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The Three Biggest Moving Mistakes (And How To Avoid Them)

Moving home is an exciting time. Perhaps it means an interesting new job, a larger place or even being closer to your friends or family. Whatever your reason is for moving, we all want a smooth stress-free home move. This is why we’ve pulled together this article to highlight the three biggest moving mistakes and exactly how you can avoid them.
So, let’s jump right in.

Mistake 1:

The Primacy Bias, Why You’re Spending Too Much Money

There is a natural bias we have as humans called the primacy bias. This basically means that your judgement of something is affected by what you saw earlier. The classic example is when you walk into a bridal dress shop and see three dresses all for £5,000 or even higher. Then, the shop assistant brings out a dress for only £1,995. Bargain, right? By comparison the new dress seems to be cheap but it’s only because we have seen the more expensive ones before.

But what has this got to do with moving home?

If you’re buying a home you can have tens of thousands to spend, so costs such as pricey mortgage brokers or “recommended” solicitors can seem negligible in comparison to the total value. This therefore means that you’re more likely to spend more and actually buy items you might not otherwise because the costs seem less in perspective of your entire move. This also applies even if you’re renting, just on a smaller scale.

This isn’t to say these services aren’t worth it or you don’t need those items, it’s just important to really think about it .

Mistake 2:

Making More Work Than You Need To

Moving home is often seen as a stressful experience. In part that’s because we can make a meal out of what should be simple activities, meaning we have to spend lots of our time on the non-glamorous stuff. So, what can we do about it?  The good news is that there are some simple, easy-to-follow tips you can follow that will save your hours of time when moving home

  • Spring clean weeks before you move. Get rid of most of the stuff you haven’t used in the past 3-6 months. This can dramatically reduce the amount of stuff you’re taking to your new place – stuff you don’t use anyway
  • Label your boxes with the room they’re destined for. This one seems obvious but you’d be surprised the amount of people that forget to do this. Once you move into your new place it will be a complete time-saver
  • Update your address online. The team over at SlothMove have pulled together an online service where you can update your address online. Instead of spending up to 7 hours telling everyone that you’ve moved, you can tell them all within 5 minutes. That’s time better spent doing other things!
  • Book everything in advance. The further in advance you can make arrangements such as childcare, pet day-care, van rentals & storage the easier and smoother your move will be.

 

Mistake 3:

Stressing Too Much

Recent studies show that two thirds of people placed the process of moving home at the top of their stress list, suggesting that it caused more anxiety than breaking-up, divorce or even starting a new job.

If this is the way we perceive moving home, we might be less inclined to do so which can reduce our geo-mobility. Therefore, it’s important that we change our perspective about moving home itself.

But, how do you do that?

The first thing to bear in mind is that taking a break from the home move is completely fine and should be done. You don’t need to be a machine and get it done as quickly as possible. Feel free to take the afternoon or the weekend off and do something completely different. This will help the home move feel more part of your natural routine.

Secondly, try to take some time off work. Don’t try to squeeze everything in between your work and at your weekends. The impact of doing it in the evenings and weekends is that it compounds stress and gives you a completely full schedule. Just taking a week or even a few days off work can make a massive difference in delivering a stress-free home move.

Finally, remember why you’re moving in the first place. You might be moving for something really exciting. In the typical chaos of the home move it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that what you’re doing is really exciting. Contrary to popular opinion, moving home should be fun and is something to be enjoyed.

Final Thoughts

We hope that you’ve found this article of value; with there being so much to do with moving home and it can be tough to stop and consider if there is a better way to do something. However, if you can take five minutes and apply just one of the principles we’ve covered today you can save yourself stress, time and even money.

2 thoughts to “The Three Biggest Moving Mistakes (And How To Avoid Them)”

  1. So interesting about the “primacy bias” – I haven’t heard of that before but seems like it must be (or should be) a marketing tactic for all businesses. Make something seem cheaper than it really is by showing a more expensive house first to prospective house buyers. I think that’s how Drew Scott from the Property Brothers works his magic on house hunters!

    1. Marco – I love the Property Brothers! You’re right that they definitely use the “primacy bias” tactic and if it can work for home buyers then I’m sure it could work for people buying any product or service so good idea about using it as a marketing tactic in business.

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