Making the big move

As the market continues to slow, and we enter further into the realm of a buyer’s market, more potential purchasers who have been holding off should start to give in and make their big purchase.

Home prices are expected to decline even further during the next couple of months, so this should prompt many people to make their move.

What many people do not realize when they buy a new home is that the hardest part of the whole transaction is often times the actual process of moving from their old house to the new house.

Packing up a whole home’s worth of belongings and carting them to a different location can be very stressful, especially if it is an entire family. Planning the move carefully and employing some help for unpacking could be the keys to keeping your sanity during this time.

An October 15, 2006 article by Lew Sichelman of The Los Angeles Times, “Moving from one home to another without losing your toaster,” gives some tips for making moving as easy as possible.

Many people get all of their belongings packed up at their old house, and forget that they have the same (if not more) amount of work to do at their new house in terms of unpacking and putting everything away.

“After all, most people take weeks to pack up the house but try to cram the actual move into a single day. Johanna Luther of Family Packers, an Oakland-based mother-daughter team that specializes in moving-in services, calls it the ‘forgotten aspect’ of moving. ‘Very often, people put all their energies into closure at the old place,’ Luther says. ’But they forget they've got at least an equal amount of work waiting for them at the other end.’”

The first days that you spend in your new home should be fun-filled and non-stressful. But with mountains of unpacking to do, this may be a seemingly impossible thing to do. Hiring a company to help you through the never ending flow of cardboard boxes could help you considerably.

Companies like Luther’s or another one with Ann Thurley called Moving Made Easy, based out of Oceanside, Calif., will set up your whole home for you in a matter of hours.

“They don't handle the actual move, but they'll make you mover-ready at one end and unpack for you at the other end. They'll put everything away where it belongs, set up the kitchen and bedrooms, even remove all the packing debris.”

“‘When we leave,’ Luther says, ‘the home is move-in ready. The beds are made. The linens are in the closets. We'll even hook up the computer.’”

Most companies like these ones charge about $50 per hour per person, and if you are moving into a multi-bedroom home, it can take around 30 hours to unpack everything. This is obviously quite expensive for most people, but there are some things you can do to make the move easier on yourself without hiring a company.

One of the easiest things you can do is to organize your belongings prior to the move.

“Most people label their boxes by room, but Luther suggests going beyond that by cataloging what's in each box. That way, when you get to your destination, you'll know the toaster oven is in Box 27 and the guest-room linens in Box 54.”

It may be also helpful to pack a box filled with the things you will need to survive the first night, including a phone, change of clothes, toiletries and the like. This will make it so you do not have to tear apart the place looking for some pajamas.