As avid travelers and travel PT nomads, we move pretty often. With all the moving around it was crucial we found a way to make moving less stressful.

In any given year we can move anywhere from 2 - 4 times, sometimes even across the country! As you already know, that's part of the reason why we spent several years living in a tiny teardrop trailer. 

We admit living in a movable home makes moving around a tad bit easier. But for us, we spent 2 years moving around before owning the trailer.

Now, we're back to being serial movers. We retired the trailer life after paying off our student loans and back to bouncing around from rentals. 

We have become more and more adept at moving. Whether it was a move across town or a move 2,000 miles away, we have found some tips and tricks for a better moving experience with the least amount of worry or effort possible.

There are simple steps you can take to make moving less stressful for you and everyone involved. Next time you have a big move coming up try some of these tips to make moving easier.

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Get Rid of Unnecessary Items

This tip is especially important to us as we are minimalists but it can apply to everyone. Use your move as a chance to evaluate what you have and what you can live without.

Having one less box to carry can make a big difference. For us, we began to look at items before a move and think "is this worth having to not only pack but then carry and unpack?" 

The more often you move, the more this tip helps. Even just making one big move can be enough to make you want to give away a lot of stuff. This way you aren't spending a full day unpacking loads of things you don't need or want.

When we first moved in together, we didn't get rid of anything. That move was a nightmare. We had repeats of items, and items we hadn’t used in forever.

It wasn't until we unpacked that we realized how much "waste" we brought. On our next move, we consolidated, making sure that everything we owned had a purpose.

Hire Movers

Helping people move, even people you love can be very stressful for everyone involved. Things are never fully packed up, it takes much longer than you thought it would and it is a very tedious process that requires a lot of mental and physical strength.

Our advice is to take other people out of it and hire movers. They are experts at moving things into and out of homes and they usually do it much more efficiently than you can with just friends and family alone.

Yes, it does cost you money but it is worth the saved time and energy. Plus, if you know you have to pay for a full day of moving, you might be more apt to get things packed up beforehand and again, get rid of some stuff, to lighten the load and get them out of there sooner.

Price Compare

Before your move, make sure you price compare the different companies. This can be for storage bins, storage units, moving trucks or moving companies. There are also often relocation costs for travel as well.

Honestly, moving has a lot of extra costs that can seem stressful. By price comparing well in advance to your move, you will feel better knowing you made the best financial decision. 

Many other companies perform that same kind of service and vary greatly in terms of their rates. Typically you can find some basic rates online for those types of services but sometimes you might have to make a few calls or send some emails.

Using sites like Google, Yelp, Angie's List or even Facebook can be helpful to figure out whether a company is good to work with or not. Part of price comparing is making sure you get the BEST price for the SERVICES you want.

Leave Yourself Time

Don’t be overachievers and make sure you give yourself a break! Moving can be tough and you should try to plan it out so you have plenty of time.

This means time to

• Pack each room
• Load up everything
• RELOCATE
• Get settled in
• Unpack
• Explore your new place

It can save you some mental frustration, not to mention avoiding long and tiring days by giving yourself more leeway in the schedule.

Too often we ended up moving in one day and then the very next day we started our first day of work. Then by the time the weekend rolls around we are looking at a whole bunch of chores, we have put off for a few days and it feels like we worked for twelve days straight.

It was bad. Now we factor in way more time for the many tasks moving involves so we can make moving less stressful.

Even if you do not move often like us, you will probably have to move AT LEAST once in your lifetime. Hopefully, these tips will help make that move less stressful and easier.