It’s a fact – you’re moving into an apartment soon.
That’s great!… but you also have a potential problem – you’re not sure what to expect when moving to an apartment because you’ve only lived in a house until now.
In reality, moving from a house to an apartment can turn out to be a strategic move on your part – a smart choice that brings you plenty of benefits in the long run.
But the thing is that you’re not exactly sure what to do when moving into a new apartment – that is, how to organize the entire house-to-apartment move so that the relocation goes as smoothly as silk.
Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.
Here are the top 10 tips for moving from a house to an apartment – the moving checklist that will guide you along the way.
1. Create a floor plan of the new apartment
Moving from a big house to an apartment can be trickier than you think for a number of reasons. And of course, the most obvious reason is the more limited space of the new home with living space that will feel even smaller when you’re coming from a large and spacious house.
Once you’ve picked the apartment you’ll be living in in the foreseeable future, a priority task for you is to create a floor plan of the new place. But why do you need a floor plan at all when moving from a house to an apartment, you’ll ask?
Having a floor plan of the apartment you’re moving into will help you
decide which furniture pieces to move from the house, if at all. It’s very possible that there is just not enough space for some or most of the furniture items, so critical decisions will have to be made;
know whether you will be able to fit some of the larger furniture pieces into the apartment – maybe some of them just won’t go through smaller door openings or narrower corridors;
realize what items you will need to purchase for the new apartment, including furniture pieces that you decided to leave behind;
know in advance where each household item will be situated in the new home by having the detailed apartment layout in front of you.
Follow the link below to learn exactly what you should do to devise a floor plan before moving to an apartment from a house.
The thing that you should always keep in the back of your mind when moving from a large house to an apartment is that the new place will most certainly have less living space than the old one. Also, the storage space in the new apartment will be much more restricted as well.
And knowing this, you just have to come up with a good house-moving strategy that will work great for you. And here’s the winning strategy: reduce greatly the number of items you’re moving to the new home.
Remember this: when moving from a large house to an apartment, less always means more. Why? Paring down your possessions before you move out will help you save money from transportation costs and save space by not having so many things to unpack and arrange after the move.
So, what should you do to move fewer things to the new apartment?
Inventory all your possessions.
Make a detailed list of the things you intend to move.
Revise the above list again and again until you’re left only with the most essential items.
Get rid of duplicate items, outdated things, unfashionable clothes, and outgrown shoes.
Throw away for recycling household items that nobody will ever need or use again.
As a rule of thumb, you shouldn’t bother packing and using any items that you haven’t used in more than a year.
Assess the situation carefully before you decide to move large house furniture into an apartment.
There are several major challenges while you prepare to move into an apartment and one of them is what to do with the large and heavy furniture pieces you have in the house right now.
And here are the main problems you’ll be facing before long: most furniture items are 1) heavy (it’ll be more expensive to transport them to the apartment) and 2) large (you may find it impossible to fit them inside the new place).
Assess the situation carefully in order to reach an informed decision. Here are a few pointers that may help you in your final decision:
YES. Move antique furniture that is too valuable to leave behind. Move high-quality furniture that will be very expensive to buy after the move. Move practical and versatile furniture items that will let you maximize the space in the apartment.
NO. Don’t move any furniture that’s already rather damaged due to long years of service. Don’t move inexpensive ready-to-assemble particleboard furniture – IKEA furniture items rarely survive a house move. Don’t move furniture that’s too heavy or too big unless you must.
The upcoming move to an apartment from a house is an excellent opportunity to purge your home of any items that you won’t really need in the new place. After all, the last thing you’d need is to pay good money for hauling useless stuff which you’ll wonder where to store after the move is over.
And here’s the best part: you should definitely try to sell some of the items you’re not taking with you for the purpose of adding the earned money to your moving budget. And why not – considering the cost of moving house, the idea of earning some much-needed cash from your unwanted items must seem quite appealing.
All in all, you’ve got two good options to sell the things you’ve decided to leave behind:
Sell your stuff online. As long as you have enough time to spare prior to Moving day, you can try to sell some of the things online by posting them at the best sites for the purpose: eBay, Craigslist, Amazon, Etsy, eBid, etc.
Organize a garage sale. That’s usually a good option to sell your unwanted items for a profit. Again, you’ll need to find the time and invest some effort into organizing a profitable moving sale but the hassle is usually worth it in the end.
In most cases, moving from a house to an apartment will mean that you’re downsizing your home. Now, downsizing to an apartment has a number of indisputable benefits (read on to find out what they are), including the fact that once you’ve purged your home of all unnecessary items, you’ll be left with (much) fewer things to pack.
Keeping in mind that packing is the most time-consuming task when moving from a house to an apartment, your best chance of tackling that demanding job is to follow some proven tips for making the entire house packing process faster and more efficient at the same time.
How to pack quickly for a move?
Begin boxing up your things as soon as you possibly can but not before you’ve inventoried your belongings, sorted them out, and got rid of the useless stuff. Each day spent without packing could hurt your chances of a successful house move.
Follow a good packing checklist – a detailed to-do list that will guide you throughout the house packing process. What should you pack next? Your Packing Timeline has the answer.
