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039: Moving house
1.3k Plays4 years ago
This episode will give you the tops hacks to make your next move as harmonious as possible
Moving house is on the list of life change events that stress people out. This year, due to covid-19 more of you may be moving or thinking about moving due to a change in income or for a tree/sea change as remote working becomes a more viable option for many.
Mia and Dinah talk about the four key phases of moving house:
- Planning (many weeks before)
- Preparing (few weeks before)
- Moving (the week of moving)
- Settling in.
The key to a successful move is all about checklists and systematically working through them.
The key considerations in the planning phase are:
- selecting a date (consider mid-week which is cheaper and can be much easier if your children are in childcare or school)
- considering the opportunity to declutter before you move
- selecting a mover including any specialist movers for things like a piano
- organising the utility, internet and phone connection and disconnection
- contacting your insurance providers to ensure you are covered
- preparing for mail redirection - don’t forget things like subscriptions, car registration, pet registration, electoral role
- start making sure you try and use up as much food as possible before the move
- backing up your computer.
- applying for a parking permit
- organising a cleaner
- sourcing boxes (try local facebook groups or consider renting boxes) and a tape dispenser
Some hacks in the preparing/packing phase are:
- take some photos of your home as a memento
- packing by room at the destination
- while your clothes are still hanging in the closet, put them inside a rubbish bag to make unpacking simpler.
- in lieu of bubble wrap, protect your dishes and fragile items with clothing and linens
- as you disassemble furniture, keep all screws and hardware in a plastic bag - label the bag and tape it to the furniture itself, or designate a separate box with hardware for all your furniture.
- take a picture of the back of your TV and other electronic devices - that way, you know exactly which wires go where when you're setting up in the new place!
- let the kids pack a few of their own moving boxes
- pack an “essentials box” or boxes which contains things you will need for the first day/night (including a knife to open boxes, essential crockery, linen, phone charger, clothing and toiletries for the next day, cleaning products, tools, tv remotes etc)
- ensure you keep track of valuable items and important papers.
On moving day:
- meditate - go with the flow, be kind - it can be easy to get impatient and frazzled
- ensure you have cleaning supplies to hand (particularly a dustpan and brush)
- put labels on rooms at the destination so movers/friends know where to put boxes
- focus on setting up the beds first and bedrooms for children
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Transcript
Introduction to Life Admin Life Hacks
00:00:00
Speaker
This is Life Admin Life Hacks, a podcast that gives you techniques, tips and tools to tackle your life admin more efficiently, to save your time, your money and improve your household harmony.
Meet Dinero Roberts and Mia Northrop
00:00:12
Speaker
I'm Dinero Roberts, an operations manager who's lived in three countries and eight houses in the last 20 years. I'm Mia Northrop, a researcher and writer who's moved house twice in the last 12 months.
00:00:25
Speaker
This episode will give you our top hacks to make your next move as harmonious as possible.
Listener Appreciation and Book Announcement
00:00:31
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Life Admin Life Hacks.
00:00:34
Speaker
First of all, before we actually get into making your next house move run like a total dream, we wanna give a big thank you to all those who take the time to break and review the podcast on their podcast platform. And we wanted to shout out to the very generous Violet Loves Podcasts who recently left us a review on Apple Podcasts. She said, I've implemented changes from the hosts that I love and I feel better each time I listen. Reminds me I'm not alone in this admin nightmare and there are solutions.
00:01:03
Speaker
You're certainly not alone, Violet, and we're very glad that we're giving you some useful tips that make a difference. Because that's been the dream for the podcast all along, because we recognize the extent to which Life Admin is a total hassle, and we want to make it easier to minimize and optimize it. And listeners, our dream is going next level. We have a big announcement we'd like to share with everyone. Drum roll, Dinah, can you do a drum roll?
00:01:30
Speaker
Recently, Dinah and I signed a book deal with HarperCollins to publish a Life Admin Life Hacks book. We'll be covering a lot of the topics we've addressed in the podcast, except this time it'll be conveniently written down for you to refer to whenever you need. It's gonna have all the checklists, all the tips, all the recommended apps and sites, and it'll be structured so you can either dip in and focus on the areas that you need to tweak, or you can follow the chapters step by step and give yourself a Life Admin makeover.
