Emotions when moving house

Highlights

  • The process of moving from one home to another can be very emotional.
  • You should expect to feel surprise, denial, excitement, confusion, fear, sadness, stress, anger, relief, and depression at some point during the move.
  • How do you handle all those strong emotions when moving house?
  • Read on to learn how to control your house-moving emotions.

What’s the very first emotion you will feel the moment you understand you’ll be moving house soon?

Surprise?

Denial?

Excitement?

Confusion?

Fear?

Sadness?

Anger?

Or maybe all of these emotions, plus a few more.

If you’re a person who prefers to not let your emotions cloud your judgment, then you may focus on the financial side of moving house – whether you’ve saved enough money to cover the moving expenses (and what to do if you haven’t), how much professional movers cost, and finding good ways to make your move cheaper.

However, you shouldn’t make the mistake of underestimating or dismissing the emotional impact of moving.

You’re not only facing a time-consuming and costly task ahead of you but you’re also expected to experience a potent cocktail of mixed feelings and moving home emotions you may not fully understand.

Learn how to deal with your emotions when moving house and be prepared for the psychological effects of the home-moving process.

Regrettably, any friendly advice to Just deal with it wouldn’t work because it’s not just IT, it’s THEM.

Here are the top 10 emotions when moving house – the same emotional stages you yourself will most likely go through during your own move.

1. Surprise

surprise – an event, a piece of news, etc. that is unexpected or that happens suddenly

Surprise when moving house

You never know what life has in store for you, so don’t be too surprised (easier said than done) when a household move sneaks behind your back and screams SURPRISE! at the top of its lungs.

Unanticipated circumstances may force you to move to another home, and that’s exactly when you’re going to have to know how to organize an emergency move.

At times it’s tricky to know right away how to take an upcoming last-minute move as only time will tell if the drastic change that is about to happen is a good surprise or a bad surprise.

It’s okay to let that feeling of astonishment sink in a little bit but remember that you shouldn’t waste any precious time either. In 9 out of 10 cases, a surprise move means that you have very little time until Moving day, so you must begin the moving preparations at once.

Ultimately, there’s only good one way to counter the surprise element – follow an interactive moving checklist in order to use it effectively every minute of every hour.

Organize your time like a professional!

The Greatest Moving Checklist of All Time [Free, Interactive, Downloadable, Printable, Sharable, Detailed & Unabridged]

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2. Denial

denial – a refusal to accept that something unpleasant or painful is true

Denial when moving home

If the news about the upcoming household move was the very last thing you wanted to hear, then you may trigger an unconscious defense mechanism that is characterized by refusal to acknowledge the truth. And the truth in your case is that, whether you like it or not, you are moving house soon.

There may be a hundred and one reasons why you don’t want to move to another home – you love your current house or apartment, you have great friends here, or you have a promising job in the city or town you live in.

Unfortunately, only one good reason to move out is enough to pressure you into searching for good movers and initiating the packing process.

Going in denial can be detrimental to your chances of having a problem-free home move. Why?

One behavioral pattern of denial is not showing any emotion at all, while another one is continuing your old routine as if nothing has changed – you just never start getting ready to move out, expecting that things will somehow magically change in your favor.

In the end, your apparent apathy about the approaching Moving day and your refusal to accept that there’s nothing you can do to stop the residential move from happening will result in losing valuable time, forever.

Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock: How to Save Time When Moving

3. Excitement

excitement – the state of feeling excited

Excitement when moving house

The house moving process is often likened to an emotional rollercoaster – one high is followed by a low, and then comes another high. Forget about carousels – you just got yourself a relocation ticket for the Big Dipper, so it’s time for a thrilling ride that will most definitely turn things around and even upside down for you.

Believe it or not, there are a number of good reasons to feel excited about your move, especially if you’ve felt unhappy or even stuck in your current home and city.

Moving home is all about change, and the upcoming breath of fresh air may be exactly the thing you should feel most excited about.

  • You will experience a different place. You may have never liked the town or city you’ve been living in until now.
  • You will meet new people. The thought alone of forming new meaningful friendships may seem more than exhilarating at that moment in time.
  • You will get a fresh new start. Are you ready to embrace the score of new opportunities to change things for the better?

