Even if you’re excited about your career opportunity in a new town and have been planning your relocation for months, moving and packing can be overwhelming. It can hit you all at once – you’ll need moving supplies, including moving boxes. And all those boxes have to be packed. It’s only natural to want to put the whole process off as long as possible. But procrastination can make moving day and moving in day a nightmare you’ll want to avoid.
Procrastination as a Strategy
When it comes to moving day, one of the major reasons people procrastinate is anxiety. Relocation brings change, and change can make us feel uncertain about the future. Moving and packing is a big disruption. In a counterintuitive way, procrastination gives us a sense of relief and control – we choose not to deal with the issue causing the anxiety.
But procrastination can be a costly strategy in several ways. Moving day is made up of a lot of moving parts – a date for the move, a date for moving in, booking the moving truck, arranging parking, using the freight elevator, etc. The process of moving typically involves a timeline of deadlines that can’t be negotiated. Appointments and bookings that need to be rescheduled or are left to the last minute often end up costing more. In reality, procrastination causes even more stress.
Moving Boxes and Moving Supplies
Getting motivated is difficult enough without making it harder on yourself. Vancouver movers suggest buying boxes instead of spending time collecting free ones from a number of different places. Yes, it is another expense, but boxes that are uniform in size are simpler to pack, easier to load into the moving truck, and protect the items inside better since the moving boxes have never been used before. Remember not to pack them too full.
Anything you can do to simplify moving and packing tasks will help you relieve the stress most people experience when planning a relocation. It’s easier get into the packing mindset when you have everything gathered together in one place. Make a list of all the moving supplies you will need. If possible, buy moving supplies such as tape, tape dispenser, bubble wrap, coloured markers, labels, string, packing paper, from one store.
Deadlines and Carrots
Even if you’ve left packing your moving boxes until the last minute, you can still break down the process into a number of smaller tasks. For example, pick a date for packing up bedroom #1 and stick to it. Remember (unless you’ve really left it to the very last minute), you will be packing items and household belongings you aren’t using. When the packing for that specific room has been completed, give yourself a carrot – rewarding yourself puts the focus on what you’ve accomplished and not on how much you still have to do. Do the same for the other rooms in your house.
Take Breaks and Schedule Downtime
When you’re stressed out and feeling tired the thought of packing up the living room or the kitchen can quickly become overwhelming. Start easy and clear off two shelves of the entertainment unit, then take a break. Do one small closet before watching This is Us. Schedule downtime into your packing schedule: packing until you’re overtired with strained muscles, etc. can trigger the anxiety that might put you back into procrastination mode. Set a time limit on the number of minutes or hours you’ll be packing at a stretch.
Packing Moving Boxes and De-cluttering
Many Vancouver movers suggest that before packing moving boxes, you start by de-cluttering each room of household items you haven’t used in a year or more; haven’t unpacked from your previous move; or are broken beyond repair. But if you’re running out of time, combine packing with purging. When you come across an item you don’t want to take with you set it to one side. Keep the packing momentum going: when you have a pile of things you no longer want, sort them later into three categories – donate, sell, and throw away.