00:02:00
Speaker
Well, it's so exciting. We're so excited. So everyone, if you'd like to be kept in the loop as we make progress on our book, please sign up to our new monthly newsletter that we'll be rolling out from early next year. It'll be a brief or killer no filler newsletter with links to resources we mention in the podcast.
00:02:20
Speaker
and a little nudge to help keep your life admin under control.
The Stress of Moving During a Pandemic
00:02:24
Speaker
Yay! Go us. I'm so thrilled. Okay, so this app, we're talking about Moving House. This is something that a few people in the Facebook community have actually nudged us about. They're like, can you cover this please?
00:02:40
Speaker
We know this is a big deal. We know that like half a million people move between states in Australia each year. That's between states, let alone the stuff that happens internally. So, you know, all the people who are changing for jobs or family reasons or sea changes and tree changes.
00:02:56
Speaker
Yeah. A lot of movement. And I think this here, lots of people due to the pandemic, not really rethinking. They've had some income reductions or job loss or thinking about even making that kind of tree change to move out of the city now that remote working is becoming a much more viable option. So some of you might really be thinking about moving at the moment.
00:03:17
Speaker
And also the average rents also declined sharply because of reduced demand. So it has created a renters market, particularly in Victoria and New South Wales, where vacancy rates are up. And I know, Mayor, you've taken advantage of that here in Melbourne.
00:03:32
Speaker
Yeah, so I moved last year, but then I moved this year during the pandemic. After the first lockdown, after the first wave of restrictions, I was in a two-bedroom apartment with my children. And when it became clear that home learning was going to be a long-term thing, I was like, yeah, we can't do that in here unless we're just going to kill each other. So I moved. Best decision I've ever made.
00:04:00
Speaker
And a novel experience, yeah, in terms of how we had to do it while social distancing, but we'll get into that in a bit. Yeah. And moving is one of those life change events that really do stress people out. And I think particularly if you're not naturally organised, I think moving house can be a really stressful event.
00:04:20
Speaker
Yeah, because it's not just the transition and the change and the fact that you're going somewhere unfamiliar and it might be distracting your routine and your sense of order. It is physically just an overwhelming task to look around everything that's surrounding you and think, all of this needs to go in a box or on a truck in four weeks. And you just think, how am I possibly going to manage that?
The Four Phases of Moving House
00:04:45
Speaker
But there is a way, there is a way. It's all about lists. It's all about checklists. So yes, it is stressful. You've got the disarray of living in chaos once you actually start packing and the rooms start to be shadows of their former selves. You've got the intensity of the moving day itself and then a little bit of confusion once you're in the new place and you're trying to settle in and unpack. But we're going to step you through four phases. Yeah. So I think we're going to talk about the planning phase, which is really
00:05:15
Speaker
what you really need to do many weeks before you move wherever possible to make the rest of it much easier. The preparing, so the few weeks before when you're really actually starting packing, the moving itself, the week that you actually move from one place to the other, and then after you've moved in settling in.
Key Considerations for Moving Day
00:05:34
Speaker
Let's keep it off with planning.
00:05:35
Speaker
And yeah, it's really about checklists and just working your way through them. Our episode on to-do lists and checklists, episode four, if you need a refresher, get your apps ready to get those lists happening, go and have a listen to them. But I did find like this amazing checklist on movinghouse.com.au. You can download it or just copy it. There's an interactive one you can use online. Just get one of those lists and do everything it says.
00:06:02
Speaker
Essentially. So it is one of those things actually, you just need to, you do need to do a little bit of Googling to find a list and to find the ideas, but then make sure that you create your own list. So use our episode to make sure you've, and then work your way through, and then it makes it so much easier. But let's talk about some of our top hacks in each of those phases, Mia. So what about when you're thinking about planning, what's
00:06:24
Speaker
What's your thoughts there? Well, essentially, you need the date. You've got to get your date and hopefully you've given yourself sort of four to six weeks so that you can do this at a steady, sustainable pace as opposed to a mad rush. Book the day off work if it's a midweek move. Ideally, midweek is cheaper.
