7 Tips for Less Stressful Unpacking

Under the right circumstances, moving can be exciting.  It represents an opportunity to explore new places, to meet new people, to decorate our new surroundings to reflect our current tastes.  It can also be exhausting, expensive and emotionally overwhelming.  But it doesn't have to be.  Here are a few times on making the transition into your new home less stressful.

1. Take micro-steps.  It's true that the longest journey begins with a single step.  Sometimes it's simply to daunting to try to tackle all that "stuff" at one time.  Focus instead on emptying one box, or putting away three things.  Pick a goal that's easily attainable.  Who knows, you might find it so simple to put away three things, that you decided to put away three more, and three more after that.  But even if you don't, the fact that you've done anything, even just a little bit, will bring you that much closer to your goal of getting it all done.
2. Find a hidden staging area.  Being out of sight and out of mind isn't necessarily a bad thing.  Last week I had half-empty boxes open in every room in my house.  This weekend I decided to focus on just the living room and dining room.  I moved all of the boxes from these two rooms into the guest bedroom and shut the door.  Words can't describe how much better I feel already.  Sure, the things I moved still need to be dealt with, but not all at once.  And at least now I can enjoy the space that I've cleared.  I feel less overwhelmed and I'm reminded that I'm making progress.
   
3. Try to focus on one room at a time.  This ties in with #2.  Any task seems less daunting when it's divided up into smaller, more manageable pieces.
   
4. Create a place for everything and put everything in it's place.  Moving into a new home is the perfect time to design and build a new system for organizing your things.  Be creative and consider making your belongings work double-duty, i.e., rarely used suitcases can hold craft supplies or off-season clothing, moving boxes can be re-packed with seldom used items and placed out of the way, an empty bowl or ashtray can be the perfect landing spot for those house keys that always end up misplaced.
   
5. Remember that it's not too late to purge.  Just because you moved it doesn't mean you have to keep it.  If you have more stuff than you have space to store it, that's a pretty good sign that you have too much.  Consider re-gifting, selling or donating those items that you no longer need or want.  One man's trash might be another man's treasure.
   
6. Avoid the urge to buy everything at once.  It's natural to want to move into a new home and have everything look perfect right away.  Even if I had the money to purchase everything right away, I'm not sure I'd want to do that.  Sometimes it helps to sit on ideas for a while.  Sometimes better ideas come to mind, or you may change your mind altogether.  And sometimes, we need to allow our space to tell us what it wants.  When it's time to buy that rug, or the perfect piece of artwork, or that ideal reaching chair, you'll know it.  Until then, enjoy the journey.
   
7. Pace yourself.  Again, I can't stress this enough... even if you're moving under the best of circumstances, moving is still a stressful experience.  Don't feel the need to get everything done right away.  Avoid the temptation to push yourself hard to get it all done yesterday.  Even if it doesn't feel like it, chances are that you've accomplished a lot more than you think you have.  Give yourself a break.  You deserve it.