Start packing your items from the rooms that are really hard to sort and pack – all storage areas in the house such as the garage, attic, basement, and any spare rooms.
Set up a packing station in the room you’re packing at the moment and get all necessary packing supplies close by to save valuable time.
Do yourself a favor and find the best apartment movers in your area.
When moving into an apartment building that’s located in another part of the country, then it’s best to use the services of professional apartment movers, especially if you happen to be moving into a high-rise apartment.
It’s good to remember that apartment moves come with a few extra challenges compared to house moves and that’s exactly why you’ll be better off hiring movers who have extensive experience in moving household items into and out of apartment buildings.
Stairs. Moving into a high-rise apartment involves navigating bulky furniture and endless moving boxes up multiple flights of stairs. The staircases of some older apartment buildings are way narrower too which further complicates the move. Yes, an operating elevator in the building will make things much easier and faster, but that may not always be the case.
Elevator. Some larger household items – mostly furniture pieces – may not fit inside the elevator. Besides, the building elevator will have to be reserved for the day of the move and properly protected inside with the help of furniture blankets (pads). Bear in mind that the apartment building you’re moving into may not have an elevator or it may be out of order on Moving day.
Organizing a smooth move from a house to an apartment often comes down to how well you handle the innumerable details of the upcoming relocation.
While a packing checklist will help you pack up your things faster and safer, a good moving checklist will introduce structure and order into a seemingly chaotic preparation to move out. A moving checklist will also help you organize the entire moving process so that you don’t waste any valuable time wondering what to do next.
Change your postal address with the USPS before moving out. The easiest way to initiate the change of address procedure is to do it online but you can also visit the nearest USPS office and take care of it in person. How to Change Your Address When Moving
Cancel any home-delivery services and subscriptions. Also, discontinue your membership to clubs, gyms, hobby groups, and so on.
Schedule the disconnection of your household utilities with the respective utility companies, and if applicable, arrange for their reconnection at the new apartment. When moving into a rental apartment, then your landlord or property manager should inform you which utility providers are recommended or exclusive for the apartment building, as well as whether some of those services are included in the monthly rent. How to Transfer Utilities When Moving
Gather the required packing supplies and start boxing up your things without delay. After all, packing for a move is the most dreaded moving task for a reason.
8. Help your kids and pets adjust to apartment living
Moving into an apartment can prove to be a very drastic change for your children, especially when moving from a big house that had a spacious backyard. The smaller living space can also be a serious issue – if each child had their own room in the house, they may be forced to share one room now in the apartment – a fact that will not be welcomed with shouts of joy and excitement.
One thing is certain – adjusting to apartment living when coming from a large house will not be easy for anyone. In most cases, specific lifestyle changes will need to be made during the post-move adaptation period.
Be sure to sit down and discuss the issue with your children and brace yourself for a bitter clash of expectations vs. reality. And of course, the winning strategy is to make compromises.
Your pets are likely to have a hard period of adjustment too when moving from a house to an apartment. That’s especially true when moving with a dog simply because Fido will lose their favorite open-air playground (the house backyard) – a particularly hard blow for a pup.
Make sure you get multi-functional furniture for your apartment.
Oftentimes, moving into an apartment from a large house will result in downsizing as the living space in the destination place will most likely be smaller – sometimes much smaller in the case of moving into a studio apartment.
There’s no doubt that apartment living will feel different when coming from a house, but there are also some tricks to maximize the storage space in the condo so that it doesn’t look too cluttered.
Use the vertical space that’s available in the new apartment. How do you do it? One way is to get storage cabinets or shelves that go from floor to ceiling.
Position storage boxes or containers on top of tall furniture pieces to, once again, use well the available vertical area inside a room.
Use multi-purpose furniture items in the new apartment – pieces that usually have extra storage inside them – for example, a bed with several drawers inside the wooden frame.
Store various items in places that remain out of sight – the space under the bed or the one above the fridge.
Use blinds on the windows instead of heavy curtains that tend to steal some of the living space.
Use lighting well (layered lighting) to create the illusion of more space.
10. Enjoy the advantages of living in an apartment
Moving from a house into an apartment may prove to be a masterstroke in the end. Yes, the living space is likely to be rather limited and you’ll have neighbors too close to you, and maybe too noisy and nosy too, but it’ll be best for you to focus on the advantages of living in an apartment building in the city.
Lower utility bills. Expect to pay less money for utility bills thanks to the smaller space inside the apartment. If you’re moving to a colder state, then having lower electricity bills during the wintertime will be a godsend.
Low maintenance costs. The maintenance costs of an apartment should be less than the ones of a house, at least in most cases.
More time. Not having a backyard and a garden will save you loads of time you would have spent otherwise in maintaining those house areas. Also, the extra rooms in a house will also need to be cleaned and tidied up on a regular basis. What will you do with all that extra free time?
Unrivaled location. Arguably, the best thing about moving from a house to an apartment will be the location of the new place. If the apartment building is located in a big city, then you’re basically trading bigger living space for an excellent location and a better job.
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