The most long winded part of moving house is probably the packing process. You will no doubt already be dreading the idea of sitting for long hours and putting things in boxes, so be sure to get everything in order in your head beforehand, as otherwise you may well end up doing so for longer than is really necessary. Planning is extremely important in a move, and will affect how stressed you can get by the whole thing, which is a massive part of the move in the first place, so be sure to have a decent look at the following ideas on how to plan and then pack effectively. For a start, you need enough time to get everything done. It is not really good enough to plan things out if you then realize that you don’t have the time to get it all sorted afterwards! A good plan will cover a number of weeks, and the hope is that you give yourself enough time to spread the weight of the removal thinly, and only have to do a little work per day, rather than cramming it all in to a couple of weeks, just before you were meant to move! Begin by sitting down with a friend, or someone else who is involved with the removal, and note down everything that you need to get done in order for the move to happen. You will never really get to grips with the size of the move until you have gone through each of the processes in your head, so really try and run through everything as you note it down, making a list of everything that you need to get sorted for each of those elements of the move to go ahead. When you are setting out this list, give some thought to the time that each part will take, as well as the costs of everything, as then you can spend some time setting out a budget and trying to get the overall cost of the move down. One of the parts that you need to pay particular attention to is the packing. More to the point, when you are going to get it done. Given that the packing process is such a long winded one, it is essential that you do not spend too long doing it at one time, as the boredom that can set in will often reduce the efficiency with which you get the job done. However, sometimes getting settled in to the swing of things will mean that you can go for a few hours without getting too distracted, and this can be seriously useful. Ultimately everyone is different, but it is always best to have a strict plan to go by, in order to ensure that you don’t end up putting things off until the last minute. Even if the rest of your plan is water tight, you are more than likely to get a load of stuff that suddenly crops up in the last couple of days of the move, which will make all the other bits and pieces that you left for the last minute a lot more difficult! Basically the aim of the game is to get a sort of timetable for the lead up to the removal, where you can set out tasks for each day. From packing for two hours, to sorting out various other elements of the move, like switching energy bills over, or organizing storage, each little bit needs to be ticked off.