Sometimes before marriage but usually within a year or two afterwards, it will become necessary to move. Moving ranks on the Holmes and Rahe list of stressful life situations. The degree of stress associated with it depends on the size of your income, the amount of time you have to organize it and the sense of loss if you have to move away from your accustomed area and friends. Some problems, however, are universal.
If you are unable to complete any needed renovations before you move, or if you are one of those people who enjoy DIY and flatter yourself that you are a good amateur electrician, builder or plumber, try and reduce the stress for the rest of the household. Most people are driven by expediency to move into an uncompleted house. Movers' boxes, dirty, dusty furniture and broken pictures will lie around for months. As in every aspect of life, stress is always reduced if you are realistic about your abilities, know when to delegate and can list the jobs that need doing in order of importance and urgency.
Tips for Moving
- If you can afford it arrange for professional builders, electricians and plumbers to do the work necessary to take care of any renovations needed in your new home, or to adapt it to suit your idiosyncrasies and put your stamp on the property before you move.
- It is much better to complete any major renovations and decoration before you move. The only stress then will be re-establishing yourself in a new neighborhood.
- Label your furniture in your existing house with the name of the room that it is going to in the next house. If you don't, and you think that you can stand in the hall of your new house and direct the moving men, you've got it wrong, and chaos will be the result.
- Don't do your own packing, and negotiate a deal with the moving firm for the unpacking. The days when unpacking was included in the contract have passed.
- If you have books, make certain that they are packed as they are taken out of the shelves and not in just any order. It will save you days of work later if they are packed as they come out of the shelves rather than at the whim of the movers.
- If you have a relatively stress-free move (no move is entirely stress-free) and are becoming progressively less stressed, the principal tension will be experienced when attempting to establish local relationships in your new area of residence.
- The above may be comparatively easy if at least one person is working or if there are children at school. Either place (of employment or school) provides an initial point of contact in a new district. If not, then join some local community organizations.
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