Embracing Change: New Home, New Beginnings
Posted by Improving Lives Counseling Services, Inc. | Love Languages
Moving home can be a stressful experience for everyone concerned. The key is to prepare yourself and your family for the idea of moving. One way of doing this is to make sure everyone is involved from the outset.
Once everyone is on board, you need to establish the ‘rules of engagement’. And make lists. Lots of lists. Being this prepared will help you get your minds on the correct track for moving.
If you follow these points, you’ll find the whole experience more exciting and less stressful.
Preparing yourself mentally for your move
Possibly the biggest challenge of moving is to get your head around the fact that a big change is coming. There are a few things you can do to prepare mentally for the move.
Accept that this is a major change that you are going to go through. Take your time to prepare for it: organizing packing your old house and planning how to use the space in the new home. Make lists of everything you need to do and what you need to take with you.
Research your new area thoroughly. Make sure you know as much about your new area as possible. Go on exploratory visits with the family. Check out the local shops, schools, and other useful spots in your neighborhood.
Speak about everything that’s happening. Focus on all the great memories you’ve made in the old house and how they’ll always be a part of you. You can also speak about how you’ll be able to build new memories in the new home.
Involve everyone from the get go
It’s a horrible feeling that you’re being dragged along in the wake of someone else’s decision. You should avoid anyone in your family feeling this way by involving everyone in the move right from the beginning.
If you are doing the move yourselves, delegate the packing so that each person packs up their own room.
When you get to the new house, allow each person to pick their own space and unpack their own things, so there is a sense of ownership.
If you are using a professional moving firm, then each person should supervise the packing and unpacking of their own room.
Organize as you pack
When the great pack up is happening, keep it all organized. Label all the boxes, so you know exactly what is where. This will make the whole process of unpacking so much easier, and will help to get your minds around the move.
When your things are loaded, keep things you may need more immediately than others somewhere near the front. After all, what are you going to drink your wine out of when you celebrate the first night, if the glasses are all packed way back or under everything else?
Before you move into your new house, check it thoroughly
Is there anything left behind?
Before you move a single thing into the new house, go and check on it. Walk through every room while the house is empty, making sure that there’s nothing left you don’t want.
Is everything outside and around the house in good nick?
Make sure there are no repairs that need to be done outside. Keep a list of tasks that you’ll need to work on soon and others that can be put off for a while.
You must make sure that functional things like the garage doors and the gutters are in working order. You definitely don’t want water damming up in blocked or leaking gutters and finding water seeping in where it can cause damage. For any work on your gutters, you can bring in a gutter supply company.
Do you know where the utilities are?
Make sure you locate all the necessary utilities. This means finding the fuse box, water mains, and electricity mains. You should also check on drains and any outside taps.
Make sure you know where rubbish goes and also any garden refuse.
You can turn this part of the move into a treasure hunt for your kids. Ask them to draw a simple sketch of each room and draw a cross for any electrical socket.
Clean the house thoroughly
You and your family are more likely to embrace moving with a positive mindset if you know the new house is spick and span.
You can do the cleaning yourself or hire someone to help you. It’s also an option to hire a professional cleaning company. Whichever route you take, make sure the whole house gets a deep clean.
Plan where everything will go
Can you imagine standing in your brand, clean new home, surrounded by an accumulation of boxes, furniture and odds ‘n ends and having no idea of where they should go and how to sort them out?
There’s an easy fix for this: when the house is empty, make all the big decisions about where things will go. Design the living and dining rooms with your furniture in mind. Encourage your kids to arrange their rooms virtually. Plan where to pack everything into the kitchen.
Plan your kitchen carefully: where will you put the crockery and cutlery? Which cupboard will hold the glasses?
The better you plan, the easier the move-in will be.
