My husband and I bought our first house 10 months after we got married. Newlyweds, the 3 bedroom/2.5 bathroom was a sprawling space for the two of us. Our starter home, we weren’t sure how long we’d live there, but 15 years and two kids later, we finally said goodbye and moved to our new home on December 4th.
We were technically out of space after we had our daughter in 2014. No longer did we have a guest room, the dining room was turned into a playroom, and the kids’ bedrooms and closets were no longer large enough to hold all their things.
We had talked about moving for years, but after putting it on the market once (in 2008, while I was pregnant and a recession hit) and it didn’t sell, we just settled in and stayed.
Then in November, I was talking to a friend who had recently moved. I told her, as usual, we’d like to but just hadn’t put our house on the market yet. She said the market was hot and now would be a good time to sell. Later that night, she tagged me in a Facebook post from someone looking for a house.
It turns out, the person from the post sent me a private message and asked to come see our house. I told her it wasn’t on the market, but she was welcome to come look anyway. She and her husband came the next day and three days later messaged me back and said they were interested. I got in touch with a realtor friend, got a price range, and messaged her back.
After some countering, we settled on a price, and we had a contract on our house less than a week later. With a tight time frame, we had to find something we liked quickly. After looking at six houses, the last one was the one. It was exactly what we wanted. Our offer was accepted; now, we had less than a month to move.
When your last move was 15 years ago and you’ve since added two kids, it’s amazing the amount of stuff you accumulate. So, we soon began packing, and our house slowly filled with boxes. We purged and packed, donated and cleaned.
10 Tips for Making a Quick Move
Here are some tips for making a move, especially one on a time crunch.
- Purge as much as possible. This includes everything. Clothes, kitchen items, toys. All. The. Things. If you haven’t seen it or worn it in years, or if you forgot you had it, it needs to go. I made multiple trips to donation sites and also posted items on my neighborhood Facebook page for free.
- Plan ahead. As soon as you have a closing date, secure a moving truck or company. Call all the utilities and let them know when to shut off service and when to start service at the new house.
- Pack a little every day. Even just an hour or two, filling several boxes over a few weeks, makes a difference over time and saves stress as moving day approaches.
- Label every box. There’s nothing worse than getting to your new house and not being able to find anything. Try to keep boxes organized by room to keep it simple.
- Ask for help. Whether packing or unpacking, loading or unloading, it’s much better when you have some assistance.
- Request what you want. The house we moved to was in wonderful condition. All we asked for was for the carpets to be cleaned, and the sellers accepted. The people who bought our house asked for a long list of things, and we did almost all of them. Remember, it never hurts to ask!
- Use most of your sale profits towards the down payment and the rest for new furnishings, or put it in savings.
- Utilize Amazon. Once we moved, I ordered our living room, dining room, and bedroom furniture from Amazon. Shipping was free, and delivery times were less than a week.
- Unbox as much as you can as fast as you can. After living in boxes for several weeks, unpacking at the new house was done in record time.
- Settle in and enjoy. Moving is a lot of work. Having a sense of accomplishment will help you be able to relax and enjoy your new home.
Just over a week after moving in, we are all unboxed, unpacked, and settled in . . . just in time for the holidays.
