Your Guide to Moving Home with A Family

 

Moving home is thought to be as one of life's biggest cause of stresses, close behind divorce and bereavement. 

 

There is the hassle of packing up your old house and cleaning it, arranging removal firms, sorting out school places and work in the new location, unpacking everything and the change of addresses and utilities, not to mention getting used to a whole new area. 

 

If you have children, there is the whole added issue of helping them to make new friends and learn their way around the new town. Thankfully, there is a phone tracker which you can install on their cell phones so you can keep a close eye on where they are and what they are up to.

 

The good news is that if you plan properly, you can make the process a lot easier on the whole family, and we are going to explore some of the things that you can do in this article.

Who to tell?

 

There is a whole host of people and places that you need to tell about your impending move. Some you cannot do until you have moved but others you can start letting know as soon as you have a moving in date. Some of the places to inform include:

 

• Schools
• Doctors
• Dentist
• Insurance (health, car, life, house)
• Utilities 
• Mail 
• Subscriptions
• Bank

 

Things to remember

 

Take a meter reading: the last thing you want to do is to have to pay for someone else’s gas, electricity or water supply, so one of the last things that you need to do before you close your old door for good is to take a meter reading. Take a photo of it and then inform your utility company.

 

Change the locks: one of the first tasks to do in your new property is to change the locks. While you may trust the previous owners, you do not know who they have given a key to. Many insurance companies insist that you do this as part of your policy.

 

Take pictures of how things are put together: it has probably been years since you last put that bed together, or that shelving unit and the chances are that the instructions have been long lost or disposed of. When it comes to it, especially after a long day of moving, you will want to put the furniture together as quickly as possible. Photos of it before it was dismantled are a great way of remembering what goes where.

 

Have a first night bag: make sure that you have packed a bag for the first night, containing things like essential medication, towels and soap, toothbrushes, nightclothes and a clean set of clothes for the morning and anything else to get you through the first night and morning. No one wants to be rooting through bags and boxes to find the toothbrushes before bed!

 

While you can never completely take away the stress of moving, by making sure all the important people and places know when and where you are moving and that you have the essentials in place for the first day or two, it will make things a lot easier.