Public Spark

Moving can be a huge stressor in a person’s life. I have had 5 experiences (office, house, dorms) moving and I remember my first move into the college dorm to be the most stressful. Through my experiences as well as the experiences of others, moving became familiar and less of an agonizing experience. Here are the top 5 ways to reduce stress when moving:

1. Find people to help with the move.

   Delegating tasks to appropriate people can be of great help when moving. For example, if you are moving homes, it can save time to have movers do all of the physical work. You might also enlist the help of a friend good at electronics to hook up computers, phones, etc.

2. Take the move time to declutter.

   Often I found that when I stay in one place for a length of time, it starts to clutter up. You might do superficial cleaning most of the time, but it is hard to thoroughly organize. Moving is a great time to throw away things that you don’t need. In this way you can pack less things due to less clutter.

3. Find a method of organization that works for you.

   Some people might like to shove things in boxes and hope for the best. But this may be a difficult thing once you get to your destination and start opening up the boxes. It can be very frustrating when you are not able to find things. What my mom and I have used is labeling boxes according to what is in there and numbering the amount of boxes you have. For example: If you have 10 boxes with kitchen supplies, I would label “1 of 10, cooking utensils and silverware.” My mom found labeling the number of boxes especially helpful when she moved offices. The movers did not misplace her boxes.

4. Expect the unexpected.

   This may be more applicable to office moves. At one of my jobs, I had to move offices and it was a complete nightmare. I like things organized and usually have a high expectation of other people. But during this move, my gut instinct told me that I should prepare. I psyched myself out and trained myself to not get stressed out. Sure enough, the move date was postponed what seemed like 10 times, after a day and time was set the movers never showed up, the phone didn’t work, the IT person to move the computer was late, the printer wasn’t hooked up, the key was wrong. And I had to do this, while I had my regular work load. I did the best that I could and the rest was beyond my control.

5. Find a rhythm or balance that fits you.

   Maybe you are the person that likes to have a 10 hour day right before the move and it works for you. Or maybe you are like me who needs to pack over a little more time. For me, I find it stressful to rush and not be able to find things. Whatever it is do what works for you.