You have just confirmed the move-out date with the moving company, and you know exactly what that means, don’t you?
PACKING TIME IS HERE.
Yes, you are perfectly aware of what you are supposed to do now but you just don’t want to do it.
You feel like you just can’t make yourself start packing to move out – you feel OK, and yet you just keep staring at the empty cardboard boxes and do nothing. What’s going on?
Don’t get alarmed – it’s mostly a psychological thing, and its explanation is simple enough: you can’t get motivated to pack.
But while your apparent lack of motivation to pack for the upcoming move can be easily understood and even justified, wasting precious time doing nothing is likely to ruin your hopes for a problem-free home move.
How to motivate yourself to pack?
How to stay motivated when packing?
The following 10 tricks and tips for getting motivated to pack will help you complete that all-important pre-move task without getting too overwhelmed.
Ready for a much-needed dose of packing motivation?
1. Follow a packing checklist
Confusion about how the packing task will pan out until moving day comes around can be a huge demotivation factor for you. You’re inspecting all the things inside your home and the single thought of not knowing where to start packing them scares you.
So, you do nothing about it, hoping for a packing miracle to appear out of nowhere and solve that particular problem for you.
That sense of confusion about the home packing process comes as a direct result of you not having a clear plan to follow. Just imagine how much easier it would be if you had a detailed packing plan to guide you from start to finish – from Day 1 all the way to the date your interstate movers are supposed to come to pick up your belongings.
Throw any demotivating thoughts out the window, for now, you do have such a plan in the form of a packing checklist – a printable packing checklist that tells you not only when and where to start packing for a move, but also informs you exactly which items you should pack up for a move starting from four weeks in advance.
Organization is key when packing for a move, and now you’ve got that key in your hands.
As mentioned above, the no-motivation-to-pack feeling can stem from your uncertainty and indecision about how to organize the house-packing process.
And then, if you do start packing up your things the wrong way, you’ll become even more demotivated by the excruciatingly slow progress.
Start the packing task properly and you’ll see how things will simply click in place. And in your case, properly means following 2 guiding packing principles:
The early bird packs the most boxes. The best way to start packing for a move is to do it as early as possible. No early is early enough, for sorting out and protecting your prized possessions is the most time-consuming job of them all. Knowing that you’ll finish packing on time will boost your motivation to actually get that job over with.
The toughest rooms should be tackled first. This principle does make a lot of sense – how to be motivated to pack when you know that the hardest rooms to sort and pack are yet to come? It’s impossible. Therefore, begin packing from the storage areas in your home (garage, basement, attic, spare rooms) and move the packing action towards the kitchen, and then the remaining rooms in your home.
Just how demotivating must be the thought that you will have to spend countless hours sorting out all of your stuff, and then spend days and days packing everything you own into cardboard boxes.
How to stay motivated to pack when you realize that there are so many items long forgotten or hidden out of sight?
Moving to the new home absolutely everything you have in your current home is clearly one of the biggest packing mistakes.
Just think about this: some of the things will have become obsolete with time, and others will have become too worn out or even broken to use.
What’s more, there will probably be numerous items which you may have never used before.
Remember that packing fewer items will prove to be HUGELY beneficial for you:
Less time spent on packing! 2 points added to your packing incentive. Why? You’ll finish packing way before Moving day and will have enough time to meet up with your friends for some final goodbyes.
Less money spent on packing supplies! 1 extra point to boost your packing motivation. Why? The cost of packing materials should not and cannot be neglected, especially the collective price of all cardboard boxes.
Less money spent on transport! 3 additional points to increase your motivation to pack up your things after having sorted them out first. Why? More items equal higher transportation costs due to the extra shipment weight.
It can be fairly easy to get overwhelmed when packing for a move if you happen to view the entire process as one giant task. Just thinking about the number of days you will need until you can get it done can be rather discouraging.
Pack in stages to keep your packing motivated high. Which room comes after your bedroom?
So, what can you do to make it easier for your mind to accept, process, and then deal with the disheartening packing challenge ahead of you?
The answer may actually surprise you: pack in stages!
You may have been using a similar motivational trick at your work without even realizing it – the idea is to divide one big project into much smaller mini-projects so that you can get the rewarding sense of progress each time such a mini-job is finished successfully.
Divide and conquer, remember?
Use the same tactics to boost your packing motivation. This is where a really good moving and packing checklist will come in very handy: get a mini-task done, mark it as complete, and then focus on the next mini-job at hand.
Simple, yet brilliant.
Instead of protesting, your mind will enjoy that constant flow of accomplished tasks and even urge you forward in the direction of your ultimate packing goal.
Breaking up the entire home packing project into smaller projects will stimulate you to increase the overall packing efficiency. So far, so good.
Now, another demotivating packing scenario you may encounter is to get those mini tasks accomplished… and then nothing. In other words, marking a task as complete may not give you enough personal satisfaction to keep your packing motivation as high as it needs to be.
What should you do in such cases?
This time the right answer lies in a cleverly designed reward system. That’s right, just like a wild animal that is being tamed, you need rewards of some kind to survive the often extremely tedious job of packing up your home for moving.