00:06:43
Speaker
When you talk to removalists, we have a lot more demand on weekends. So if you can take the day off work, we can do it during a weekday. Highly recommend that. Obviously the kids might be at school or organize your kids to be elsewhere on the day, as well as pets to be elsewhere. So you can just focus on getting it done.
00:07:02
Speaker
Yeah. And once you've got that date, that's when you're going to want to lock in, you know, the removalist, whichever option you choose, whether it's, um, you know, renting something or hiring removalists and also thinking about booking utilities, disconnection and connection times, and particularly internet, because that can sometimes have quite a long lead time. And it is with internet now it's quite hard.
00:07:26
Speaker
I think the first thing I organised before I even booked the truck was the internet, because in previous stories I've heard from people, it can just take forever for them to switch on or organise a technician or whatever needs to happen.
00:07:41
Speaker
Yeah, start there. How about you, Diane? What are you doing in those planning stages? I think some of the other things that we've got caught up before is we have a piano. So often, removalists won't move pianos. So we needed to hire Booker specialist piano removalists to come on the same day.
00:07:57
Speaker
And another thing is thinking about the boxes. So if you're not using a Remove List that provides boxes, you can either do a call out on local Facebook groups for boxes rather than going and buying some new ones, or you can even hire boxes. So there's a company called HireBox.com.au who will drop them off and then come and pick them up and they just reuse them. So that's a pretty good service too.
00:08:18
Speaker
And I guess once you do have a four to six week lead time on this, you can start saving boxes and bubble wrap and paper from any online shopping that you're doing, any deliveries. If you have a supermarket or go to Bunnings with those massive boxes, you can just start collecting them. Also pick yourself up a packing tape gun or borrow one from somebody. You can get them at Officeworks or Australia Post, but they just do make a massive difference in terms of sealing all the boxes.
00:08:45
Speaker
and equip yourself with some sharpies so you can write on the boxes. Yeah, I think one of the things to think about too, especially if you've got a longer lead time, maybe even longer than six weeks.
00:08:56
Speaker
is thinking about the opportunity to declutter before you move. So either having a garage sale or maybe in our council you can book a hard rubbish collection or you can even book for a charity organization to come and pick some items up. So furniture is not going to fit into your new home or you've just got other things you really should be decluttering.
00:09:17
Speaker
Doing it before you move saves you moving it and then decluttering so highly recommend doing it as much of that as you can before.
Managing Address and Utilities Changes
00:09:25
Speaker
Yeah you don't want to pack and pay to move stuff that you don't actually want to need to start cleansing give this cleansing process moving to this new place clean slate.
00:09:37
Speaker
Back on the movers, there's a website called mooval.com.au. It's M-U-V-A-L. We'll link to that in the show notes. This is actually a platform that connects removal companies with people. You can pop on there, put in your details,
00:09:53
Speaker
current address where you're going to know how much furniture you have and it will do that checking and assembling of multiple quotes for you so you can get quotes from different companies so it becomes a 10 minute time killer job where you can just fill the form out and the quotes will come in rather than having to actually ring up everybody individually very useful.
00:10:14
Speaker
Wow, that's a great tip. I think with the utilities in terms of connecting and disconnecting them, if you're happy with your current utility supplier and they can still service your new address, give them a call to see if you can just switch over your contracts to save fees because often otherwise they'll charge you disconnection and I just can't believe people have disconnected this.
00:10:35
Speaker
Disconnection fees is a thing. It's so mean. No one disconnects for fun. Anyway, give them a call and see if they'll try and keep you with the customer and waive those costs. If you do need to shop around, you might find the use of a utility connection service useful.
00:10:52
Speaker
Sometimes if you're renting, the real estate agents will actually recommend or someone will get in contact with you and they will organize some options and give you some prices for energy, like for electricity and gas and internet. But most of those utility connection services are actually either owned by the website, the real estate website, like domain.com.au or realestate.com.au, or they're aligned with energy suppliers.
