We know how stressful a big move can be, and all of us here at WheresHome have done it ourselves at one point or another. We’ve put together a quick guide to the advice we found most helpful in our moves. We hope these moving tips and tricks help to keep things running smoothly for you, but if we can be any more help with your move then please do contact one of our experts and we’d be more than happy to help.
Moving Tip - Get all your admin in order
An obvious one that is so often forgotten. Ensure you’re crystal clear on the visa requirements for your new location, make sure any necessary vaccines are up to date, your passports are all in date and book in any appointments you’d like to complete in your current country. Check the rules on car importation, book your moving company as early as you can and make yourself known to the local agents in your new town. Make a list of all the admin you need to do and focus on the time sensitive ones first. You honestly can’t start any of this too early really, once you know you’re definitely moving you’re only going to help yourself by getting your ‘house in order’ ASAP. Research is key here to feeling prepared, so work out what you need to know and get googling, or let us help you.
Moving Tip - Join local community groups on social media
Honestly one of the most helpful moving tips and things to do at the start of any move is to check out the local Facebook groups for your new area. There is nowhere more informative than local community groups! From the best schools, parks and where the nearest Waitrose is, they know it all and they have no reason to not give you an honest review. If you’re moving with kids you might even make some new parent friends to meet up with at the park or for a coffee and it never hurts to get an ‘in’ at the best schools. Seek out expat, English speaking groups if that applies because whilst we absolutely encourage embracing your new life and language, it can be nice to hear a familiar accent when you’re in an exciting but new place! In addition, expat groups often tend to look out for each other and in this tricky property market they can sometimes be the best place to hear about any properties that might be about to become available.
Moving Tip - Hire as much help as you can afford
If you can afford it – get in professional movers, cleaners, relocation experts and childcare. Moving is an incredibly stressful time but that stress really can be managed with sensibly chosen support. When you take into consideration loss of earnings as well as stress, use of precious family time or taking up annual leave - it’s very often a false economy to not spend out on these things, so prioritise them where financially possible. We can help you with finding the best people for the job if you need it.
Moving Tip - Take it one room at a time
One of our biggest moving tips is to minimise and shed any excess baggage. Give yourself a week per room and you’ll have time to break down the ‘baggage’ in to; charity donations, things to sell, give to family and things to chuck. Between work, kids and all the other admin of a big move you really can’t give yourself enough time for this job and it can be seriously therapeutic to do something so productive, particularly if parts of your move are going slowly. Take this time as a moment of shedding all the things you don’t feel you need to take in to your new life and embrace the new life you’re walking in to. The physical lightness that minimising can do for us can really be felt mentally too and anything to take the load off right now can only be a great thing.
Moving Tip - Set a date and make a plan
Once you have a date set for the big move, break down the weeks you have to go and give yourself realistic tasks to complete each week. This might include visa meetings, clearing the garage or even farewell parties. But laying out a roadmap to the final move can really help give you some mental clarity in an otherwise chaotic time. It also ensures that any of those big things (like passport renewals, viewing trips home, embassy meetings) don’t get left to the last minute. It’s easy in times of stress to hyper fixate on the minutiae of a project to feel a sense of control and it’s at times like these that we tend to drop the ball on bigger picture stuff. Give yourself deadlines, get the urgent stuff done as early as possible and try to relax through it knowing you have a clear plan to forge ahead.
We hope you find these moving tips helpful and if we can assist you in any way with your international move, we are happy to help. From moving companies to school applications, we can cover it all for you and help you answer that burning question, WheresHome?