5 Tips For How To Minimize Stress When Moving

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I recently spent time with a good friend who had just moved into a new home and I had the opportunity to help unpack and organize for a few days during our visit. This reminded me of tactics I use to help move through moments of being overwhelmed with a home project to a place where I can develop a plan to purge, organize and decorate spaces around our home.

The reality with moving is there is a lot of work to do to pack up your current home, unpack at your new home and begin the process to curate a home you love in your new space. This can easily lead to feelings of being overwhelmed and a little unsure of where to start to get all the work done.

The good news is there are ways to batch your work during the process of moving to minimize stress and to maximize the use of your time and energy. I summarized below a few tips I’ve shared with friends and have used in my own home during several moves that can change the way you approach the large task of moving into a new space.

Pro-Tip – This works for ANY project!

Tip #1 | Purge Unused/Unwanted Items

I like to batch this work into three different phases. The first phase is when you are packing up your current home. Nobody wants to spend time packing up and moving across town items you no longer want. This is a great time to evaluate if the item you are about ready to put in a packing box is still an item you want or need. Asking yourself questions such as, Do I still like this item? Is the item still functional? Do I have a place for this in my new home? If not, donate these items before you move! We are often motivated while packing for a move to get rid of unused items because by nature of packing up an entire home, you have to look at every item you own! If you are able to quickly make the decision of whether to keep, donate or purge during this phase, you will save yourself time and money. If it’s not obvious to you in the moment, pack it up with good intentions of still having a purpose for it in the new home and move on. No reason to stress over this decision when you have other things to do!

The second phase is when you are in your new space and ready to start unpacking. You now have had the opportunity to get a better assessment of the storage in your home, how your furniture fits in the space and a general idea of how you want your home to flow. This phase tends to be the one where I am more ready to purge items I have held onto because I now have a better plan of what will work in the new space. I recommend having empty storage bins or empty packing boxes close by you when you are unpacking so you can focus your energy on organizing only the items you are confident you want to keep. If you are still on the fence about a few items, either have a bin or a dedicated place in your home where you can group those “maybe” items to remove them from your physical space until you can make a decision. I find having those items moved out of the way, even temporarily, helps me get clear on if I still need it or want it.

The third phase is what I think of as the review phase. This is when all the items are out of the boxes and organized in your home. This helps you to visually see and review the full inventory of your items in the new space. In this phase, I look at each area around our home more critically to evaluate if the items I have unpacked and organized will work as I intended. This is a more detailed phase, which can take some time. It’s helpful to be in a good head space (not mentally exhausted after moving) to make a decision. These tend to be items I thought I wanted to keep or store in a particular spot and then realize upon review, it doesn’t work. I then make a determination if it still works just not where I have it located or if it’s time to donate or trash. This helps me refine each space a little more and focuses me in on those tedious decisions.

Pro Tip: Batching your work as you unpack in your new home creates a system to allow you the mental space to make needed decisions and prevents any unnecessary decision fatigue during an already stressful time.

Tip #2 | Keep Progress Moving Forward

We all have those boxes with unfinished projects or sentimental items we aren’t sure what to do with and if we should keep or purge. These types of boxes can really derail the process of unpacking and can quickly lead to feelings of stress or of being overwhelmed with decisions. This is because this is detailed work and you need adequate brain power to tackle those types of decisions. I recommend when unpacking a home, you create or find a designated spot for those boxes or items which require more time to review. Give yourself permission to work through those bins at a later time and over a period of time rather than while you are in the chaos of moving into a new home. This keeps progress moving forward on the larger task of unpacking all the boxes and getting settled with the belongings which don’t require as much brain power!

The key to this approach is to make a plan for how you will work through those bins and not just store it then forget it. Ideally, if you have a designated spot such as a closest, drawer or room where you can store those items this is helpful to remove the clutter from your other spaces. I use my home office closet for a “holding zone” of sorts. This allows our shared spaces to be clutter free and allows me time to go back through those items when I am mentally prepared to make those harder decisions or complete a more tedious task of organizing a particular project.

Pro Tip: Having a designated space to review items later, is a great way to create a long term system to keep main living areas clutter free.

Tip #3 | Observe How You Live In The Space

Some items are pretty obvious when unpacking such as the dishes go in the kitchen and the clothes go in the closet. Other items may not be as obvious and it takes time to figure out where best to store or set-out certain belongings in the new space. This is OK!

A key lesson I have learned in organizing different spaces is the need for the system to work for you. This may sound obvious but so often we get stuck in thinking something needs to be done in a certain way and if it doesn’t work for us, we are hesitant to make a change. If it doesn’t make sense to you, then the system won’t work. As long as it makes sense to you and supports your space in being more functional and organized, do it! This is when observing how members of your household live in your space will give you insight for those small changes you can make over time to increase your efficiency in your home.

I find part of the joy in curating a space is watching how our family uses each area of our home and developing systems to support our lifestyle. This is also helpful to do as your lifestyle and needs naturally change over time. I continuously make tweaks or small enhancements to improve our function or flow around the home.

Pro Tip: Establish a system to review your key spaces periodically to reassess if the set-up is still meeting your needs.

Tip #4 | Take Breaks To Give A Reset

This one can be hard when you have a deadline such as going back to work or an internal goal for having certain spaces in your home set-up by a certain time. It’s good to set goals and keep yourself focused so you aren’t living out of boxes for an extended period of time. I like to set mini goals when unpacking to keep myself motivated and on track. This can be as simple as once I finish unpacking this box, I am going to take a break for lunch or once this room is unpacked, I am going to spend the rest of the day running errands and relaxing in our new space. Breaks give you a chance to mentally reset as well as providing your body with a physical break from the labor of unpacking!

I recommend taking 5-10 minutes during one of your breaks to review all the work you have already accomplished and make a plan for the room or group of boxes that are most important for you to finish next. This allows you to celebrate all of your hard work and focuses you in a systematic way on your next priority rather than falling prey to a random approach to unpacking boxes.

Pro-Tip: Focus on having one shared space unpacked to give you a space to relax without the excess clutter and boxes.

Tip #5 | Make Lists And More Lists

Be prepared to have multiple lists going during the move in process. If you are still a pen and paper person, having a *steno pad to make different lists of things you need to buy or complete is an easy way to stay organized and remember details for your follow-up at a later time. The Notes section on your phone also works well if you are someone who works better with a paperless system. Whatever works for you, just be sure to give yourself a parking lot list (or two!) for those things that don’t need your attention now but will need your attention at some point.

It seems like there a thousand little things you find to do when you are unpacking in a new space. Lists gives your brain a place to dump all of those ideas, tasks and to-do’s which then gives you the brain power to focus on the task at hand.

Pro-Tip: Lists are your best assets for any project, big or small!

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This post pairs well with a Seghesio Sonoma Zinfandel which is great wine to open to celebrate achieving your goals of moving into a new home! If you found this post useful, please consider sharing it on Pinterest with others! Cheers!