00:11:18
Speaker
so they're not comprehensive of the market. They might not give you the best deal, but they'll be convenient. I think myconnect.com that I use is actually independent, so they can be handy. Otherwise, if you want to shop around and check your own rates for energies, then check out our episodes on Episode 14, where we talk about energy plans and how to use the Energy Made Easy website, or Episode 13, where we talk about broadband plans.
00:11:48
Speaker
and how to use choice and can't start blue and whistle out to find good plans. Great. So I think that's as we get closer to the move date, this is where you need to also start to thinking about other things you might need to change, like all of the mail redirection. So things that you might still have coming to your house. So making sure you create a list and then cross them off as you do them. So think about things that maybe aren't front of mind, like any magazine subscriptions you might have.
00:12:17
Speaker
car registration, newspaper if you get that delivered, pet registration, and also think about contacting your insurance company's house and contents. Sometimes even your car insurance, they might have a different price based on your new address.
00:12:32
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. And same with the house and contents insurance. You'll need to advise them of the new address. Australia Post has a mail redirection service. Have you used that in the past, Diana? I have, but it's super expensive now. So it is one of those things to make sure that you do as much as you can so you can minimise how long you have to have it going for, I think.
Packing and Moving Day Tips
00:12:52
Speaker
Yeah, the price does seem to have increased in recent years, but it's sort of just under $200, I think, for a year. But you can get it from one month to give yourself a little bit of breathing room while you get on top of this, or you can go up to 12 months. It's up to you. And yeah, those change of addresses, that can take a little while. The electoral commissions want to remember. Oh, yeah, that's another good one. And if you have a cleaner, a gardener, any of those kinds of services, either tell them that you're going to be moving out of the area or whether they can come and service your new home.
00:13:22
Speaker
I had to remember to return all my library books. And during the pandemic, they were like, no, you can't. And I'm like, but I'm moving, I'm moving out of the area. And they were like, yep, sorry, just have to come back some other time. That was annoying. I've also heard of people moving out of the area and then realizing they've left something at the dry cleaners in their local, moved across town.
00:13:46
Speaker
Ah. Another really good thing to do in those weeks leading up to the move is to think about backing up your computer. I had a friend whose computer got destroyed in the move and she lost a whole heap of photos. So it's a good reminder of things, you know, that you probably should be doing all the time, but probably something really important to do before you move your computer. Oh my God, what a nightmare. Yeah. Okay.
00:14:12
Speaker
Then I think in this stage, this preparing stage, my favourite thing to do is having to eat all of the... I have to convince myself I now get to eat everything in the pantry and everything is in the fridge because I don't want to move it. At least the perishable stuff so you can start working your way through it. Yes, I think there's some... You do some creative menu planning with all of the random chickpeas and
00:14:35
Speaker
red-knit kidney beans have been languishing at the back of your cupboard for many years. No one ever chickpeas. The other thing I did ahead of time was I applied for a parking permit at my new place because the parking around here is ridiculous and I didn't want to have one minute of one day where I have to pay for parking outside of my new house. So that might be a priority depending on where you're going to be moving to.
00:15:01
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. So I think now we're thinking about packing. Should we talk about what your top tips are for packing? One thing I do like to do before I start packing is take a photo of the room as it is as a memento, because sometimes you move house and you realize that you don't actually have a picture of all of the rooms in that house. You might have some people, but you don't actually remember what some of the bits looks like. So you might want to take a little photo before you start disassembling it.
00:15:28
Speaker
And I guess the other thing, I don't know, this seems blatantly obvious, but when I was packing the glasses and crockery and cups and fragile things from the kitchen, I packed them inside the pots, like the saucepans on the pots, which I've never really done before. And then I just wedged lots of clothes around it. What about you, Diana? Packing tips? Yeah. So I think one of the things to think about is maybe, particularly if you've got a different room,
00:15:54
Speaker
configuration in your new house to think about packing by room at destination rather than by room of where you've come from because this makes it so much easier for unpacking because you don't want to have a box that's half this room and half that room. It just makes it much more difficult to unpack. Yeah, I think the other thing to think about is if you have to disassemble furniture
00:16:16
Speaker
making sure you keep all the screws and any hardware in a plastic bag and label it and either tape it to the furniture itself or have a specific box that has all those little bits and pieces in it. And I've done that disassembling. If you're moving things that you cannot disassemble by yourself, when you're getting quotes from the movers, ask them, tell them that you'll need someone to like disassemble beds or desks or whatever it may be to make sure they include that in the quote.
