Ok, I lied, I was a mom of TWO when I was in the process of moving my then-family of four from a decent sized one bedroom apartment (for NYC standards) to our first home – which had room for one or two more family members. As a matter of fact, when we were renovating our latest money pit, we did so with a nursery in mind for expanding our family, hence the mom of three title!
So, after our arduous closing, tons of mortgage papers, and back and forth between lawyers, I was greeted with a stack of boxes. As if moving wasn’t expensive enough, my husband went out and BOUGHT boxes from Home Depot. The same boxes I receive everyday from my overspending habits and work responsibilities. Which bring me to my first moving tip –
#1 – Stock up on boxes as soon as you know you are moving. Ask your friends, colleagues, relatives. In the world of Amazon Prime, people are inundated with boxes and would be happy to pass them along and not have to break them up properly and stack them neatly just for garbage day.
#2 – While you are asking the above mentioned people for boxes, maybe you can casually throw in an offer to feed them while the help you bubble wrap every single crystal glass you wanted so badly before you got married and quickly realized you would never use them but still don’t want them to break. FYI- my packed-away crystal is still packed away, waiting for the day the kids finish college and may finally be able to use a crystal glass.
#3 – Set a budget for takeout. No, seriously. It can get pricey, but there is no way you will unpack your oven-essentials just for a warm meal. Peanut Butter sandwhiches were the norm around here for a while. Oh, and after you move, make sure you keep those kitchen essentials boxes IN THE KITCHEN. Once they are piled high in a room on moving day, you won’t want to look for them. Who am I kidding? You will be so exhausted from everything, you won’t be hungry, let alone want to cook!
#4 – Hire help! My husband and I scoffed at our friends who used a moving company like Roadway Moving to pack away their essentials and move them. In retrospect, we would have loved the idea of just paying a company to do all our dirty work – wrap, box, and move our belongings. Next time we move, there’s no question about it, we will be hiring a moving company for all our needs.
#5 – Wine. No wine glass necessary. A straw or red cup will do. Believe me, you will need it. LOTS of it.
#6 – Label everything and be specific. This will help you figure out where the pink hairbrush with red dots on it is when you need to groom your children. Because that’s the only hair brush that doesn’t hurt. The blue brush just screams OW! (According to my girls.)
#7 – Make the kids’ room a priority. Pick out the wall color, bedding, and decor together ahead of time. Kids can get upset or feel out of place when moving day comes, so having their own familiar area with decor they choose may make their adjustment easier.
#8 – Think “minimalist.” You will never fit into a size 3 jeans again. Those are juniors sizes. It’s time to let them go. Just like the kitchen storage containers with no lids, the coffee mug without a handle (that you’ve been waiting to glue back on) and your dried up wedding bouquet. New space, fresh start. declutter.
#9 – Now’s your chance to get organized. Keep all your important documents together. Set up your storage space so it works for you.
#10 – Set aside one area (out of sight) where you can sort your boxes. Even after the common moving boxes were in place (kitchen, bedrooms, bathroom) there were also those miscellaneous boxes that didn’t have a home yet. We kept them in the office and chipped away at it one box at a time.
So, there you have it. My top 10 moving tips. I asked my husband to chime in and hear his opinion on our moving experience and he offered two pieces of advise:
#1 – Hire movers from start to finish
#2 – Don’t move
Roadway Moving is a top rated NYC moving company that is top rated on Angie’s list, Yelp, and Facebook. Check them out on Twitter too!