6 Tips for a Sudden Move

Everyone wants their move to go smoothly and have ample time for thorough planning, but sometimes that just isn’t possible. Sometimes you only have a few weeks or even days notice that you need to move. Maybe extensive repairs need to be made to your apartment, your house unexpectedly sold, or you’ve switched jobs and need to move to a new state immediately. Often you’ll find the only thing you can do in this situation is just get started. And to help you get started, here are 6 tips for a sudden move to help you pack up your entire life quickly and efficiently.

6 Tips for a Sudden Move

1. Get Into (and Stay In) the Proper Mindset

   When you receive the news you need to move everything—the whole house, kids, pets, the basement that hasn’t been sorted through in years—with only a moments notice, the first thing to do is stop. Take a deep breath, in and out. The last thing you want to do is panic and add more stress to an already high stress situation. Is it going to be easy? No. But is it possible to do? Yes.

   Take a moment to do whatever it is you need to make sure your head is on straight. Make a cup of coffee or tea, make sure you’re drinking enough water and have had enough to eat, or pop outside for a quick breath of fresh air. Take that small moment to breathe before tackling this difficult but completely solvable problem.

2. Ask for Help

   This is probably the most under utilized of these tips for a sudden move. Once you have a clear idea of what needs to be done, ask for help. Reach out to friends and family and ask if they have time to help pack up your kitchen, vacuum the house once everything is moved out, or pick up donation items and take them to a thrift store or charity. Designating little tasks to someone else enables you to focus on the larger tasks, like signing leases or contracts and packing fragile heirlooms.

3. Pack Room By Room

   Don’t overwhelm yourself and start packing whatever you can wherever and whenever you can. Go room by room. Once you’ve finished a room, close the door and leave it closed if you can. Checking rooms off your list will give you more peace of mind than scattered packing all over the house.

4. Donate/Get Rid of Items as You Go

   Don’t bring old items into your new home you know you don’t want there. But don’t spend extra time trying to Marie Kondo your belongings. If you know you have a few things you want to donate, put them in a bag labeled “DONATE”. Add anything else you find along the way that you know you don’t need or will never use. You won’t waste time packing up items you don’t want, and you won’t spend time trying to get rid of them once they’ve been unpacked into your new home.

5. Utilize Trash Bags

   If you run out of boxes while packing, check under your kitchen sink. You might have a few trash bags you can use to pack lightweight items like blankets, towels, or stuffed animals.

   You can also use trash bags to make packing and unpacking clothing much easier. Go to your closet and section off clothing that will fit in the trash bag. Open up the bag and slip the clothing inside. Pull it up around the hangers. Pull the ties tight and tie them around the head of the hangers. Your clothes will be packed in no time. Unpacking is even easier: hang it up in your new closet and remove the trash bag.

6. Don’t Forget to Change Your Address

   In the midst of all this chaos of a sudden move, don’t forget to change your address. You don’t want your bank statements mailed to your old address. Also don’t forget to change your address with online distributors you shop at regularly, like Amazon.

   A quick list of places to change your address:
   -the bank and any other credit cards
   -voters registration
   -doctors and dentists offices
   -gas and electric companies
   -phone, internet, and cable companies
   -home and auto insurance
   -loan providers
   -subscription services

   If you have absolutely zero time to change your address, just change your address with the post office. For $1.05, you can change your address online and have all mail with your old address forwarded to your new address for a year. This will give you plenty of time to change your address when you finally have a moment to catch up.

7. Get Help from Professionals

   Rather than scrambling to pack up your entire house and get everything moved over to the new location by the time you need to be out of your old house, hire moving professionals to ease the stress. If you can’t take off time from work to pack, ask if you can work from home while the packers take care of it all for you. Bonus points if you have items you need to get rid of and hire a company that can pack, move, and haul away items for you. This might not work if you find out the night before that you have to move the next day. But if you have even two days, get quotes for packing and moving and find out if the company can service your move in the next couple of days.

Now that you’re prepared with these tips for a sudden move, you probably need to move in the next few days and are looking for a quote NOW. Give us a call or text at 484-301-2442 or email us at info@movingujunku.com to get your free packing and/or moving quote. Be sure to check out our reviews, one of the steps to ensuring you’re scheduling with a reputable and trustworthy company. And we can handle any junk removal you might need, whether it’s clothing, a treadmill, a piano, an old television, mattress, paint, or appliance. We try to donate everything we can before resorting to recycling and junking completely.