00:16:45
Speaker
Because when I moved by myself, there's no way I could have physically disassembled some of it and I didn't want to. So I said, I will need the movers to do that. And that was fine. They did it. You know, just pay for their time. Another tip that I've got is if you're not particularly technology minded and you've got
00:17:03
Speaker
complicated cabling at the back of your table or anything else, take a picture of it so that you know exactly how it was set up before. So that when you need to set it up again, you can look at the photo to see how you actually did it, which cables went where. That's a great tip. Any time, less time spent in the back of a television staring at all those ports. Yeah.
00:17:26
Speaker
We also moved quite a few times when the kids were very small and when you're trying to pack and the kids are kind of under your feet. So we gave the kids a few of their own moving boxes with some textures to decorate them and encourage them to spend some time packing their clothes and their soft toys and things like that. That didn't really matter how they got packed.
00:17:48
Speaker
and that kind of kept them occupied while we're trying to pack the more fragile items. Yeah. At this stage too, in terms of the way you're going to be leaving your place, definitely book a cleaner. I know some people like to do it themselves to save money, but literally it's going to be the best $200 you have ever spent in terms of freeing up some time and just letting you focus on the new place. And if you're renting, use one recommended by the agent because then there's really no recourse
00:18:17
Speaker
if the agent challenges you around your bond or cleaning, because if they've supplied someone, then they'll be up to speed. So yeah, don't have your last moments in your place, just on stools, clearing the dust from cupboards that you haven't looked into for three years and trying to get the oven clean. Just pay someone to do that again. That's a great tip. And I think the other, like my essential tip,
00:18:43
Speaker
is really thinking about having an essentials box or a couple of boxes that have got the things that you absolutely are going to need for your first night, particularly if you're moving and it's going to be an all day, like an overnight, thinking about making sure you've got
00:18:59
Speaker
you know, your phone charges, any cleaning products or tools that you might need. Maybe think about putting the TV remote controls in there so that you can easily get to the bed and linen and towels to make up your beds. And another one is to make sure that you've got your jewelry and your important papers. So actually in one of our moves, we had one valuable item stolen by Movers.
Handling Pets During a Move
00:19:22
Speaker
And so because we hadn't gathered up every single valuable item,
00:19:27
Speaker
and kept it you know within our position so making sure that before the move has come you've gathered all of those more valuable items and keep them with your with yourself wow how cheeky i know and then because it wasn't a listed item we couldn't claim it under insurance oh god i know
00:19:46
Speaker
Work that one the hard way. Yeah. I'll have to debrief with you on that one afterwards. Okay. Moving day. Moving day. Oh, what a day. I meditated first thing on my moving day because I knew it was going to be long. I knew I was going to be tired and stressed
00:20:04
Speaker
I could be stressed and frazzled and I was just like Mia this is gonna be fine just go with the flow it's gonna be intense but it's just one day just you know you don't want to be that person that just gets all impatient and snaps at everyone and it's just just go with the flow.
00:20:22
Speaker
Have a little, have a little moment, have a little goodbye ceremony to the house. Thank you house. It's a bit, it's a bit merry condo. Thank you house or whatever. I loved living here. I'm saying goodbye now and just go, you know, go on with the courage into the day. Yes. I definitely think, and if you're, you know, with it and you have a partner, maybe have a little bit of a conversation at the beginning of the day that this is going to be tough and, and so that you kind of do each other. Yes.
00:20:53
Speaker
Listen to our laughter. Okay. You're going to need a dust pan and brush because suddenly you start moving stuff out and it's bizarrely filthy that you need to deal with actually at the time. And also when you start arriving at the new place, you're going to need a dust pan and brush even if they've cleaned it.
00:21:14
Speaker
I think the tip around having some cleaning products, very useful. And I guess by the end of that day, there'll be boxes everywhere. The thing to focus on is making the beds first, because you're going to be very tired, but you need somewhere to sleep that night. So at least you can get the beds assembled and the beds made. Start there. If you have kids, get their rooms under control so they can feel a bit more settled and start putting their own stuff away.
