Get moving!
Andrew Drane
Managing Director/Principal (Ray White Seven Hills), Chief Auctioneer & Author of 'Real Estate for Real Reasons'
The prospect of moving house can actually be a huge mental barrier to selling. It sounds silly that such an important decision can be delayed, or even put off indefinitely, because of something like denial. But it happens!
In a future article, we’ll talk about the need to “let go” of the old family home in order to move on. One component of the “letting go” process is preparation for the move. Here are some steps.
It begins with mental preparation. While you’re still settled and comfortable, but thinking about moving/selling, do some things that help with the process of disengagement. Real, physical things. Look around the house with the sole intention of finding things you’ve been meaning to throw out. Then throw them out. Look up the date of your hard rubbish, or book a collection. That will force you to commit. Start asking hard questions: “Why am I keeping this?” “Do I need this?” “Will I have the room for this in my new place?”
The physical act of moving will be a lot easier when you’ve shed a lot of baggage, and actually done the job of looking around at all the stuff you have and assessing it.
Look for areas you want to live in next. Visit them. Look them up on the internet. Put yourself there. This will increase your desire to live there. Imagine your new lifestyle. This goal-oriented behaviour lifts you out of the present and gets you thinking about your new future.
Check out storage facilities in the area in case you need them for the short or long-term.
As the time approaches and moving becomes a reality, you need to get practical:
- Notify everyone you need to. Make a list.
- Use the move as an opportunity to consolidate all your information. Over the years, stuff gets spread all over the house. Find all the documents that might be important for your move, and after.
- Boxes! Have you noticed how hard it is to get boxes these days? Once they were everywhere. Now you have to buy them! Take every opportunity you can to acquire boxes, at supermarkets and other stores who are only too happy to dispose of them. Talk to people at the loading bays behind the shops. They’re only too happy to dispose of stuff.
- Stationery, etc. With boxes come markers, tape, labels and all that paraphernalia that makes it easier at the other end!
- Start packing as early as possible. Begin with those things you’ve decided you won’t be using for a while. As time goes on, it gets more serious. You start doing things like scaling down the pantry; avoiding any bulk buying; using opened packets of food and tossing anything past its expiry date; emptying the freezer by pre-cooking meals.
- Are you going to use removalists? Make a note of those items that will require extra care when being moved.
- Check under the house! There might be stuff you put there a decade or two ago when you had nowhere else to put it. Under the house can be a no-man’s land of stuff you’ve long forgotten about. The same goes for attics and garden sheds.
- Closer to the moving date, arrange to have mail re-directed with the post-office. After all, you don’t want those ridiculously exorbitant bills giving someone else a heart attack!
- Cancel subscriptions like newspapers or anything else that’s regularly delivered to your house.
- Notify regular services like pool cleaning or dry-cleaning pick-up.
- Set up the utilities at your new address. Unfortunately, this might entail settling old bills at your old address!
- Review important home and contents insurance and update!
Importantly, collection time and settlement date will need to be confirmed with lawyers and/or agents. That seals your moving day. Nothing like a deadline to get you moving!