Moving is consistently ranked as one of life’s most stressful periods. It rates just as stressful as having a death in the family or going through a divorce. However, some moves are more stressful than others. This is particularly true if you are moving cross country. The scope of the situation compounds the stress and difficulty that you face, so it’s useful to know how to make a cross-country move easier on yourself and those coming along.
Get Rid of Anything You Can
The less you have to move, the easier things will go. Be ruthless in going through your home and identifying anything that doesn’t have any place in your new home. Throw a yard or garage sale, and donate anything and everything you can. That might even include perfectly good household goods, artwork, and furniture. You might feel like decorating your new home with new things, so why haul older items across the country if they’re not going to stay long or even fit? Depending on the items you have and your local charities available, they might offer free pick-up services. It’s very convenient to have someone pull up their own truck and load a lot of your stuff you never need anymore, and you’ll have the personal satisfaction of knowing it’s going to help out a good cause in your soon-to-be former community.
Hire a Car Transport Service
Depending on how far you move, you might pile the family up in one car, ride in the moving van or truck, or even just fly to your next home. You simply might not logistically have drivers available for passenger vehicles your family owns. Simplify matters by hiring a car transport service to move one or more cars, trucks, or SUVs to your new home. You might not feel like you’ll have time to shop around the many car transport service providers when you’re juggling everything else involved with moving.
Pack Three Times
Packing up your entire home is no small feat. Even after you go through and get rid of the things that you really don’t need to travel with you, everything else still has to be organized and stowed away. To make this more manageable, do it in three waves based on your trip is likely to go. The first packing that should be done is anything your family needs while on the road, including clothes, toiletries, and entertainment during the travel. The second packing would be things you need when you first settle into your new home, which might include towels, bedding, and basic kitchen utensils and items. The third packing is the big one, where you stow everything else from furniture to those boxes in the attic you keep forgetting about.
Key Takeaways
Moving across the country is a very big issue to tackle, you can make things easier on yourself if you:
- Free yourself of anything that doesn’t belong in your new home.
- Use a car transport service to get your family vehicles from your old home to your new location.
- Pack your family possessions in three waves based on how you’ll need to use or unpack them throughout the trip.
These three steps make your cross-country move a lot more manageable.
