For anyone who has already experienced the seemingly never-ending list of priorities that comes with moving house, it will probably come as no surprise that moving your life from one building to another is ranked by 40% of homeowners as the most stressful event they have ever faced.
Want to see how this compares to other stressful events? In the survey of 2,000 homeowners, the numbers shifted to show that when the graph represents divorce, separating from a partner came out on top at 34% (31% was the biggest bar in the chart when the chart represented having a baby, and lastly, starting a new job was the major proportion for just 27% of people – those numbers don’t add up to 100%, but I’m sure the researchers have a clever reason for that).
One of the major reasons that we dislike the big move is the expense – 42% of new homeowners had a severe dislike of estate agent fees, for example, which those surveyed said seemed too high and unwarranted. Utility bills are another area that 34% of people agree could have been made easier (see emo.ie for home heating options). Now, let’s look at some money-saving tips that could help you to cut some corners when moving house.
Get free stuff
Your new home is unlikely to be in the exact same shape and size as your old home. Every wall, every nook, every open space, every hallway … it all needs furnishing. To that end, you can drive yourself to distraction by spending endless hours in warehouses picking outside tables and wall art and light fixtures and rugs and potted plants and who knows what else. Instead of spending all that money, at least to begin with (and to help make a house feel like home), you can easily visit local online market places where people are giving things away for free – several social media marketplaces are available, for example.
You may have to travel to pick things up because the people getting rid of the things they don’t need are unlikely to send it to you in the post, but an evening spent driving around to different places to pick up free things is better than an evening spent arguing with your partner in a furniture warehouse over which shape of clock goes best in the kitchen.
Cook in bulk
Moving house means lots of mess and not much time – this means lots of takeaways. Aside from the un-healthiness of eating takeaway food every day, the cost will soon mount up. Cook things like spaghetti and meatballs or rice and chicken that can be frozen and eaten throughout the week.
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