How to Overcome Negative Emotions When Moving

Few life events provoke more dread than moving. The disruptive process of packing up your home and relocating your life across town — or across the country — has most people sweating bullets for weeks. Physical and emotional stress build as furniture Tetris plans evolve, possessions pile up, timelines compress and exhaustion sets in. 

While some moving strain is inevitable, you don’t have to lose your sanity throughout it all. Arm yourself with Stress Management 101 techniques tailored for navigating moving madness:

Stick to routines 

In the uprooting hustle of moving, it’s easy to let regular routines like exercise, bedtimes, or date nights slide. However, maintaining familiar rhythms and self-care rituals can provide needed emotional anchoring amidst the chaos. So keep your morning run routine even if it’s a new neighborhood route. Take a bubble bath nightly before tucking into that air mattress. Don’t abandon all structure when everything feels topsy-turvy.

Start detachment early

As soon as you set a move date, begin mentally preparing for the disruption. Start indexing what possessions mean something and what won’t be missed. Be ruthless, purging unused items; it’s liberating.

List it out

Writing everything down provides mental relief as details get organized externally rather than swirling internally. Keep master to-do checklists by room and week. Catalog possessions and log boxes loaded item by item. Checking tasks off lists feels gratifying.  

Talk it out

Verbalizing frustrations, worries or excitement with trusted confidants prevents pent-up overwhelm. Friends may offer planning or packing help too. Especially for cross-country moves, lean on your emotional support network.

Consider movers to reduce headaches

Hiring professional moving crews Move4U – especially for long-distance relocations – eliminates transporting logistics entirely, leaving you mental bandwidth to focus energy on other facets of organizing your move. Experienced movers Move4U have all the right equipment, efficiency expertise, and brawn to lift heavy furniture and carefully pack delicate items – all while you direct traffic stress-free. Saving your back lets you better rescue lamps from kids using boxes as trampolines!

Visualize the benefits

When stress spikes, close your eyes and focus on the lifelong memories ahead in your new home. Picture holiday meals around the dining table or neighborhood kids playing on your patio. Moving is emotionally turbulent, but the outcome will enrich life. 

Get crafty with kids

Involve your kids in age-appropriate moving prep by having them decorate identification labels for moving boxes. Give teens digital to-do checklists like overseeing closet empties or packing books. Productivity restores sanity. 

Laugh it off

When tensions flare between family members or lovers mid-pack, call a timeout. Share some wine outside, put on a comedy special, look back, and laugh at other past disastrous moves you’ve endured. Laughter erases frustration.  

Treat the crew right

Feeding the moving crew or friends and helping pack home-baked goodies like cookies or banana bread goes a long way toward appreciation. Well-fed workers are happy workers, less likely to break precious wares or curse late-in-day exhaustion.

Prepare some easy frozen meals

The last thing you’ll feel like doing after moving day is heading to the grocery store and then whipping up dinner from scratch. Have some heat-and-eat frozen entrees or leftover casseroles ready to pull from the freezer and throw in the oven after a long day of lugging boxes. Hearty prepared food eliminates the stress of needing to shop and cook when running on fumes. Comfort food is good self-care!

Embrace minimalism temporarily

The weeks between housing, when belongings get shoved into storage, are the perfect opportunity to assess true needs regarding possessions. Do you really require 12 frying pans? Did you miss that pit-stained college T-shirt? Living 7 years in Italy with just suitcases might be extreme, but returning to retrieve just deeply beloved/frequently used items keeps life lean.  

Celebrate Milestones

Moving is a process marked by milestones. Celebrate these achievements, no matter how small. It could be completing the packing of a room, saying goodbye to your old home, or the first night in your new Chicago apartment. Recognizing these moments adds a positive layer to the overall experience.

Unpack in phases

Don’t get overwhelmed attempting to decorate your entire new home on day one. Just focus first on setting up the kitchen, bedroom, and bath areas adequately to operate. Gradually organize other rooms over the next month as energy returns. Checking small tasks off incrementally prevents feeling buried.  

While moving will never be a Zen experience, having the right mental techniques and tactical assistance can help you stay composed when it feels like your world is upside down. Follow these tips above to press on steadfastly toward the light at the end of the relocation tunnel.