How To Sell Your House and Move Without Going Insane

Selling your house and preparing to move out of it and into a new house can seem like a pretty daunting task. You’re essentially moving your entire life from one location to another. Most people’s “lives” are crammed with clothes, furniture, decorations, nicnacs, toys, etc. Just thinking about separating and packing up all that stuff and then having to unpack and organize it gives me a headache. So, before you even begin, you need to sit down and outline exactly how you are going to tackle this monstrous task. Here’s an idea of how you might do that:

Make A Plan – The Packing

• Don’t Procrastinate: It may seem like there’s always an excuse to begin decluttering and organizing your house to move, but excuses are nothing more than your mind whining that it doesn’t feel like doing it. This is procrastination, plain and simple. Don’t drag your feet. If you wait till the last minute to get everything done, you will have serious anxiety and stress creep up on you.
• Make a Plan with specific goals for when you want to have different tasks completed. Set a schedule for when you will do each task. First you declutter and get rid of anything you don’t really need. Then, a good tactic is to move backwards from your moving day, gradually dealing with items as they become less needed. This will make the entire process much more manageable. And stick to that plan no matter what.
• The Plan – Step 1: Make sure you don’t take on too much at once. Set a schedule to spend a few hours each day tacking just one room at a time. Make it even simpler. Write down what drawers, closet, etc. you are going to tackle each day during those few hours. Start small and work up to big, otherwise you will end up feeling overwhelmed and stressed out.
• The Plan – Step 2: First start by pulling out items that you know you can get rid of. A lot of times many useless items are kept for sentimental reasons. Don’t keep these pointless items for emotion’s sake. Set aside things like old toys, clothes, and shoes to get rid of for good. But don’t just put them in one big pile. Separate them into three piles: things to donate, things to sell, or things to throw away. Once you have gotten everything you want to get rid of out of the room and organized it into those three piles, take them immediately to their intended destination, whether it be a secondhand store, a landfill, good will, or set aside for a garage sale.
• The Plan – Step 3: Once you have completely decluttered your house of needless extras, begin slowly packing away items that you don’t need until you move into your new house. Start with the little things and move your way up as your moving date approaches.
• Label Everything: This might seem like a pain while you’re doing it, but you will be thanking God after you’ve moved and you know what each and every thing is, so you also know where it will go when you unpack. This seriously pays off later. You can label things by room, or type (bed linens, towels, etc.), or some mixture of both. Either way, you will be very happy that you did.

Things to Remember While You Pack 

• Breathe: Things will inevitably go wrong at least one day during your ordeal – you ran out of room in your last box of shoes, you ran out of tape, someone just dropped the box filled with your fine china – you get the idea. The one thing that can help at a time like this is to just breath. Count to 10 while you slowly breathe in and out. It might not fix your problem, but it will help you calm down so you can figure out how to fix it yourself.
• Relax: Don’t get so caught up in getting everything done in record time that you stop doing the things that make you happy and keep you sane. Continue to do your morning yoga, take a bath, just sit back and read a good book. This may seem counterproductive, but in fact, you will actually be more productive when you do get to work if you make sure to give yourself time to relax.
• Sleep: Make sure you get enough sleep. If you don’t, you’re more likely to be irritable and your mind and body may be sluggish. Don’t make an already unpleasant activity even worse by not sleeping.
• Hydrate: Make sure you drink plenty of water while you work. Think about it: packing involves lifting, stretching, twisting, and kneeling. That sounds like every other workout I’ve tried, so it makes sense that you would need to stay hydrated for it.

Moving Day Preparations

• Turn on your utilities before you move into your new home. Get it over with before you get there and are too exhausted to even move. You’ll really appreciate that hot water for a bath or television you can plop down and watch after you’ve been driving for hours on end.
• Move the important stuff yourself rather than trust your family heirlooms to a truck.
• Thoroughly research moving companies. Look for referrals, complaints, hidden fees, what exactly their job entails, etc.