Moving may appear to you like a huge mountain, rough and almost untraversable on this side, but cool, valley breezes on the far side. The important part is not necessarily getting to the top, but getting back down. You may be tempted to relax after the long and strenuous move. Just as preparing, packing, and executing a move has unexpected pitfalls, your first night in the new home may bring some challenges for which you aren’t prepared. Fear not, fellow mountaineer! Mobile Attic is here, as always, to give you advice on the oft forgotten side of the moving mountain: the first night and the cool down.
This guide assumes that you are at least in the process of putting away your belongings. One of the most vital components to surviving the first night is stress minimization. Excessive clutter can make you feel anxious, and that anxiousness will be picked up by your friends, families, and pets. Before you know it, you have a big ball of stress energy around your home that forces air traffic control to divert planes from the area. Joking aside, the first big step to feeling better is to start unpacking –or at least create a plan for how you are going to do it. From there, it’s as easy as reading the guide and following your instincts!
It may be a tough one…
The first night at the new home almost always puts a copious amount of adrenaline through your system. Once the excitement dies down, you may experience one of the sneakier symptoms of a move: relocation depression. Think about how your dog or cat behaves when in a new location; you can sometimes see the anxiousness in their physical behavior. This same thing happens in humans. Combine this with the high-energy you felt at move-in, and this could be a bit of a downer. The best remedy for this is to 1) make sure you are unpacked, or at least make sure that the items are organized in the home and to 2) try to reestablish your normal routines as early on as possible. This will help not only you, but your pets and children as well.
Make a first night box
The mountain climber rarely journeys to the mountain without a toolkit. The moving process has been dominated, thus far, with a number of tools: appliance dolleys, moving boxes, the storage unit, etc. You may not think about the tools you need on the other side. Pack some toiletries and basic cleaning supplies, of course, but you may also want to carry around a toolkit. More than likely, you will stumble on something that needs fixing; and the desire to fix it may cause unnecessary anxiety. Keep some high protein snacks around (for all the lifting) as well as some water. Nothing can sour a first night more than stress-laden exhaustion. If you have some board games available, break them out for a family game night, which leads us to the next idea…
Take it easy!
The greatest way to beat procrastination is by giving yourself an award. Imagine that feeling on the first night, after you’ve done all that you set out to accomplish for the day, where you relax on the sofa in your sparsely furnished new home. Don’t stress yourself about making a meal –get to know the new location by visiting a restaurant for takeout. Maybe set up a grand movie night and make a big deal out of it. While establishing routines is great for your overall, long term mental health, introducing small pleasures like this will help create familiarity, as well as memories you will treasure in the future. Why not start today?
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