HowTo: Move House

by Adrian How

Many of us dread the effort required in moving house, especially if you’re moving from your old place to a new one and not just moving out into your own place. I was fortunate to have experience the latter but I do remember moving with my family when I was six, from our small little rented home into a much larger place- one that we owned. I can recall watching how busy my parents were throughout the whole moving process- I can only guess it’s the same with most everyone.

To ease your pain, here are some tips on how to move house:

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Decide on Logistics

This is the single most important decision in moving house.

Options:

1. hiring professional movers

2. getting your friends to help out

3. hiring a driver and truck to transport your belongings to the new house

Factors to consider

1. amount of time you have available/can allocate?

2. useful friends you might have that could help you by providing transportation (hence saving cost on movers)- anybody with a minivan, a lorry, a pickup truck?

3. how many reliable/close friends to provide extra hands to help you move (remember to reward them with drinks, meals, an after party)?

Click here for a list of movers in Malaysia should you decide to select option 1

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Packing

Ever had trouble packing for a 4D3N holiday? If you do, then say hello to a new nightmare. It is imperative that you plan to pack in one of the following two ways

pack your items into boxes and label them by rooms or spaces you would be placing them in your new home. That way, when you’re moving, you can immediately put these boxes in the right rooms to be unpacked later.
pack your items into boxes which are logically categorized e.g. kitchen utensils, bedding, shoes etc.

Personally I prefer option 1. For items which you are not able to decide which room for it to go to, have them placed in the ‘Miscellaneous’ category. Within ‘Misc’ you can have several subcategories as well such as ‘Misc- Ornaments’, ’Misc- Art/Books’. Personally, I would label a box ‘Important!’ for all essential items- at least I know this is the one box I must unpack if I’m too lazy to start unpacking after a long day of moving. Make sure you’re diligent in keeping track of your inventory in the checklist. The reason why a checklist is important is to avoid you having to go ‘now where did I put the remote controls?’ as well as to act as a simple audit to ensure all items have been moved from origin to destination

How’re you going to pack if you don’t have boxes? If you’re hiring movers then they’ll provide you with boxes but if you aren’t, you can always obtain boxes from appliance stores, furniture stores, If the store you approach is reluctant to give them away, then change your approach by suggesting to borrow it from them and return them in the same condition, for a small deposit fee. This saves you the trouble of having to take them to be recycled.

You don’t need as many boxes to fill EVERYTHING you want to move. Stuff clothes and other items into every cavity or orifice in your furniture, washing machine, storage solutions (e.g. cupboards) but be reasonable with the weight if your friends are going to be the ones helping you move. Fill up your luggage bags and your car. Fill up your friends’ cars too.

Get rid of unwanted and unnecessary items. Be firm, be decisive. Often it’s hard to throw things away because it’s so easy to build an emotional attachment with any item. However, ask yourself if you ‘need’ the item or what impact it would have on you if you didn’t have it. YinLeng and I moved in with only the bare essentials and we did just fine. It’s great to start your new home without clutter or items you will never use or need.

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Moving

Select a suitable time to move. By suitable time, I don’t mean a time where the height of the sun is exactly at a tangent to the moon but more so to select a suitable time such as off peak traffic periods and early in the day so you have more daylight hours to work with. However, I’m aware that some may be culturally inclined to select a predetermined exact time to start/end moving.

Perform a quick count on the number of boxes going out and have someone at the new house confirm your figures to ensure nothing is missed out, The checklist will be useful for individual items at a much later stage.

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Unpacking

First things first- you should clean the house before unpacking. Rid the dirt and dust.

Then unpack box labeled ‘Important’. Then start with unpacking items for your kitchen and bathrooms followed by your bedroom then living room before proceeding to other rooms. There’s really no hurry with unpacking because you’ll need time to plan where to put what if you haven’t already been anal enough to have done so beforehand. However, if your friends are around to help you, by all means squeeze a little more out of them- you’re already gonna give them a treat/reward later on anyway! (I work in a consulting company that has taught me this trait well).

Give yourself a break at the end of it all and treat yourself (and your partner(s)) to something nice- spa, hearty meal, wild night out, whatever tickles your fancy.

Congratulations to beginning a new an exciting chapter in your life. Lots more home furnishing to be done from here on so perhaps it’s good advice on my part to get you to continue reading my blog!

More resources to help with moving:

Help, I Am Moving- a site dedicated to everything on moving house

A comprehensive list of to-dos from 6 weeks before the move to the actual moving day (note: not all items are applicable as this is taken from a UK website)

Happy moving!

photos courtesy from:

pic01: funnyphotos.net.au

pic02: boxbundles.com

pic03: wheelersmovers.com

pic04: 1clickconveyancing.com