A little less than once year ago I wrote 10 Tips To Help You Enjoy Moving for my good friends Laura and Dan. Now they are just about to finish their first year of homeownership and we have just closed on our first house! To celebrate what both of our families have accomplished I thought I would revisit this old post, and edit it a little in honour of Laura and Dan.

So you are moving. Congratulations on; buying a new house, getting a new job, having a baby,finally moving out from your parents basement, finding a place that is cheaper/bigger/nicer/less drug lord infested! I am so excited for you. Well I am mostly excited for you. I am also somewhat sorry for you. Because now you have to move.

Lets face it moving sucks.  There is the packing, the lifting, the carrying, the cleaning, and the unpacking. All I can say is “bleck”!

I lived in my childhood home from age 6 to 20 so for years I was sheltered from the dread of moving. But that has ended. In the last eleven years I have moved 8 times with number 9 only weeks away. I also have helped members of my family move an additional 9 times. Each of these moves reinforced what I knew all too well, I HATE MOVING.

In that light here are

10 tips to help you enjoy your moving experience

1. Don’t Actually Move!- Oh sure you, your partner, your dog, your cat and the new twins don’t fit very well in your university studio apartment. But think of all the good times you have had there, and all of the money you will save compared to that four bedroom bungalow.

2. Try To Convince 5-10 Burly Men They Are Auditioning For A New Reality Show- You have heard of Canada’s Top Model? Well here comes the newest reality show tom sweep the nation, Canada’s Top Mover. Contestants compete to see which of them has the best packing, lugging, cleaning, and unpacking skills in Canada! What is the prize you may ask? Pride of course.

3. Don’t Label Your Boxes- Half of the fun of Christmas and birthdays is being surprised by the boxes you open. Why not transfer some of that holiday joy to your move?

4. Leave Gifts Behind- Actually the biggest joy at Christmas is to give isn’t it? Why not send some abundant joy toward the person who is moving in. I am sure they will love your sectional sofa from 1971 that is just too heavy and too awkward to get out the front door.

5. Start Fresh- You are moving to a new home – do you really want to fill it with old things? Haven’t you gotten tired of your bedroom set, kitchen set, living room future, grandma’s antique clock, and your wedding pictures? I say embrace change stop being so shackled to the past!

6. Use Non Standard Moving Vehicles- Anyone can move with a 26 ft U-Haul truck but it takes skill to move an entire family using nothing but a skateboard, hatchback and pack mule.

7. Don’t Order The Pizza- Everyone knows the reason your friends and family have taken a day out of their lives to help you move is to get free pizza. It is also true that their rate of productively drops to zero once that pizza arrives. Don’t give in to those pizza leeches. If they start to question why the pizza hasn’t arrived call a restaurant at random and say; “I am so angry at your poor service I demand you cancel my order immediately”. I bet you can pull this off 4+ times before anyone catches on.

8. Pretend To Be Thor – You are going to break dishes when you move. You might as well have fun doing it.Smash glasses like Thor!

9. Pack Decoy Boxes- Pick up twice as many boxes as you need and leave half of them empty. Take those empty boxes and tape them up just like your real boxes. Then label the decoys with heavy sounding contents like books, bricks, or anvils. Tell your helpers while they get all the furniture into the moving truck you will pack all the boxes into the van/car.

10. Pretend To Be A Fledgling Moving Company Looking to Hire- For a few weeks leading up to your move, post on job websites that you are starting ABC Moving and are looking for employees.  Collect resumes, hold over the phone interviews, whittle your selection down to a top 20. Then let the those remaining know the final part of the interview will require them to move a ‘mock family’ for an hour. After their hour is up tell them you will contact them within two weeks if you have a place for them in your company.

Bonus Tip I Learned From Dan– If moving just seems to daunting consider promoting yourself into supervisory status by ‘throwing your back out’ a few days before the big move. You get to have all the say of where boxes go, with peskiness of having to move the boxes yourself.

Bonus Tip I Learned From Laura– Moving isn’t just tiring it can be downright boring. Why not make a few people squirm by not packing your…umm…fancy undergarments. Enjoy a good quiet chuckle as you leave them hanging proudly in your closet for ‘someone’  to find as you have not only enlist help moving boxes but packing a few as well.

Normally moving is no fun. But I hope this list has shown you that with a little creativity you can have a lot of fun on moving day. Happy moving!