If you are moving home, one of the best things you can do to reduce the levels of stress and anxiety you’ll inevitably feel is to book a removalist company.

These types of professional companies are highly skilled and very experienced in making your move go as smoothly as possible. But while you should leave most of the work in their capable hands, there are some things you can do to help them do their jobs even more efficiently.

In this post, we’ll provide a comprehensive overview of how you can best get your home ready for the movers.

If you take these tips on board, you should find the process will be a lot more organised and stress-free than you first anticipated.

1. Declutter Before Packing

Before you even think about packing, it is a good idea to streamline the amount of possessions you want to take to your new home. Doing this will help you save on moving costs because removalists tend to charge you based on the time they spend transporting your items. Therefore, you will naturally not want to pay them to move the things you no longer need or want.

When decluttering, it is a good idea to take your time over a couple of weeks to go through each room strategically and decide what items you want to keep.

You can then choose to sell, donate to charity or send to the nearest recycling centre most of the rest of the items that are left, and responsibly dispose of anything else that is not salvageable in some way to the refuge tip.

2. Gather Packing Supplies

With your house fully decluttered, the next thing for you to do is to organise all the packing supplies you will need.

This should include things like boxes of various sizes, bubble wrap and void filler, heavy-duty packing tape, and labels and markers.

Having these supplies available to you from the start will make the packing stage more efficient, and help the movers do their job more easily, too.

3. Systematically Pack Your Belongings

You might feel daunted by the prospect of packing, particularly for a long-distance move. However, if you adopt the same room-by-room approach as you did for decluttering, then you should find it a bit easier to manage.

It is a good idea to start the packing process as far in advance of the moving date as you can and try to do a little bit every day. Even 15 minutes daily can make a difference over the course of 2 to 4 weeks, as it will mean you don’t have to spend a lot of your valuable free time on weekends doing this task.

When you do pack your stuff away, make sure you label each box in big, bold writing with the contents of what is inside it and the room in which it came from. For example, 'kitchen' and 'cups and plates' or 'bathroom' and 'towels'.

4. Protect Fragile and High-Value Items

Movers will always try and be as careful as they can when moving your boxes, but if they know something is fragile or really expensive, they will take extra care.

For this reason, it is worth going the extra mile to protect your valuables and fragile items by wrapping them with extra bubble wrap or blankets or putting plenty of void filler around them. You should also label boxes as ‘fragile’ and put ‘handle with care’ stickers on them.

Additionally, many moving companies will wrap these types of fragile or high-value items for you, which may include artwork, antiques or electronics. So, you might consider getting them to do it for you.

5. Prepare Your Furniture for Moving

Disassembling and protecting furniture can be very time-consuming, particularly if you are not handy at DIY. Therefore, you should take the time, where possible, to do as much of it as you can before moving day because this will significantly speed up the process.

When taking apart beds, tables or bookshelves, make sure you keep all the pieces together, including hardware like screws and bolts, in a secure bag, box or container, along with the instructions on how to put them back again.

Also, make sure you label them clearly on the outside so you can quickly tell what is inside them.

6. Clear the Pathways in Your Home

When the movers arrive, you should make sure that there is a clear path between each room and the door your removers will be walking out of to their truck.

The clearer you can make this path, the better because if it is blocked, it will slow them down significantly and present the risk of injury. Therefore, you should ensure that all obstacles, such as potted plants, outdoor furniture, and other objects, are well and truly out of their way.

7. Label Rooms in the New Home

It is amazing how few people do this. But one of the best ways to ensure a smooth move in your new home, is to label each room.

Some will be obvious, like the kitchen and bathrooms. But for the others, if they know which rooms are the master bedroom, children’s bedroom, guest room and study, they will be able to move the boxes from their truck and into each one with the minimum of fuss.