Disrupt the emotional upheaval of moving house by allowing yourself to feel genuine excitement and joy about what the future holds for you.

Why Do People Move? 6 Good Reasons to Move House

4. Confusion

confusion – a state of not being certain about what is happening, what you should do, what something means, etc.

Confusion when moving house

Moving home won’t offer a real rollercoaster ride if a high wouldn’t be followed by a low – it’s all part of the psychology of moving, isn’t it?

So, after the initial excitement about all the benefits and gains of moving to a new home in a new city, you may suddenly feel a bit confused and overwhelmed by the mammoth task ahead of you.

Whenever you’re facing a residential move, the feeling of bafflement often stems from the lack of clear order, structure, and organization to follow. In other words, you have no idea where to start the preparation period or how to manage your time in the best possible way.

In reality, feeling lost in your own relocation agenda is somewhat of a frequent occurrence that should give you a really bad start.

Creeping doubts about whether you will manage to organize the house move on your own won’t help either.

Don’t give up! Proper time management is key so do your best to force structure into the house moving chaos with the help of a week-by-week moving timeline.

If you still feel lost after consulting your detailed to-do list, then you’d better contact professionals who know what to do.

How to Find a Good Moving Company in 31.5 Steps

5. Fear

fear – the bad feeling that you have when you are in danger, when something bad might happen, or when a particular thing frightens you

Fear of moving home

Fear is one of our primary emotions, and the chances are high that you will feel at least one type of fear when facing a household move.

In the best-case scenario, you will have a short-lived fit of tropophobia – the fear of moving or of making changes. And if that is the case, then you should be alright in no time because, as you know well, phobias are nothing but irrational fears.

If only things were that simple!

More often than not, fear will be just one of the many emotions of moving house. But wait a second – fear of what?

  • Fear of having too little time to make it on time. That’s right – falling behind your moving schedule is never a joke.
  • Fear of damage to your valuable possessions. Improper packing or bad movers can make that fear very rational.
  • Fear of being scammed by dishonest movers. Do a thorough research on your movers to avoid becoming a victim of moving fraud.
  • Fear of the unknown. Nobody can predict the future (really?), so try to stay optimistic that good things are coming your way.
  • Fear of moving to a new home. Every new beginning is difficult, and the best thing you can do under the circumstances is to give yourself more time to acclimate to the brand-new environment.

How to Overcome the Fear of Moving: 10 Tips for a Fearless Move

6. Sadness

sadness – the feeling of being sad

Sadness when moving home

What’s with the long face?

Feeling sad is probably the most natural and common of all emotions when moving home.

Even if the upcoming move is something to look forward to, having lived a fair amount of time in one place will make it tough for you to just up and go without feeling sorrowful about moving away from family, friends, and the house or apartment you’ve called home until now.

It’s never easy to leave your comfort zone and your circle of friends who have been your support base for years. It takes courage to step away from the comforting familiarity around you, but it’s the unsettling thought of losing touch with your good friends that may leave you sadder than ever.

Meet up with your pals before you move away, and try to have fun together – visit favorite places, play games together, or just spend some quality time the way only you know how to do. And whatever happens, do your best to keep in touch with them after the move.

They say that time heals all wounds, but they may be wrong after all.

7 Fun Things to Do Before Your Movers Arrive

7. Stress

stress – pressure or worry caused by the problems in somebody’s life

Stress when moving home

If you had to use only one adjective to describe the process of moving from one home to another, what would it be? You don’t even have to think about it hard because the answer is easier than saying your own name.

That’s right, it’s STRESSFUL.

Sadly, dealing with moving house stress will surely take its toll on your mind and body. You’ve probably heard from friends or read online countless times that moving house is so stressful that it is often ranked as one of the most stressful events in life.

