Moving Made Easy
Moving into a new home can be stressful for the whole family. Preparation on your part can take this process and make it easy for you, your spouse, children, pets, neighbors, and the post office.
You bought the home of your dreams and now it is time to make the big move. For some, at this point, is where the chaos begins. They haven’t prepared for the move, put in a change of address at the post office, called the utility companies, and started packing. Possibly not even so much preparation as weeding out the “junk” that we all have acquired through the years, whether it was a garage sale, hand-me-downs, auctions, flea markets or holiday presents that haven’t seen the light of day in 10 years. This is a formula for a potentially stressful time for all that are involved. Let’s figure out a plan of action to prepare for this in advance and save lots of time, money, and strain on our nerves.
Tips to Make the Move Easier:
Start with a list. Write everything down in advance when you find your home and are in the process of closing. You will have time to focus all that energy on something positive, getting the visualization of owning your own home. Think of it like a blank painting that is yours to fill in the colors, decorate and arrange things the way that you want them. Designing your home decor can be a lot of fun and why not! Have a good time with it! Get excited you are buying a new home!
Utilities
Call and find out who the utility companies are if you are moving out of your area. Find out about deposits and services available for your new area. If you are staying in your current utility service area then you should still call and ask if there are any expenses that will be incurred when you make the move. Add these figures to your moving list expenses. This will make it much easier for you to budget your actual moving costs.
Clean out your closets, attic, basement, and garage to see what needs to go. Relieve clutter in your new home by having a yard or garage sale and it will also be great to make some extra money to go towards the costs of the move. Make a list of all that you want to get rid of and after the garage sale add the profited figure to your moving list.
Transportation
How will you get all your things from point A to point B? Do you have friends and family that will pitch to help move in for the price of a pizza and some lemonade? Great, that will help cut the costs of your move dramatically. If you 
are wanting to hire someone to move your things or rent a moving truck take the time to call around and see what costs would be incurred by each and then make a decision as to who will be the best value. Add this to your moving list expenses.
Address Changes
Get address change forms from the local post office. You can have these filled out and ready to go so you will just have to run them to the post office when you are ready to move. This is a very important step to remember on the moving list. Otherwise, you, the post office, and everyone who sends you mail will be confused. Take the time to add this task to the moving list.
If you are moving out of the children’s school district take the time before the move to contact your child’s current and new school. You need to check to see if there will be any costs incurred from either and add that to your moving list expenses.
Pets
Take the time to think about your pets. In most households, they are like another member of the family. This will be a stressful time for your pet as well. Take the time to make the transition as smooth for them as possible. Don’t forget to get the home address changed on their tags before moving so that if they get confused or lost in your new neighborhood others will know where their home is. Adding this to the moving list is a must.
Moving does not have to be so stressful with the right preparation you can make it easier for the whole family and save yourself a lot of stress and money so that you can focus on the joy of moving to your new home.