Moving house is one of the more exciting events of adult life, representing growth and change – whether geographically or with respect to your household itself. However magical a move to a new home, be it a first home, a larger home or simply your next one, moving is also a notoriously stressful occasion.
Indeed, a recent survey found that well over half of people in the UK consider moving house to be the most stressful of life events, with costs and logistics leading factors in that stress. Given that the average Brit moves four times in their life, anything you can do to reduce the stress factor will make moving house that little bit more enjoyable. With this in mind, here are three tips to bear in mind to help the moving process go that bit smoother.
Think Carefully About Legal Costs
Legal and administrative costs are an unavoidable necessity when it comes to selling your home as top rated real estate, and a factor you are best served researching as deeply as you can at first opportunity. In order to sell or buy a home, you will need a conveyancing solicitor to handle the various legal aspects of the sale, from the contract itself to investigation of the Land Registry and beyond.
Non-negotiable as these legal costs are, it can be devastating to watch a potential purchase fall through along with the money you’ve invested so far. This is where investigating the best legal services to adopt can come in handy. Some services might protect the value of your legal lees regardless of sale outcome, for example. In a wider sense, you will benefit from doing due diligence with regard to the quality of care and assistance you receive.
Clean First, Move Later
This may or may not be a logistical impossibility, depending on your completion dates or the end of your current tenancy, but it can be helpful to explore this as an option. If possible, you should endeavour to clean your new home before you move yourself and all your possessions into it.
You may have best-laid plans to get some essentials in place before you start cleaning, but you will find the cleaning process much easier with a blank canvas. Once your furniture is in, you’ll be much less inclined to move things again in order to deep-clean the carpets and walls.
Managing Logistics
There are a lot of logistical steps to moving home, many of which can fall between the cracks when you find yourself pre-occupied with hands-on tasks like packing and meeting your solicitor. Two key items that can be difficult to keep track of relate to utilities and post. If you are not renegotiating contracts with new providers, you will need to transfer your existing contracts to your new address.
You will also need to set redirection of post up with Royal Mail, in order to ensure any correspondence destined for you makes it to your new address. Distant relatives may not have your new address, or there may be a lead-time for certain services or providers to change your address.
