Hannah Parton, Content Team Contributor
Most of us know, that moving house is a big and stressful process to go through, so it’s common for anxiety to often feel difficult to deal with. Moving house will happen to pretty much all of us at least once in our lives. Whether it’s the family moving house, moving away to university or moving in with a partner, it all feels very daunting and worrying; it’s a big lifestyle change!
I’ve recently moved into a flat with my boyfriend and thought it could be a good idea to share a little about my experience and how I dealt with my anxiety during our moving process.
Our journey of getting our flat was long and very stressful to say the least, but it was so exciting! Having said that, throughout the process, I often found that my anxiety was difficult to manage. The combination of trying to carry on with life commitments like work and university, all whilstdealing with feeling anxious about the move a lot of the time, felt quite overwhelming. As a result, I often got quite upset and I sometimes lost sight of how this process was meant to be an exciting one.
In the other parts of my life, I do certain things to help reduce my anxiety and I recognised that I should do the same for moving house!
So, I started to do little things that helped calm my nerves and help keep the added anxiety at bay. I’m not going to lie, doing these things didn’t completely get rid of my anxiety, as moving house is a big thing and it’s natural and completely normal to feel a little stressed and worried. However, after doing these things, I felt a lot calmer about the process and was able to look forward to what was to come. Moving house shouldn’t be torture for your mental health!
Below are two things I used, that helped a lot to reduce my anxiety and made me feel so much better about the move! I hope these recommendations can help you too if you’removing or if you’ve got a big lifestyle change coming up!
1. Make To-Do Lists:
There was so much to think about when organising for the move, feeling like there was a billion things to do, I’d often get myself quite worked up. I decided to start writing to-dolists and separating those things that needed doing into categories. All those thoughts of things that needed sorting, floating around in my head, I could then write down and physically see in an orderly fashion.
So, an example of a list I made was a packing list with each room as subsections. Then under each section I’d write down everything needing packing from/for that room, like the bathroom or kitchen.
Another useful tip is creating a separate list for things you don’t have or think you’ll need for the place you’re moving to. You can then add to this as you get to each room’s to-do list.
I also had a list of important to-dos, these things being the non-negotiables that I had to get done. For example, sending off important documents or emails and I would write themdown in order of importance or date. Creating these lists, allowed me to plan strategically what needed doing and when, by ticking things off like a checklist, the sense of relief I would get after getting things done was an amazing feeling; a sense of accomplishment! Before I knew it, many things that had been going over and over in my head, causing me to feel unbelievably anxious, were then ticked off and done and dusted!
2. Make use of the internet:
Another part of moving that causes a lot of anxiety and worry is the prospect of living in a new place. Getting used to not only being in a new building but new area can make people feel very worried about moving. A tip that I found to help me,was utilising the internet to research the area I was moving to. I sussed out things like where the local amenities were andplanned what would be my routes to work and university. Little things like this helped to calm the nerves, as I could plan and prepare for life in the new area. I also used the internet for decoration and interior inspiration. I’d often look on social media for ideas and tips, so I can start creating ways of making my new house a proper home.
I hope these two tips can help you with moving and hopefully can help calm those extra nerves! To those of you moving house or those of you with other big life changes coming up, best of luck, trust and enjoy the process!
