I recently moved house and had to deal with all the stress and problems that a house move can throw up. Because it's not something you do every day it one of those things that it's easy to underestimate. At the best of times I'm wildly over optimistic about most things and the house move was no different. I'd forgotten the time it takes to box things up, label everything and make sure I'd kept things I needed separate from everything else. All that and I hadn't even touched on sorting out things with my gas, electric and water supplier. I've only ever moved house twice before and several years separated each move. That's probably one of the reasons I'd managed to forget all the things I needed to take care of. Like a trauma victim who loses their memory after a stressful event, I think my memory of the problems involved with a house move had been completely erased; a way of coping and being able to function as a normal human being afterwards. The only problem with that is that when I came to do it all again I went through the same problems and seemingly had learned nothing from the two previous experiences. The first time I moved house was from rented accommodation into my first house. I did get a lot of help from friends and family with that move. My brother did all the lifting; he's my little brother only in name and towers over me physically, so he was put to good use, and my sisters' helped with packing and boxing up all the delicate items. I'm also very heavy handed and regularly break glasses just doing the washing up, trying to box up plates and mugs would have been pretty pointless, or at least that's what I used as an excuse to get help. Dealing with the utilities first time was also not too much of a problem. Moving out of rented accommodation meant I didn't have to worry about that house's water supplier, heating bills or council tax; they were all included in the monthly rent. Sorting out all those things for the new house was also relatively straightforward thanks to the previous owner of the house. He'd left a list of names and numbers of the people he dealt with and it was a simple case of calling around to places like the water supplier and telling them I was the new owner of the property and giving them the date I had moved in. The rest they took care of and I didn't have to give it much thought. The second move was not so easy. It was about six years after the first move and I was moving into a bigger house. I made a list of all the important numbers that I thought the new owner of my old house would need, the same way that had been done for me and organized a removal firm to take care of almost everything else, including the packing and boxing. It was more expense but money well spent in my mind. That part was easy. The problems started when I got into my new home. What I hadn't been made aware of were the problems that the previous owner had with his water supplier. During some extension work he had damaged the sewer pipes on the property and had outstanding debts as a result. It was all resolved in the end but I made the mistake of not contacting the water supplier on the day I moved which led to a few more conversations and letters than would have been necessary otherwise. As a result of this I made a list at the time of a few points that might help with future moves. I'm glad I did. It came in useful this time around and I'm going to hang onto it just in case my mind ever goes into trauma coping mode and I forget how a few little tasks can make the experience of moving that much easier.
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