Have you considered moving to the land of the Beatles? Get used to them. They’re on every street corner. This is the city of music after all. The nightlife is just one attraction, on top of the job and study opportunities. Not to mention that famous friendly Scouser reputation.
Moving is never fun, even in Liverpool, but you can make it a lot easier with our simple tips for packing, storing, and transferring your items from your old home to your new home in the city. Take a look at our suggestions.
Moving vans: frugal, insured, or DIY?
There are pros and cons to hiring, or not, a moving van. It all depends on how you want to go about it. If you want to save money, and you’re not going far, a few trips with a big car or a mini van can get the job done, but if you’re coming from outside the city, you’re likely to want to get the job done in one trip. That means having a friend that has a big van help out, but rarely are we so lucky, or hiring a moving van. You can save a few pounds by hiring the van and moving everything yourself, but movers come with insurance, which means if something breaks in transit, you’re covered, and the service ends up paying for itself.
Store your stuff
Alternatively, you can make good use of a Liverpool storage unit if you just stick to yourself and your car. There is no real need to rush everything in in one day beyond getting tired of watching your shows on a laptop. Move things gradually from your old place to the storage unit and take your time taking it all out again. Pass it on the way from work and take a box home every night. It means you’re not stressed about unpacking the whole, house, just a box for tonight. As for furniture, maybe just move the big items, like bed, sofa, and wardrobe in place and worry about smaller pieces that can fit in the car later.
Take it slow
Taking things even further, leaving a majority of your things in storage will give you time to decorate. If you have a sofa, a bed, your toothbrush, etc. you should be able to function well enough and you don’t need to go around covering every piece of furniture while you paint the bedroom. You don’t have to shift everything back out when you’re retiling the floors. You don’t have to shove all your bits and pieces into one room while you re-arrange.
Pack an overnight bag/box
But in order to survive that transitional period, you’d be best putting together an overnight bag. Initially, you’ll need a few sets of clothes, toiletries, a duvet, and bedding, maybe a plate and fork to get started. Whatever you think you need to survive a couple of nights.
From there, you can start bringing in boxes, so you might want to be strategic with your packing. Maybe put together box that’s filled with work clothes, the good toiletries that you skip on when it’s a bad day, more crockery, and the curtains so you’re not woken by the rising summer sun. And then you’re good to last a couple of weeks and you can start bringing in the rest box by box.
Make a moving folder
There’s going to be a lot of paperwork involved in moving. You’ve got the move itself and then the utilities. Companies need informed of your new address, and you need to keep your new lease/tenant’s contract/etc. handy. And yes, we are suggesting you print everything. Hard copies don’t rely on a decent wi-fi, which you’re not likely to have set up when you move in, to access it. Any questions will be instantly answered when you have your paperwork on your person.
Pre-clean if possible
Being prepared is the best way to make moving smooth, so do as much as you can up front. If that’s packing, informing companies of a change of address, etc. it’s worth doing in advance. But it also goes for cleaning. It’s easier to clean an empty house more than a fill one, so that means you can leave the deep clean of your old place until everything is moved, but it also means that you can give your new place a once over. If you have access to your new home before moving day, or even on the morning of, you might want to give the place a once-over, or hire a cleaner for the day. It means you know the job was done well and you’re not living in someone else’s squaller.
Make suitcases work for you
According to most airlines, that thing holds 22kg. Take that as a challenge. Fill that thing with as many clothes, kitchen utensils or whatever to make use of what is otherwise empty space in the moving van. Even better, fill it with the heaviest things you have a lot of: books. If you haven’t got enough books to fill your cases, supplement with DVDs, games, and anything else of the ilk. They’ll fit perfectly with some Tetris skills and they’re on wheels, so the heaviest things are easy to transport without lifting them.
Do a food shop
Once the basics are done you’ve got the mattress on the bed, the water works, the basics are put away, you’re ready to chill, sorry, you’ve got to go out again. Keep moving while you’ve got the energy. Because if you chill in front of your newly installed TV or take a nap on a bare mattress, sure you’ve earned it, but you’ll wake up starving/gasping with nothing to eat. Sure, you can get a takeout this one time, but that’s not the healthiest or cheapest thing. Grab some basics like milk and cereal, bread and butter, etc. and you can forget about it for at least a day.
Finally, stick a bedsheet on the bed and get some well-earned sleep.
