So you’ve reached the point in your life where it’s time to figure out how to move out out of your parents’ home. This is a big step and a milestone worth celebrating. Moving out will be stressful and time consuming regardless of whether you lived with your parents after high school, during college, or lived in a dorm room and temporarily moved back home. To help mitigate stress during your move, we’ve created an 8 step guide for how to move out of your parents’ home.
How to Move Out of Your Parents’ Home
1. Communicate with Your Parents
If your parents are ready for you to move out, this won’t be a difficult conversation to have. But perhaps they’re reluctant to see their first or only child transition into this stage of life. However they feel, let them know you intend to move out while being sensitive to their feelings. Be aware a whole slew of unexpected emotions may crop up. But the more you communicate, the easier it will be for you and your parents. Since they were in your shoes when they moved out of their own parents’ home, ask them for advice. Allowing them to assist you might make the experience less tumultuous overall.
2. Establish Good Credit
You need to establish good credit before you even think about how to move out of your parents’ home. To obtain approval for a rental lease or a bank loan for a mortgage, you must have a good credit history and a medium to high credit score. You achieve a higher score by establishing a long history of on-time payments for any loans or credit cards. This shows landlords and banks you’re a low risk for them to take on as you’re more likely to pay your mortgage or rent on time. A low credit score or no credit history makes moving in to your own place much more difficult and may completely prohibit you from getting a lease or mortgage.
3. Determine Your Budget
If you’ve never created a budget, make one before you even find a new home. This will help you estimate your cost of living, determine what rent or mortgage payment you can afford, and whether or not you’ll need to find a roommate. To create a beginners budget, list out the categories you anticipate for monthly spending–i.e. rent or mortgage payment, groceries, take out, electricity, hot water, internet, car insurance, etc. Next to these categories, write your estimated monthly cost for each one. These numbers should add up to equal your monthly salary or less. If you’re over, go back and crunch some numbers until your monthly expenses do not exceed your salary.
Before you move out of your parents’ home, practice sticking to your budget. This might mean moving money that would go towards utilities into savings, since you’re not actually paying for utilities at the moment but don’t want to leave it sitting in your checking account. And if you’re unsure of the cost of particular categories, this would be a great way to ask your parents for help. Their years of experience can help you better estimate costs of water, electricity, or gas.
4. Create a Moving Plan
After you determined what rent or a mortgage payment you can afford, create a moving plan. This means:
- Find a place to live.
- Decide whether to hire movers or enlist help from family and friends.
- Create a packing strategy.
5. Pack & Donate
When you’ve established a moving plan and move in date, start packing up your belongings by following your packing strategy. You can pack before you have an official move in date as long as you start with items you won’t need in the near future. Pack things like books you’ve already read, out of season clothing, or knick knacks.
This is also a great time to do some decluttering. Make a pile with clothing you no longer wear and things you don’t use or need, and drop them off at a local charity before you move into your new home. You’ll avoid wasting time packing up things you no longer use and enjoy your new home without having to declutter immediately after you’ve moved in.
6. Gather Furniture & Other Basics
If you’ve never lived on your own, you probably don’t have much furniture to move besides your bed. Thankfully, if you’re lacking furniture but don’t want to break the bank, the internet and social media makes finding affordable furniture easier than ever. Facebook Marketplace and Craiglist are fantastic resources for purchasing used furniture, allowing you to see what the piece looks like before you even step out your front door. You can also scour your local thrift or antique stores for some cheap but well made furniture. However, if secondhand isn’t your jam or you just can’t find what you’re looking for, the next affordable place is–you guessed it–IKEA. Their extensive inventory list offers something for every person and usually every budget.
7. Set up Utilities & Internet
Living with your parents for your entire live thus far means you’ve probably never dealt with setting up utilities. Make sure all of your utilities are ready to go before you move in; you don’t want to take cold showers and have no indoor lighting on you first day in your new home. If you’re moving into an apartment, find out what utilities are included in your rent and what you’ll need to set up yourself. For example, some rentals include water, sewage, and trash pick up but require you to contact the electricity provider and set that up yourself. If you’re moving into a home you purchased, you’ll have to set everything up on your own (as your landlord is you).
8. Change your Address
While your parents will probably give you any mail you receive at their home, they might get annoyed being your secondary mailman after a while. Change your address as soon as you have your new one so you ensure you receive all your bills and online orders. The easiest way to do this is to reroute your mail: simply change your address with the USPS first and then take care of everything else. You’ll receive your mail at the correct address and give yourself extra time to update it everywhere you need to.
When learning how to move out of your parents’ home, part of the packing plan you’ll create is deciding whether to move yourself or hire movers. We at Moving U & Junk U believe we’re the best moving company for you. We are licensed and insured, and you can find and read our many five star reviews on Yelp, Google, and Facebook. Our movers are professionally trained to safely move your belongings from point A to point B. Whether you’re looking for assistance with moving, packing, junk removal, or a little of each, you can sit back, relax, and trust us to take care of all the heavy lifting for you.
When you’re ready to get a quote for your move, give us a call or text at 484-301-2442 or email us at info@movingujunku.com