We’re not talking about having rest breaks when packing – that’s something you must do as prolonged periods of packing activity will tire you down pretty quickly.
We’re talking about rewarding yourself after the completion of each fairly significant packing project:
go catch a movie after packing up your garage,
have a dinner at a nice restaurant after packing up your kitchen,
book a relaxing massage after you’ve packed your entire home.
One good way to fight possible demotivation when packing for moving is to finish that arduous task as quickly as you possibly can.
To increase the speed and efficiency of packing, you will need to be able to maintain your focus for longer periods of time by cutting off any distracting elements.
Even if you’re really good at multitasking, you’ll soon realize that doing other things while packing up your things will both slow down your progress and drain your energy faster.
The solution is more than logical – concentrate on packing alone so that your brain doesn’t need to reset every time you decide to finish something else “real quick”.
Distractions can really wreak havoc on your gained packing momentum – ringing phones, loud noises coming from your TV, running feet all around you while you try to work.
And if you happen to be already behind your packing schedule, then the thought of getting back on track by increasing your packing speed will help you boost your motivation.
After all, you know what comes after a job well done, don’t you?
Now that you are familiar with six tricks to motivate yourself to pack, do you still find yourself with insufficient stimulus to take full control of the most important task in your moving calendar?
If that is the case, let’s focus on the good amount of dollar bills that you will save by opting to pack up some or all your things by yourself and possibly leave only a number of specialty items for professional packers.
Just think about all the money you’ll be able to save when
you secure free cardboard boxes for most of your packing project. Sure, nothing beats brand-new moving boxes, but they will cost you – sometimes a lot more than you think;
you use alternative packing supplies whenever you can. Why not? Ordinary household blankets are good substitutes for moving blankets, while towels and other pieces of clothing (including socks!) can be used instead of bubble wrap;
you use your packing skills to your advantage. Why should you pay professional movers and packers to protect your books, clothes, shoes, and other types of non-fragile and non-specialty items?
Moving home is an expensive affair, so every dollar bill counts, don’t you agree?
Another good way to pack for a move without getting overwhelmed is to ask your good friends to help you with that chore.
The usual image of friendly assistance is related to buddies giving you a hand when lifting and carrying heavy household items such as furniture pieces and large electric appliances.
However, packing the contents of each and every room in your home is definitely not a task for one person either.
Friendly assistance is key to increasing your packing motivation.
You’ve already done yourself a favor by following motivational packing tip #3 to reduce the number of things to pack.
Use that added incentive in your favor and reach out to a few good friends to help you pack.
Whenever possible, give your pals plenty of notice that you need their assistance. This way, you will show them that you respect their busy schedules.
Be honest with them and inform them exactly what type of packing assistance you need and how much of their time you intend to borrow.
Do not be quick to judge your pals if they are unable or unwilling to help you out. Be ready to promise to return the packing favor, and keep your fingers crossed.
How you approach the packing job in your mind matters more than you can imagine. You view packing as super boring, and surprise! – it turns out to be just that.
The good news is that it doesn’t have to be as tedious a job as everybody thinks it is.
Here are some simple ideas to make packing more interesting and much more fun than you ever thought it would be:
Play music. Unless you find background music too distracting, feel free to rediscover your lost motivation to pack for a move by playing some of your favorite tracks. You can even sing along while you keep filling in those boxes with all types of household items. Who says packing is boring? No one.
Invite your friends. Follow motivational trick #8… but instead of asking your friends to help you pack, invite them over to a packing party. It doesn’t only sound better – you can make it better. Prepare some great music to keep the spirits high, cook or order some tasty food, and buy refreshing beverages. Hanging a handful of party balloons here and there won’t hurt either.
Just have fun. These are your pals, remember? Consider that packing party as a real opportunity to spend some quality time with your pals before you have to move away. Tell jokes, reminisce about the past, play (packing) games, organize a singing contest… just have some genuine fun while getting those cardboard boxes filled. Or at least do your best.
Our motivational tips must have helped you find the packing motivation inside you. Won’t you share them with your friends now?
Now you do know how to get motivated to pack for moving. Hopefully, you’ll put into practice at least one of these 9 good ways to be and stay motivated when packing for your fast-approaching home move:
You get yourself a packing checklist and have the problem-free packing experience you’ve always wanted.
You initiate the packing process like professional packers would, and you finish packing days ahead of schedule.
You pack only the things you’ll use in your new home, thus saving loads of time and cutting your moving costs.
You break the entire packing project into mini-projects and feel the power of the packing progress.
You learn how to motivate yourself to pack by coming up with appropriate rewards each time you reach a packing milestone.
You finish packing up your home much faster thanks to your ability to maintain your packing focus.
You think of all the money you’ll save by packing most of the things by yourself, and all of a sudden your packing motivation reaches its peak.
You no longer feel overwhelmed when packing for moving because you know your friends will give you a hand when you need it the most.
You do manage to have some fun while you pack away your things – what else could you want?
Finally, our last piece of advice on how to get motivated to pack for a move is to put packing into perspective. After all, that tedious and time-consuming moving task is just a stepping stone to a better life waiting for you at your new home.
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and you may be speaking with another licensed provider.
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