One of the biggest steps you can take into the adult phase of life is making the big move into your own place. For many, moving out into their own place is really a very new and exciting experience, while for others it is a time of great uncertainty, but whether you dread the day or wish it couldn’t come sooner, moving out of mom and dad’s is something we all just have to do.
Of course, moving out isn’t nearly as easy as just packing up and leaving. There are a few things you should be mapping out before and after your big move-in day. Here are some of the guidelines you should strongly consider following if you’re moving on your own for the very first time!
Don’t take the phrase “moving on your own” so literal. Please. You will not enjoy it at all.
Ask around in advance of your move-in day for some help carrying your belongings. It never hurts to ask your loving and caring parents for some assistance, and I’m sure plenty of friends would be more than willing to help as well. You could even go as far as asking some coworkers while tossing a little incentive their way.
I can’t stress the importance of asking people at least a couple weeks in advance so they can schedule or request time off to help you! Don’t wait until the last 48 hours to reach out to people, or you just might be trying to pick that couch up on your own!
If all else fails, you could pay to have some professional movers help you out, but it would be ideal to see if any family and friends wish to volunteer to save you some cash!
So one thing you shouldn’t do is wait until right around the day you’re moving to look for some help. Another thing you shouldn’t do is wait until that day to start packing up everything.
Make life much easier on yourself and the people that are taking time to help you by having some things packed in advance. You likely aren’t going to be moving a ton of furniture other than your bed and some dressers, but smaller things that fit into bins and boxes can be stored away and set in a place where they’ll all be together and ready to go on moving day!
If you’re moving on your own, you should absolutely make use of reusable and recyclable bins, boxes, and even bags when you’re lugging things from one house to the next.
If you’re utilizing reusable and recyclable storage containers and tools, you’re really using your melon for some forward and future thinking. Anything that you can use as a bin; like your dirty clothes basket, your school bag or even that small cardboard box that comes with the ramen noodle cups, should be used to store your items along with the larger plastic bins and cardboard boxes!
And if and when the time comes where you’re looking to move to another place, you’ll have those reusable bins right there for you instead of having to scramble and buy or borrow bins, boxes and bags!
This is kind of a fifty-fifty. Some will agree, others won’t, but in my opinion, it’s going to be smarter to get all of your bigger and heavier things out of the way.
This is smart because it’s easier to figure out where you’re going to put them around your new apartment or wherever you’ll be moving in to compared to your smaller items. You probably have a good idea of where you’re going to have your bed, your dressers, your TV and additional furniture, and where you set them is where they’ll likely sit until you’re feeling like reorganizing your rooms.
Once you have all of the big, heavy and hard to fit through the door items out of the way, the rest of the moving in process should be smoother sailing!
We’ve covered most of the physical labor included in the moving-in process, but there’s much more to it than just getting everything into the new place and settling down.
Beforehand, you should have a budget plan ready that you’ve talked through and calculated. The roof you’re living under isn’t going to be free anymore. You’ll have to consider rent and utilities above everything, you may have to start paying for your own TV and internet providers, you’ll have to start picking up your own groceries, and any other little things you need around the house, from toilet paper to silverware and everything in between, will be coming out of your pockets as well.
Moving on your own comes with a laundry list of responsibilities, so you’ll want to check our rent ranges for places you like and determine where is the most affordable for you. Estimating and organizing your future bills is going very important for you and will help you work on developing miscellaneous spending habits in advance!
With all the money you’ll need for all of those new payments you’ll have to make on time, you’re going to want to be sure you’re job is safe and secure.
Your bills are going to be steady, so you’re going to want to have a steady job in place before you even think about moving on your own. Even if you have a job, work solid hours and bring home a nice paycheck, you should do some math to make sure that you’re able to pay off your bills and still have some sort of breathing room. Living paycheck-to-paycheck is not the way you want to go!
Moving on your own takes a lot of preparation, strategizing and healthy habit building before and after the big move-in day. So many of us want to move out on our own but aren’t quite ready for the challenge, and that’s ok. Give yourself the time you need to save up some money, find a higher paying job or consider moving in with some friends to take some pressure off of the rent.
When your time does come to move into your own place, be sure to talk through the process with people that have moved on their own before like your parents and be sure to follow this beginner’s guide!
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