office basics by grabbing these few office supplies.
Magic markers
Often referred to as the most popular brand, Sharpies, these aren’t just for writing on cardboard boxes and other shipping boxes. They come in handy a lot of the time around the office, too. Whether you’re addressing a package on a manilla envelope or writing a notice to be hung on your door, sharpies are just too useful to not have in your desk’s drawer. And while black is the universal color that everyone needs, having a red sharpie can help to draw attention in the case of important notes.
Containers
Containers are to hold things. They may be plastic, cardboard, or wooden. But whatever the case, having some sort of box, even old cardboard boxes, is great to have in case you need to take documents or other work home. You can even put out two as “trays.” One for your finished work, the other for unfinished. (Sounds like elementary school, doesn’t it?)
Tape
You’ll want it for pinning notes to your desk. You’ll want it to mend minor rips or tears. And you’ll want it to repair your cracked pen (maybe you should go get more of those, too). Tape is just one of those items people think about when they hear “office supplies”, and for good reason: it can be used in so many different ways.
White-out
This is the thing you never seem to have when you need it most, yet you’ll never use it if you do have some. It’s one of those items that you question purchasing, telling yourself you won’t ever need it (and yet you buy it anyway). But my advice is that, at the very least, you should have some in case coworkers need it. Important documents with mistakes written in pen normally can’t be fixed, but white-out does the trick if needed.
