My go-to moving tips

Having rented at least nine apartments over the past 16 years, I’ve had a bit (!) of experience moving house.

Here are my top five tips for your next move (unless you have — quite understandably — sworn you’ll never move again):

1. My top tip, above anything else, is to set up and/or make your bed when you arrive at your new home, so that when you want to collapse with exhaustion, you can do so on clean sheets...rather than falling face forward onto your mattress, weeping because you’re so tired…but still need to make your bed.

2. Something else I always do when I move is to pack a box (or boxes — two or three at most) to open first at my new home. These will contain items such as the kettle, cutlery and plates for you and your housemates, linen (to make your bed/s!), towels... anything you’ll need for your first day and night, or until you can unpack your 'essentials’. I clearly mark the box/es 'Open me first' and put them on the moving truck last so that they’re unloaded first at the other end.
Some people will pack their clothing into these boxes too; I put my clothing and toiletries in an overnight bag so I know where they are (and so the bag is moved while it’s full rather than empty). Make sure you load this bag last too, or know where it is.

3. Speaking of bags, fill any luggage that’s moving with you with clothing. This will save you space in your moving boxes, and again ensures those bags aren’t simply empty during your move.

4. In the weeks leading up to your move, make sure you purge any items you don’t want or no longer use so that they can be donated, dumped, or repurposed. This will save you from moving and unpacking these items in your new home.
There are services that will pick everything up and separate your items for donation, etc., or you can separate them yourself and take them to the relevant charity, recycling location, or dump.

5. Label your moving boxes. I know (believe me, I know!) how tempting it can be to dump items from different rooms into boxes, but packing items from the same area — for example, the kitchen — will make them easier to unpack without running in circles around your new home to put everything away. You can then label your sealed box with the room information, and even some contents, so you know where your toaster went.

That’s it for my top tips. I hope they’ve been useful to you. Happy moving!