00:21:40
Speaker
Or just, you know, if you have little kids, you might just say, you can sleep with us tonight because they'll be a bit freaked out about the new space. And then I would suggest that you unpack the kitchen first so you can start prepping meals. But, you know, you might decide that dinner that first night is going to be some takeaway, get some pizza so you can just relax and have to fix yourself a dinner.
00:22:00
Speaker
Yeah, another important one to think about on moving day is if you've got a pet. So if you've got a dog, it's a really great idea to organize someone else to look after your dog for that day, so that they're not in the way of the removalist and things. So either get a friend or maybe even put them in a kennel for a day, just so that, you know, maybe overnight and pick them up the next day when everything's back under control.
Unpacking and Settling In
00:22:23
Speaker
Maybe you've got a cat, so what do you do with your cat?
00:22:27
Speaker
Yeah, well, cats and some dogs, I guess, can get really stressed out by moving day. They get anxious about what the hell is going on. Cats are notorious for that. They often can run away. So I actually took the cat to the new place early in the morning before the movers came. I brought the cat and little
00:22:44
Speaker
plants and I just put the cat in a room and locked her in that one room so she could just settle and hide. You know I put a litter tray and some food and water in there with her just so she could just be somewhere out of the way and feel contained. Yeah actually one of our moves we had goldfish oh my gosh.
00:23:03
Speaker
The disproportionate amount of time it took to move the goldfish when you had to empty the tank and put the fish in the plastic bag. I think if you've got goldfish, think about giving them away before you move. That's my top fish. Well, my steak's moving. Okay, so once you move in, you're in. What should we make a map in?
00:23:27
Speaker
Yeah, I guess you've got to get rid of all the boxes, all the wrap. It just piles up. Pay it forward. Put it on your Facebook page for your new neighborhood or give it away to someone you know is going to move. You can get, you know, if you break the boxes down properly, you can get a good three moves out of a box.
00:23:44
Speaker
So make sure you give it away to someone. And then, you know, most local councils here in Australia, there'll be a new residence checklist. So it'll remind you about rates periods and your pet registration, when the rubbish collection schedules are, that kind of thing. You might want to learn about where your library and your rec centers are. And if you have little kids or babies, toddlers, you'll want to tap into the local maternal and child health resources.
00:24:10
Speaker
Yep. I think that also once you've moved in, it's making sure that whichever change of addresses you haven't yet actioned, getting onto them as soon as possible. A couple of other tips I've got is when we last moved, we've quite a few pictures that we hang up on the wall. And I knew that my husband is not, it's not his favorite thing to do is hanging pictures on the walls.
00:24:31
Speaker
So I actually booked someone to come the week after we moved in. Once we'd had a week to finalise where everything was going to go.
Personal Stories and Final Advice
00:24:39
Speaker
He came for a couple of hours and put all the hooks in the wall. And that was a really, you know, a marriage saver. That's a great idea. So frustrating having artwork cleaned up against walls for long periods of time.
00:24:55
Speaker
And how did you find that handy person? Did you just use Air Tasker or something? Well, we're very, very lucky that Hira Hubby lives in our street. So actually, he's three doors up. So really great to have a home handyman who lives three doors away. I bet that's a very happy street. It is a very tidy street.
00:25:12
Speaker
The other tip I see here is around getting things unpacked promptly. Yes. I think that lots of people can talk about boxes that they haven't unpacked for years. I think my strong advice is unpack everything
00:25:29
Speaker
And if you decide to declutter it, declutter it, don't just leave unpacked boxes in a garage or in a spare room for years on end because that just horrifies me. The longer that it goes, the less likely you are to actually unpack it. So absolutely. I just in 48 hours, my whole house is unpacked. I can't live with the boxes and I just
00:25:50
Speaker
But I actually enjoy it. I think this is my personality. I actually quite like moving house. I like the decluttering. I like the cleansing nature of just thinking about a new space. I get excited about setting up the new place and finding a home for every little thing. So I'm all done and dusted in
00:26:10
Speaker
two days. If you're moving, you know who to call to give you a hand, Mia. How can we help? I'll totally help on either end. Packing all the unpacking, I quite like joy it. I do think that there is something, if you do have friends who are willing to help, thinking in advance what you could get them to do. I actually have helped some friends move. For example, I did that, assembled the beds and made their beds for them, for the whole family. While they unpack their more personal items, I don't want to be unpacking their underwear.
