Time for some moving tips!
Thanks to frequent moving for training, jobs, and downsizing, Josh and I have moved 5 times now in our 8 years of marriage. Phew! Hopefully, this will be the last one for a long time.
Before I forget, I wanted to write this post about all we have learned about moving efficiently.
As medical professionals, we have to uproot a lot for residency/fellowship/jobs/downsizing.. you name it. So, I hope this is useful to you at some point in your life!
Moving Tasks
When you move, there are a few tasks at hand. You have to:
Get the old place cleaned out to sell or return to the landlord.
Get everything from old house to new house.
Get the new place set up.
Tell everyone that you have moved.
Different Ways to Move
Moving Using Movers
It’s great if your job has a relocation stipend and you can hire movers (or you pay for them yourself).
Still, there are things you must do yourself.
Movers can come in and pack for you. They will load the truck and get you to your destination. They will move in the big pieces and stack all your junk in boxes all over your house.
Oh my gosh it is so overwhelming to see those piles and piles of boxes everywhere!
The downside is that you still need to go through all these boxes and keep what you want, throw away the rest. It really can be quite tedious.
Last time we used movers, there were still unopened boxes that were sitting in the attic a year and a half later.
Moving Ourselves
Josh and I have moved ourselves the last couple of times.
This time, we had the whole thing done in 3 weekends.
The First Weekend
We used the first weekend to clean up the new place.
Most sales only require the place to be “broom clean” not deep cleaned. Josh and I have had experience turning over our rental property. It’s amazing how much of a difference some paint touch ups and scrubbing can make to make a place look brand new again.
So, we took the first weekend to paint touch ups for some of the rooms, put up the accent wall, and deep clean the entire place. I’m so glad we allotted a whole weekend for it because it was so much less stressful!
The Second Weekend
The next weekend, we packed and moved all our stuff.
Usually, I’ll ask big stores in the area if I can have their used boxes (and usually they have no problem with that). But, with COVID-19, I didn’t want to risk the extra exposure. So, I ordered a set of boxes from Uhaul and that worked out quite well.
The benefit of packing ourselves was that we could be thoughtful about how we packed stuff and we got rid of all the trash from the get go. When unpacking, there was less to go through and less overwhelm at the new place. In previous moves, we have even rented a dumpster from the city to purge all the unnecessary junk.
We unpacked the essentials first- kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms etc. Then, we slowly went through the boxes over the next week.
The Third Weekend
The third weekend, we focused on going back and cleaning out the old place.
Of course, the unpacking continued for a couple of more weekends. I’m happy to say that a month later, we’re all settled in.
A Checklist for Telling Everyone You've Moved
I made a checklist for the different tasks at hand and all the people to change addresses with. I highly recommend you do the same. Here is the checklist I made. I hope it’s a good place to get you started!
Hope that helps!
Stay frugal, y’all!
Disha
Standard Disclaimer: Not meant as individualized financial or medical advice.