Hardly ever can you find the words ‘fun’ and ‘moving’ in the same sentence. Everyone knows moving to be a stressful situation. Except, it doesn’t have to be.

Moving is a time to find lost items that you forgot you had. You know the things in the back of the closet, under the bed, or fell behind the couch that you just couldn’t reach until you forgot about. Yes, those items.

Moving can be an adventure. An adventure of finding new or lost things, to cleaning house and starting fresh.

You can make moving what you want it to be, but if it were me, I would want my moving experience to be, fun!

How does that saying go? Time flies when you’re having fun. So, rather than making moving a chore and something to dread or postpone until the very end, try these suggestions to speed up the moving process and make it more enjoyable; not only for you, but for everyone else involved.

Music Moves

Create a playlist to be played while you pack and when you unpack.

Music tends to trigger specific emotions when paired with a task. Research has shown that music stimulates the cerebellum, a region of the brain crucial to motor control. This may explain why movement, emotion, and music are tied together.

Choose music with a good rhythm that will make you excited and motivated.

Coordinate

Give each room a sticker, symbol, color, or number. Then, when packing things away, write on the box or use tape with the coordination code.

In doing so, knowing where each item should be placed, ahead of time, will make the process a lot quicker.

Simplicity

Leave those items in the drawers of your dresser, end table, or night stand and wrap them shut. It’s like they’re already packed for you. This way they’ll be easier to transport to the next destination and save you space.

Items on hangers work the same way. Don’t take your clothes off the hangers. Just transport them directly from one closet to the next. Or, use clothing items to wrap anything breakable. Don't invest in bubble wrap when you already have resources at hand.

If you haven’t invested in any organizing containers, now might be a good time to start. Containers serve multiple purposes and come in a wide array of sizes.

Don’t make the task of moving harder than it has to be.

Boxes

Sometimes you do need a big box, but smaller boxes are more manageable and maneuverable. With smaller boxes comes more trips, but faster packing and unpacking loads. Typically, it’s good to place hard to carry or heavy items in a small box and lighter things in bigger boxes.

Be careful not to over pack a box. It’s better to have too many boxes than not enough. Rather than purchasing boxes, ask around. A majority of liquor, grocery, and department stores are generous in giving to you boxes.

Handy Dandy App

A tool that can help with locating items is the, Moving Van App. This app allows you to make folders for what items are packed in what box. As you fill boxes, jot down in the app what’s included. When looking for a specific item, search within the app, and you'll be directed to the correct box.

Food Motivates

Moving will go a lot faster with the help of a few more hands and legs. Bribe your friends and/or family with food. Load up the counter to your new place with snack food and tell everyone to help themselves.

Not only will food entice others to help, but food will give you energy to preserver.

Essential Items

Given the title of this section, you might be thinking of lessening the load of thing to move. Although that may be true and something worth considering, what we’re talking about is creating a box with all the things you’ll need readily accessible.

Things like medications, pet food, first aid kit, important documents, diapers, baby gear, toiletries, etc. Unpacking can sometimes take more than one day. So, it’s worth creating a box of the essentials, things you won’t want to be stressing over finding tomorrow.

Make it a Game

Whether or not there are kids involved in the process, turning the ‘chore’ into a game can make the experience more enjoyable. Come up with competitions with those involved. Maybe it’s who’s the fastest packer, who cleans quicker, who can carry the most, or unpack the quickest.

Reward Yourself

Compete against yourself for a reward. Set up a goal in mind. Then, think of a reward. When you have something to work for, other than simply unpacking another box, you’ll be more motivated to get it done.

One final tip: make sure you have all of your moving needs beforehand. Nothing makes moving harder than needing more boxes, tape, string, or plyers.

One of the most stressful parts to moving is running out of time or feeling rushed to move. There’s a lot of tasks already at hand with the new place your moving to, let alone cleaning, picking up the truck, canceling or transferring utilities, communicating with those involved, and everything else in-between.

To help protect against the sanity that’s to come, it’s good to start early. As soon as you know you’re moving, start planning out the arrangements and packing things away day by day. That way when moving day comes, you, and those involved will be more at ease. These tips and tricks are sure to turn one of life’s great stresses into an enjoyable experience.

If you’re looking for a place to call home, check out our apartments, some of which have smart apartment technology to make your experience, even better.

Once you’re moved in and have arranged all your things, check out these tips to making your new apartment your own.