Stuart Zullo Moving. Some people love it, some people avoid it like the plague. Either way, if you’re vacating a rental property, if you sell your house, if you’re leaving home for the first (or second or third) time, there’s no way around it.
Here are a few tips I’ve picked up in my travels that may help you get through the process as painlessly and as economically as possible:
1) Do the packing yourself using your own suitcases, bags, tubs, crates, and boxes. Definitely use recycled boxes from friends, local businesses and supermarkets if you can get your hands on them – buying moving boxes can get expensive. Remember to stock up on your junk mail, local newspapers etc to wrap up your breakables.
2) Sort out your stuff into categories – keep, give, sell and discard. The advice I’ve been given is that if you haven’t used something for 2 years, you don’t need it, and for clothing, if you haven’t worn it in 1 year, someone else might! The less you have to move, the easier it will be!
3) If you do have a lot of stuff you don’t need, but want to see if you can make a bit of money back, try a garage sale. From there, you can give anything that doesn’t sell to charity organisations (who generally do pick ups for larger items). Remember though, if it’s not usable, trash it, don’t dump your rubbish on other people.
4) Start to cull the food you have stored in your fridge, freezer and pantry. Rather than using esky’s to move food, the more you can eat before you move, the easier it will be. Don’t forget to go to the supermarket once your fridge is running in your new home though!
5) Decide early how you’re going to move your stuff. Ask friends well in advance and offer them a six pack or top up their fuel (if you’re borrowing a Ute or car) for their troubles. And remember to return the favour to those that help you out!
6) Unpack as quick as you can. There is nothing worse as forgetting which box you packed something in and having to rummage through each one.