Moving: Where to Begin

Moving can feel overwhelming, especially in the beginning when you are in the planning stage. However, an early and organized start can dramatically improve your moving experience. Today I’ll provide tips on how to tackle the chaos before it becomes a chaos.

We are back from our trip to Switzerland with more exciting news! During our stay in Switzerland my husband had job interviews in 4 different hospitals and every one of them offered him the job. So we sat down and decided on the best location for us to live and him to work. We ended up choosing a city close to Zürich (about 30 minutes by train). It might be a bit of a shock for us, coming from a city with over 1,8 million inhabitants and moving to a city with only 10,000! Despite the small cultural shock we might encounter, we are excited to start a new chapter of our lives in the beautiful country of Switzerland (hello good chocolate and amazing cheese!)

The last few days have been spent apartment hunting and planning our move, which will happen in July. Everything is moving fast so we have to be on track with our planning and organizing. In order to keep all the important dates and to-dos together I created a moving binder. I didn’t have the time to create my own print outs but I found some lovely ones here. I printed out all the pages I needed and put them together neatly in one binder.

Whether you use a print out or not, it is vital to have a calendar for writing all the dates inside. With a monthly calendar you have a clear overview of all the upcoming dates and can also see if your week is already too crammed to fit in another event. When moving to another country it can be tempting to make a lot of appointments with friends and family to see each person again before leaving. However, keep in mind, that moving is incredibly time consuming and also exhausting. You might not have the time or energy to socialize on a broad scale before your move. E.g. we planned a big party before our move where we can officially say goodbye to our families and friends all at the same time.

Even if your move is still 2 months away you can already begin with a few tasks such as sorting your items. Deciding early on what to keep, discard and sell will save you a lot of hassle later on. I used my sticker method to label piles of items into 3 categories. You can also plan a garage/ yard sale, or if you have an apartment, an open house day. Invite people to the event early on so that they will have time to come over and buy your things. As you are sorting your items you can already think about how much you would charge for your things or which items you are giving away for free.

Another thing you can begin with early is to collect supplies such as boxes, tape, plastic bags, newspapers.. Especially plastic bags come in handy when packing smaller items such as desk supplies and accessories. You won’t regret stocking up.

Last but not least, try to make your move as appealing as possible. Use washi tape in your calendar or binder to make it visually appealing, create your own colorful labels for the boxes, or create a reward system for accomplished to-dos (e.g. a hot bath after sorting out your closet). Most importantly, remember to at least plan one day in the week where you are not working. Take the time to relax every now and then and get a good night’s sleep.