Moving house is an emotional roller coaster and whether you enjoy the thrilling ride or not will depend largely on how you perceive the entire house moving adventure.
Don’t underestimate the emotional impact of moving from one home to another, for it can be quite powerful. With strong emotions running high from the moment your move is confirmed, you may soon start to feel mentally drained and fatigued as stress, confusion, fear, sadness, excitement, and finally relief take center stage.
In most cases, there are no good ways to predict the emotional effects of moving house as they can range from elation and exhilaration to sorrow and depression. Every home mover has different reasons to move out, and you do too.
So, how does it feel to move house?
Here’s a brief guide on how to deal with emotions when moving to a new home.
Stress
It’s a well-documented fact that moving house is a stressful experience – in fact, it’s considered by many to be one of the most stressful events in a person’s life.
The emotional stress of moving house is real and you’re bound to feel its powerful impact as soon as your house move is confirmed and becomes only a matter of time. As you begin your preparations to move out, the house moving process will also start to take a physical toll on your body too.
Feeling stressed out about your upcoming move is likely to be the very first house moving emotion you’ll have to deal with during that highly transitional period. But why is moving house so stressful?
Your savings are in danger
The average cost of a local move is roughly $2,300 while the average cost of an interstate move is about $4,300. And no matter how you look at it, that’s a lot of money.
There’s no doubt that the mere thought of your hard-earned money being at risk can be a really stressful factor when moving house. There’s no doubt that you’d like to spend as little money as possible on your move.
Request free quotes to learn exactly how much your move will cost you.
WHAT CAN YOU DO? Use these 20 proven ways to reduce your moving costs.
Your time is limited
When getting ready to move out, you’ll be forced to be working under a deadline that’s approaching fast and that can prove to be one of the most stressful things you’ll have to deal with. The less time there is until Moving day, the bigger the stress will be to finish all packing and moving tasks on time.
And you do know that packing for a move takes forever to complete, don’t you?
WHAT CAN YOU DO? Use a PACKING TIMELINE to ensure that you tackle all packing tasks before your movers show up on the day of the move.
Must-read: 10 Ways to reduce stress when moving
Confusion
There’s a good chance that you should be going through an entire spectrum of intense emotions when moving to a new house. Feeling rather stressed out is usually only the beginning as you may soon find yourself utterly confused and maybe even seriously overwhelmed by the sheer number of things you have to do before you move out.
What should you do next?
In most cases, you know that you have to start working on your moving tasks but you have no clear idea where to begin. How do you organize your entire move so that whatever you do makes the most sense under the specific set of house moving circumstances?
Do you start with packing and if yes, which room should be the first one to pack up for moving? Do you pack your clothes before your books, or vice versa? Wait, aren’t you supposed to get the proper packing supplies before anything else?
Or maybe your very first task in your relocation agenda is to secure the services of a professional moving company?
Feeling confused when moving out is normal, especially if you’re moving out for the first time. And doing things in a completely random order will complicate things even more for you, thus hurting badly your chances of having a smooth and problem-free move.
WHAT CAN YOU DO? The best way to overcome the feeling of confusion when moving house is to follow a MOVING CHECKLIST – a detailed to-do list that will keep you informed about what tasks you should take on next after you’re done with the one you’re working on at the moment.
Fear
Moving house can be a truly daunting experience as there are quite a lot of things to be fearful of when moving from one home to another.
Here are the most frequent fears of moving house that you may have to face before long:
- FEAR of moving away from your home;
- FEAR of moving away from family and friends;
- FEAR of not being able to finish all tasks on time;
- FEAR of getting scammed by a dishonest moving company;
- FEAR of getting injured on the day of the move;
- FEAR of inflicting costly property damage;
- FEAR of finding some of your valuable items damaged after the move.
Fear is one of the most powerful emotions you will have to deal with during a house move and it has the potential to prevent you from having a smooth relocation experience.
The good news is that most of the above-mentioned fears are largely irrational and should be duly downgraded to mere worries. And the moment you hire reputable and experienced cross-country movers, those resulted worries will be no more than a distant memory.
The anxiety of moving to a strange new home in an unfamiliar town or city can easily become the prevailing emotion during your residential move. It’s the notorious fear of the unknown combined with the dread of making that critical step out of your comfort zone.
WHAT CAN YOU DO? Make an effort to stay optimistic simply because nobody knows what’s going to happen tomorrow. Therefore, the fears of having something bad happen to you, your loved ones or your prized possessions during the move will often prove to be irrational, ungrounded, and even illogical.
Sadness
Without a doubt, one of the most prevailing emotions when moving house will be… sadness.
Take comfort in your friends when the moving house blues come around.
Feeling sadness and sorrow will come as a natural reaction to moving away from good friends and loyal family members – the very people who have been there for you and supported you for so many years. In most cases, parting with your loved ones can be downright heartbreaking and soul-crushing, and can be often viewed as the hardest part of the entire move.
Feeling sad about moving house can be further fueled by a premonition that you may lose touch even with your best friends once you move away from them. You know that long-distance relationships could potentially work out, but right that moment you must be going through the emotional upheaval of moving house so nothing seems too certain anymore.
Another reason to be sad when moving house is the fact that you’re leaving a familiar setting that has given you comfort and a sense of belongingness up until that moment in time. And walking away from that soothing and relaxing environment can make you really unhappy and dejected for a long time.
WHAT CAN YOU DO? Oftentimes, moving house proves to be an emotional rollercoaster and feeling sad is part of the ride. Don’t forget to meet up with your best friends before you move away, exchange your contact information and promise each other to keep in touch. The best-case scenario? Organize a farewell party for your pals for the chance to spend quality time with them before you go.
How to say good-bye to friends when moving away
Excitement
On the other hand, you may be feeling pretty excited about your upcoming house move. Moving home is about change and you may have reached a stage in your life where that radical change will do you a world of good.
The thing is that you may have felt rather unhappy in your current home for a long time, looking for a good opportunity to move away. Or maybe a new exciting life is awaiting you at the destination – often the case when you’re moving for love, for education or for a new job.
You don’t have to focus only on the negative during the emotional upheaval of moving house, do you? Here are a few house moving aspects you can actually get enthusiastic about:
- You will live in a different place. After moving to a new city or town, you’ll have a whole new world to explore. Think about it – soon you’ll be seeing things you’ve never seen before and doing things you’ve never done until then – isn’t that something to get truly excited about?
- You will meet new people. Making new friends in the destination place may seem like a lot of work but the resulted genuine friendships will be well worth the effort. You never know who you’re going to meet there and that makes the thought of moving house even more thrilling in your mind.
- You will get a fresh start. It’ll be easier to deal with the many emotions of moving house when you know that a fresh start is waiting for you at the other end – a brand new chapter where you know you will create a better life for yourself.
WHAT CAN YOU DO? Just enjoy the surge of excitement for as long as you can. Yes, it’s great to feel excited about you moving away but you shouldn’t get too worked up too early – at least not before you’ve managed to get the house moving chaos under control.
It’s never easy to cope with the powerful emotions of moving house. Use the tips above to hopefully keep your own house moving emotions in check in order to maintain your emotional balance until you reach the new place, and even beyond that.
And once you do find yourself in your new home, it’s time to let out a big sigh of relief for having survived a stressful, confusing, and daunting house move. In other words, it’s time to congratulate yourself for a job well done.
