The Stress Of Moving House

Dolls House                   Image by Marie Vonow

I moved house earlier this year. As I have moved house several times over the years, had made plenty of lists and thought I was pretty organised I didn't expect this to cause me too much stress. However, even though nothing major went wrong it has been more stressful than I expected. I have come to the conclusion, no matter how organised I think I am, moving house is a stressful life event. That's a fact I have to accept.

I think when moving house, the degree of stress an individual experiences depends on various factors including -

• personality
• attitude to the move
• whether it is your decision to move
• length of time spent in the place one is moving from
• how attached you are to the place you are moving from
• how you feel about the dwelling you are moving to
• how you feel about the location you are moving to
• distance moving
• whether you are moving alone or with others
• the amount of furniture and personal 'stuff' you need to move
• how much money you have available to pay a furniture removalist and any other help needed with the move
  
  

Personality and Attitude

Personality wise, I think I am reasonably relaxed about life. Okay, I do tend to over plan and over think some things. But I am not a pessimist and I don't expect the worst to happen. I approached moving house in a positive way and it was my decision to move.

Time Spent Living in Previous House

I had been living in my previous house for about five years. Although I liked the house, having lived in nine houses over the previous forty years, I knew from experience I would adjust to a new place.

Feelings About New Home

The thing that attracted me most to my 'new' home was the established garden that surrounds the house. It was mid summer when we moved so having verandahs on two sides of the house and a lovely shaded pergola area outside the dining room were real draw cards.

I have always loved gardens and gardening. However, I am not keen on back breaking digging to set up a garden from scratch. Having a well established garden is such a plus and I appreciate the greenery and the flowers. I am eagerly anticipating the changing seasons to see the autumn leaves and later in the year the display of spring flowers.

I love the shady established garden   Image by Marie Vonow

We love the fact the lounge room is bigger than in our previous house. There is room for the new couch and two large armchairs, all of which recline. And space for a large television so we can enjoy binge watching Netflix in comfort.

Feelings About New Location

There is plenty to love about our current house and there are some aspects of this move that haven't involved stress. The fact we only had to move a few kilometres (compared to 400 kilometres the previous move) was a bonus. We are still in the same area and have not needed to find a new doctor, dentist, hairdresser and other services. I didn't move far so can still see my 'old' friends and I didn't move alone.

Amount of Stuff to Move

Packing up all my stuff was more tiring and took longer than I expected. Considering that I had decluttered I was amazed at just how many boxes I needed. On more than one occasion someone asked if I needed extra boxes and I said I thought I had enough. Each time I was mistaken.

The original plan was to take three or four carloads of stuff to the new house to save having to pack things properly for loading in a removal van and to move the pot plants. However, we ended up taking many carloads of stuff to the new place.

After I did the final clean through at the old place there was still so much in the form of bits and pieces to move and the weather was annoyingly hot. Yes, I felt tired and stressed but in the end everything was moved. 

Money for Removalists

The removalists were fantastic and did their job so well, no stress over this part of the moving process. The price was very reasonable, they were on time and there were no breakages. I will use them again if I need to move in the future.

Unpacking and finding places to store all our stuff has taken much longer than I thought it would so there has been a degree of stress in the form of frustration. Three and a half months on I am still shuffling things around to make the best use of the storage space available. Just yesterday I rearranged my boxes of magazines, folders and writing materials so I can access them more easily.

With every change I make I feel I am closer to being organised and at last am getting back into blogging and other writing.