Moving Day: Top 5 Tips for Moving House Yourself

After months (and months!) of planning, we can FINALLY start on our home build!

The process to this point went a little something like this:

Let’s knock our house down and build a new one.
Yes!
Let’s find an architect.
We LOVE Rob!
We LOVE Rob’s design for our new house.
Concept sketch TICK.
Design approval TICK.
Bank approval TICK.
Are we really going to do this?
Yes!
Home owner’s insurance TICK.
Book in the demolition team TICK.

So here we are, it’s time to move so we can knock down our house.

Having spent the last few days moving, and learning what not to do, I thought I’d share my top 5 tips for moving house yourself.

1. Hire a removalist

That’s right. Don’t do what we did and move house yourself. It sucks.

There is a good reason why these people have jobs and they are worth every cent.

2. Have a plan

If hiring a removalist isn’t an option, then having a plan is a must.

Moving is stressful and after seven years of living in our house, we had accumulated so much stuff we didn’t know where to start.

I didn’t have a plan to start so this is a snapshot of how Day 1 went: 30 minutes packing up the living room, 1.5 hours in the garden shed, 20 minutes clearing out the bathroom [Bruno walks in] “What are you doing?!”… I try to think of a logical reason for my haphazard packing style…

I recommend starting with a plan of attack. You could work room by room, sorting items into essential and non-essential boxes. Or you could work by moving largest furniture to smallest. However you choose to do it, just work out a system that works for you and do it methodically until the task is done.

3. Have an inventory list

You will save HEAPS of time once you move if you have an inventory list keeping track of what has been put in each box. You can ⇒download our free moving inventory template here⇐.

In a hurry, I randomly packed items without keeping track of what was in each box, or noting if they were essential/non-essential items. This created chaos and from now on, I will use this inventory template to stay organised!

4. Hire the right vehicle to transport your stuff

I own a small hatchback which isn’t ideal for transporting goods at the best of times.

Add a needy Rottweiler to the mix – Arnie takes up my entire back seat! – and there was almost no room left to fit my stuff.

Borrow a ute or truck from a friend, or hire one for a day, and get the move done in a fraction of the time.

5. Complete a moving checklist

There are so many odd jobs and things to do when you move house – from redirecting your mail to packing a survival kit – that it’s nearly impossible to keep track.

I have created a FREE Moving Kit to help you stay calm and organised for your own move. Download the free Moving Kit now.