Moving away from your family can be stressful, exciting, scary, and many other things. In this article, we talk about how to prepare for the move, handle guilt, set goals, and more.
Whether you’re going to college or moving in with your partner, at some point in your life, it’s healthy to move in your own direction, towards your own goals.
Moving is considered to be the third most stressful thing we can go through in life, after divorce at #2 and death at #1. It goes to show the importance of taking the move seriously and planning for it appropriately.
If you follow these suggestions, your move can be a lot more exciting and far less stressful.
Make A To-Do List
Besides all the advice in this article that applies to most people, you’ll also have some things to get done that are unique to your situation. Note everything you need to get done with deadlines attached. Create reminders for important things so that it’s impossible to forget.
You should have a to-do list that specifies tasks to be completed before the move, during the move, and after. We recommend making this list on your phone for safe keeping, backed up on a cloud service like Google Drive is also a good idea.
Examples of unique things that you might need to get done could be “Pick Up Social Security Card” or “Phone the estate agent to confirm XYZ”
Create A Schedule
This is similar to a to-do list, except that most of the time, a to-do list has many things that need doing once-off. Whereas your schedule will be cycled through on a weekly basis. Having a schedule that you can stick to will reduce stress and increase your happiness overall.
Don’t overload yourself when creating your schedule. Create a schedule that is achievable. In fact, we suggest creating a schedule with all the things that you HAVE to do. Then go through that schedule for a week and add smaller things into it where you see the spare time.
Don’t forget to make calling your family and friends part of your schedule.
Make Sure Your Bank Account Is Active
This especially applies to young adults that are moving out of their parent’s house. Sometimes, if you don’t use a bank account for a certain amount of time, the bank can freeze the account. Make sure your bank account is active before leaving home.
Talk About The Move With Everyone In The Family
It’s a good idea to talk to each member of your family in private. Ask them how they feel about you moving away, tell them how you feel. Make arrangements for communicating with them while you’re away.
Connecting with each family member on a personal level before you leave will help you with the guilt you might feel because of the move.
Contact Close Friends To Let Them Know
Blood may be thicker than water, but sometimes friends can have a larger impact in your life than some family members. Give all your close friends the important news, meet up with them and make an occasion out of it. A modest or extravagant going away party can be a great way to see everyone you love before you move. If you invite everyone you know, nobody can guilt-trip you by saying that you didn’t say goodbye.
They should be supportive of you, but if they try to sway your decision, be very careful, as they might just want to keep you in the area for their own happiness. You need to follow your own goals and dreams, so be very careful with the advice that anyone gives you.
Keep in mind that any friends who aren’t informed of your move will feel you don’t care about them. Any of your friends who you can’t get around to talking with directly can be notified via a Facebook post when you’re ready to make the news public.
Make Sure You Have Everything You Need
Sometimes we take certain things for granted so much that we forget we won’t have them at our new place. For example, you might forget that you don’t have your own kettle for your morning coffee.
To visualize everything you’ll need, imagine yourself at your new place, waking up to your alarm clock in the morning. Now think about every object you come into contact with from when you get out of bed to when you leave for work or college.
Some things that you might need for your new place are:
- Hairdryer
- Kettle
- Kitchen Utensils
- Cleaning Equipment
- Cookware
- Toiletries
Don’t buy groceries before you move or you’ll land up filling up more space and using more effort to get everything to the new place. Rather, once you arrive at your new place, make a list of everything you’ll need for the next few days and then go shopping and get to know your new neighborhood.
Set Goals For Yourself
Write or type your goals out somewhere safe. Setting goals and working towards them will give you more direction in life. This will lead to less stress before, during, and after the move. Create short, medium, and long-term goals and keep track of them daily.
Short-term goals could have a time-span of a few days. Make sure to cross completed goals off your list. Medium-term goals could be a few weeks or months, and long-term goals can be many months or years.
Speak to your family and friends about these goals. Welcome any support and brush off any negativity.
Schedule In Times To Call Family
Plan with close family and friends to call each other at specific times. Maybe you can video call at least two or three times a month and then voice call every few days. It all depends on how much you normally communicate with that person. Of course, you can also keep close communication just by chatting with text, photos and videos on your preferred platform.
It’s easy to stay in close contact with people these days, with all the forms of communication we have.
Get To Know Your New Area
Once you’ve made the big move, it’s time to go shopping! Don’t get too excited though, we’re referring to groceries at this point, and maybe some items to make your new place more homely.
At this point, if you know anyone in the area, organize to meet up with them so they can tell you about all the best places to go and roads to travel on. Knowing someone in the area will be a tremendous advantage, but for those who don’t know anyone, Google will help.
If you’re unfamiliar with the area, hop on to Google Maps and have a look around your neighborhood for shopping complexes and malls. Decide on where you want to go according to the distance and what you need to buy.
After your shopping experience, have a look around to see if there are any public parks nearby where you can have lunch and enjoy your new surroundings. Instead of having dinner at home, go to a local restaurant and soak in the new environment.
While you’re shopping, relaxing at the park, or having dinner at a restaurant, you might meet people in the area and introduce yourself.
Later that evening, log back into Google Maps and plan your commuting routes for work or college.
Personalize Your New Home
After the initial rush of just getting into your new place, start giving it your personal touch. Hang paintings or posters you have from your previous home. Arrange your furniture to your liking. Get all of your daily-use items out of the packaging. (Wash clothes, personal hygiene products, kitchen utensils, etc)
Conclusion
Moving from one home to another will usually always involve a certain amount of stress, but you can reduce the stress significantly if you work with a plan.
Talk to your family and friends about the move. Keep in contact with them after the move.
Make sure you get everything you need for the new place. Things you were previously shared with someone else that you’ll leave behind. Like a kettle or iron.
Set yourself short, medium and long-term goals, it will help with the move and with life in general.
If you know anyone in your new area, make sure to use them to your advantage as they’ll know all about the best places to shop and roads to drive on. Make an effort to meet new people, just introduce yourself and see where things go. Use Google to get to know the neighborhood as well.
Make your new place your new home. Bring out all your old stuff and spread it around your new home as you see fit.