Relocating to a new home, whether it’s from your parents’ family house into your own place, from a smaller apartment to a larger property, or upsizing due to a growing family, is one of the biggest and potentially most stressful undertakings in anyone’s life.

On the moving day itself, be sure to follow these simple, yet effective hints and tips for a stress-free (at least as much as possible) moving day.

1.   Pack Your Essentials Suitcase First

First and foremost, regardless of whether you enjoy living a minimalist lifestyle and prefer to only invest in and to keep things that you need, rather than things you simply want, there will still be far more lurking in your closets, drawers, and kitchen cabinets than you think.

This is why, to ensure your first morning in your new home is stress-free, the first thing you need to prepare, pack, and keep safe is a suitcase full of the essential items that you and your family need for the first night and the following morning.

Such items should include any medications, glasses and contact lenses, school supplies and uniforms for your children, your own undergarments, nightwear, and toiletries and of course, should you have one or more furry family member, then pet supplies, too.

2.   Hire a Professional Shipping Company

The best way to make sure that your prized possessions are packaged safely and securely from your old home and delivered just as securely to your new one is to hire the services of a shipping company such as Shiply who will treat your belongings with the respect they deserve.

Luckily, such moving and shipping companies are invariably much more affordable than you may think, so don’t hesitate to give them a call, or else check them out online.

3.   Take Care of the Important Tasks ASAP

Another exceedingly helpful thing to do, either on the morning of the move or perhaps more ideally, beforehand, is to ensure that everything is on the checklist in terms of informing the important companies, authorities and even individuals, of your new address.

For example, you need to have contacted both your current utility provider to inform them you’re closing the account and have also set up a new contract with the utility provider in your new home. In addition, you need to arrange a mail-forwarding service, change any official headed paper if you work from home, and of course, notify your various banks of your change of address.

4.   Color Code & Photograph Everything

Finally, for those who have a certain affiliation with Monica Geller, another helpful and effective way of making things much easier once you arrive on the porch of your new home is if you color code your boxes and take photographs on your smartphone.

Assign different colors for different rooms within your new home and take photographs of the back of your electrical equipment and attached accessories, with a clear view of the wires and the outlets so you know how to plug everything back in again once you’ve moved.