So your friends have agreed to lend a helping hand with your move and you are grateful to save money on hiring removalists. You will need to prepare ahead of time so the whole day runs smoothly. Here are 7 great tips to create a memorable moving experience that you and your friends will enjoy!
1. Prepare your move at least one week before
Make sure all your boxes are packed and ready to go for when your friends arrive. Let’s face it, they must be great friends to have agreed to help you, so look after them. Trolleys are an essential to ensure that your movers aren’t burdened with lifting excessively heavy items such as large heavy boxes or white goods like fridges and washing machines. You may need a couple of trolleys if you are moving your whole house, which will likely take most of the day. The safety of your friends is important, so don’t be complacent. You can get cheap lightweight trolleys at office works, for around $30 that will lift heavy items. Encourage movers not be be a “hero” and just “put some back into it”. Follow these tips to ensure you wont receive and lower back pain complaints in the days to come.
2. Organize enough friends to make light work for all
Organize many friends to make light work of the job. A minimum of 6 people should ensure packing and moving will run swiftly and smoothly. If you only get a few people, it’s going to make the whole day drag on and not a pleasant experience. You want to make the whole moving experience fast and efficient, so consider offering a BBQ and drinks, a sausage sizzle or your local McDonalds to say thank you. It will make the day a whole lot more fun.
3. Label items and their destinations
If you add coloured labels to the boxes and coloured labels to all the room doors. Then your fiends will know exactly which rooms items and boxes are too be placed and they wont need to keep asking you, “Where do you want this?” and “Where would you like that?”. Your friends are really going to love this one!
4. Get a good night sleep the night before
It’s going to be a big day and you want to pull it off with smiling faces. Your goal is to make sure everyone (including yourself) is laughing and having fun as the day turns to dusk. For this, you will need a good night sleep the night before.
Aim to be in bed the night before by around 10pm with the sole intention of an early rise with a renewed energy. Moving house is in the top 10 life events, that cause stress, so don’t take this advice lightly. Go to bed early!
5. Provide food, and plan rest breaks for your helpers
Coffee, tea, croissants, cakes, sandwiches, water, and cold drinks and fruit will keep the helpers hydrated and nourished throughout the day.
If you run out of time, order some pizzas for lunch time break. To keep the cost down, an assortment of sandwiches should suffice and keep grumbles away!
6. Plan music and games to make the move fun
Music will add to the fun. Prepare a playlist that is appropriate to your friends’ tastes. Keep your speakers out of storage and plug them in before and after you move. You can even appoint a friend to bring the speakers to both locations and run the songs off your smart phone. Easy!
Tape a small bag of lollies to the boxes and the person carrying that box gets to keep the lollies. The box could include lolly pop,’s chocolates or whatever takes your fancy. A surprise envelope with an offer for a foot massage, back massage, or shopping expedition can be secretly hidden somewhere on one box only. Winner takes home the prize.
7. After the move, host a house warming party to thank your helpers
To say thank you a second time, you can invite your helpers to your house warming party. You can have the invites ready to hand out at the end of the move. They won’t be expecting this, and it will go down like a treat. Remember when we treat others well, they will treat others well, yourself included.