00:26:38
Speaker
But I was very happy to do that and they just gave me all the linen for all the beds and while they were happily unpacking. So yeah, really think about if people offer help, thinking about what's the best jobs to give them. That's a great idea. And then, you know, when you're setting it up, it takes a little bit of time to make the place feel homey. You've got to get to know the temperatures of the rooms and where the sun falls at different times of day.
00:27:04
Speaker
where to put your plants and getting the art up on the walls and all your little knickknacks out. But it's not something you can rush, just ease yourself into it. So, Mia, you've moved twice in the last year. So what are your personal sort of journey or learnings from those journeys? Ah, OK. So, yeah, I guess the most recent one was during the pandemic and we had to social distance from the movers, which was funny when you're trying to hold the same piece of furniture.
00:27:32
Speaker
and was in an apartment in a lift where you could only have two people in it at the same time. So that was fun. But I really do. I think it was one of those days where I thought, let's focus on why were you moving and how fun the new place is going to be. And just reminding yourself why it will all be worthwhile just to help make the effort you're putting in bearable.
00:27:57
Speaker
And I just, yeah, it's for me, it's all about having lists on my phone. I had, I used the lists in my notes app. I just had massive checklists and just going through day by day, ticking them off, getting that little dopamine, dopamine hit when you've done something and knowing that it's comprehensive and that you haven't, you're not forgetting things was just a great way to control the stress levels about it. Yep. Great. How about you?
00:28:22
Speaker
Well, it's actually been quite a long time since we have moved, but we did move twice in one year when we moved back from being overseas. And the first part, the international move, which was all paid for by the company that was moving us, was actually relatively stress-free because it was, you know, the professional movers who did all of the packing and all of the packing and everything. It's my dream.
00:28:46
Speaker
But that's where we had something stolen. So, you know, roundabouts. And so that was probably my one tip there was I thought I'd be able to supervise the movies, but because they came with like six packers because they wanted to get it done within the day.
00:29:01
Speaker
You can't actually supervise being, I guess asking lots of questions about how it's actually going to happen. It's really important to know. And because it's going in a container, they pack everything very carefully because it does get really knocked around. So every item is packed very heavily. So like a shipping container.
00:29:19
Speaker
That move was actually reasonably stress free, except for the fact that it took much longer for our goods to arrive than originally expected. So I think that's another tip is to really, if you are doing a bigger move, make sure you have some margin for error about what you're going to do if it takes a bit longer for your furniture to actually arrive.
00:29:37
Speaker
But then the move after that was we moved from a rental into our own house just two streets away. So I think because it was two streets away, we thought it wasn't going to be such a big deal. But ironically, you might as well have been moving across town because you still actually have to move everything. So I guess this is where I learned my lessons around the false economies of where we tried to do some things ourselves like moving furniture on a trailer.
00:30:03
Speaker
damaging furniture, which if we'd paid for a man with a van, it would have paid for itself several times over because of the things, both the time and the cost of replacing the things that got damaged.
00:30:18
Speaker
I do think the one thing we did on that was we moved on a school day, which was such a good idea. The kids were there in the morning to see as we got packing. But when they had finished school, all of the furniture had been moved and their beds were in their rooms. And so we didn't have to kind of have them under our feet while we were moving. So I definitely think that was a good idea. Yeah, nice one.
00:30:39
Speaker
Well, we hope these hacks will make your next move smooth and streamlined and stress-free. Our top hacks are start as early as possible, particularly if you need to declutter. Give yourself a good four to six weeks. Be realistic about your moving budget. If you try to do it all yourself, you can end up costing more if you damage or break things. Make sure that you have an essentials box on the day with the handy things you need to tie up loose ends at your old place and get into the stuff at your new place.
00:31:08
Speaker
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