The emotional stress of moving to a new home can be felt due to various reasons, the major ones being:

  • Your money is at risk. At first, you have no idea how much the move will cost you, and then you start worrying that the money you have saved may not be enough to cover the moving expenses. How Much Does It Cost to Hire Movers?
  • Your time becomes a valuable commodity. The less time you have until Moving day, the bigger the pressure will be to finish on time. Have you already fallen behind your packing timeline?
  • Safety becomes a big issue. With possible property damage and personal injuries, Moving day can be risky and even plain dangerous for everyone involved. Have you already taken all safety measures to ensure the safety of the people you love?

So, how do you feel when you move house? Stressed out, no doubt.

How to Handle the Top 10 Most Stressful Moving Tasks

8. Anger

anger – the strong feeling that you have when something has happened that you think is bad or unfair

Anger management when moving home

When it comes to the psychological effects of moving house, anger can be a really strong feeling that could leave chaos and destruction along its path.

Similar to high levels of stress, anger will also have negative physical effects on your body, including accelerated heart rate and raised blood pressure. And, depending on the specific relocation scenario, your adrenaline level could be going through the roof too.

Hire reputable movers and the chances are that you won’t even know that anger is one of the moving house emotions.

Hire top-rated cross-country movers and you won’t even have to distinguish between the various levels of anger intensity – starting from mild irritation and going all the way up to intense fury and rage.

This is so because, as the practice has shown, the majority of upsetting, annoying, and infuriating situations occur when you are forced to deal with bad movers – dishonest, fraudulent, incompetent, rude, disrespectful, and more.

Seriously, how would you feel if unskilled and unqualified movers ruined some of your most prized possessions, such as the priceless grandfather clock that’s been in your family for generations, or the expensive piano that cost a fortune?

What about finding the elegant set of fine china in more pieces than you can possibly count?

And what if you became a victim of moving fraud – how could you keep your blood from boiling then?

Moving Fraud Prevention Guide

9. Relief

relief – the feeling of happiness that you have when something unpleasant stops or does not happen

Sense of relief after moving to a new home

One thing is clear – moving to a new home can be an extremely emotional period, a time that happens to be filled to the brim with overwhelming feelings and sentiments of various types and intensities.

So, after having gone through possible surprise, denial, excitement, confusion, fear, sadness, stress, and anger, what do you think you will feel the moment your move is finally over?

A sense of relief, of course!

You can now let out a huge sigh of relief, mixed with two doses of gratitude for all the help and encouragement you received from your friends, garnished with a pinch of pride at what you just accomplished.

Technically speaking, the toughest part is now over and if things have gone fairly smoothly, then one of the very first things on your post-relocation to-do list should be to congratulate and reward yourself for a job well done.

Only after you’ve let your batteries recharge for a little bit are you allowed to get on with the important tasks of leaving a review about your moving company, and of course – unpacking.

10 Creative Ways to Celebrate Moving Into a New Home

10. Depression

depression – a medical condition in which a person feels very sad and anxious and often has physical symptoms such as being unable to sleep, etc.

Relocation depression - separation anxiety

The emotions of moving to another home do not end with you crossing the threshold of your new residence. On the contrary – the unfamiliar setting and that lingering sense of strangeness can easily bring out emotions you may have tried to bury deep inside you.

No matter where you move, you’re still taking yourself with you. Right?

Once your moving house emotions wear off a little bit, you may start to feel one of the most dangerous side effects of moving to a new home – the so-called relocation depression (aka separation anxiety).

In its essence, the post-moving depression is a powerful fit of nostalgia for the old life and good friends you left behind – a life where things actually made sense.

The relocation depression symptoms vary from excessive sleep and uncharacteristic lack of energy to apparent apathy, unwillingness to leave your new home, and no desire to socialize.

Should you feel you may have fallen victim to that post-relocation enemy, don’t just sit around doing nothing but work your way around the problem by looking for proven ways to overcome relocation depression.

How to Overcome Relocation Depression


What kind of emotions did you go through the last time you moved house? Share your emotional story with us.


* All definitions of the moving home emotions above have been provided by the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary.

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3 Comments

  1. I feel so sad. I am leaving some of my very valuable possession because they are getting old or un useable. Like my bed. I have a very strong attractions toward things i had owned for more than a year even my pencil. Now i am leaving everything behind.

  2. I am a kid and my feelings are all of these but much much more since I am leaving my school with all of my freinds

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