Overwhelmed by the prospect of moving? You’re certainly not the only one. Moving home to home can be stressful, time-consuming and expensive. The entire relocation process is probably the least enjoyable part of moving but if you know how to plan you can really get the job done efficiently and fast, following these fuss-free pointers to a nice easy move.

• Packing up your house or flat is daunting due to the deadline. You need to work out how much time you have and how much money you have spare to do so. You can get the job done alone if you don’t live in a particularly large property. If you’re moving from flat to flat, you’re probably better off hiring a van or loading up your car. Ask friends or relatives for a help in hand, you never know who may have a van to spare. Make sure you research into van licensees though, you want to make the move easy but fully legal too. If you’re hiring a company to help you with your move, you’ll need to make sure you will be ready with all the boxes and bags without a delay or any potential obstacles getting in your way. Otherwise, you’ll be facing extra unwanted charges.

• Specific techniques to packing and must-have materials need to be noted too. Don’t start packing up your home until you have all the materials and supplies you need. For example, cardboard boxes, crates, moving blankets and packing tape will be really useful, along with bubble wrap, tissue paper, newspaper, labels and markers. Make sure you have a little more than you expect as you’ll need to ensure you don’t run out mid-pack. Once you’ve gathered all your materials, you will then need to create an inventory list of what you own and tick off items or groups of items as you go along. You can do this easily by conducting each pack room by room and ensuring you’re not just packing everything without thinking. Essentials are key and any unwanted goods can go to a good home so try not to feel too guilty.

• More forward, get sorted by packing similar items together and label each box or bag accordingly: ornaments, kitchenware, books, DVDs, toys, clothing, toiletries, shoes and so forth. Pack in your own way but make sure you do so neatly and have a method you stick to otherwise the overall boxes won’t make sense to you. Pad and cushion valuable items and always remember to tape up boxes to avoid dropping anything and causing unnecessary damage.

• Label everything according to your personal packing process, so you will know what makes sense to you. Label each box with a black marker and remember to tick things off from your inventory as you go, to make packing easier for you and quicker in the long-run. Keep boxes and packed-up bags organised so once the day comes and you’ve moved out and into a new place, you’ll know what’s what and where to find particular items.

• Another key pointers to remember is to try and get people involved. Packing alone will take you longer so see if anyone you know such as friends or family for example, could possibly be free to spare a few hours to help you and this will therefore cut the time significantly. Also, throw away any clutter you no longer use and keep everything categorised neatly so the whole packing process will make sense rather than confuse you. All in all, packing is pretty easy once you know how and have a set system put in place; stick to this for a fuss-free move.