Relocation a Herculean effort?

The initial excitement one experiences when one has found a suitable accommodation to reside as a tenant and the joyous feeling that wells up in an individual when he or she secures the property with a holding deposit subside when the individual or family starts packing their belongings. “Where to begin?” is the first question that would start nagging anyone undertaking this venture. Of course, there would have been a forceful reason behind the move. Armed with ‘Wrap and Move’ packing boxes, packaging tapes and bubble wraps, the individual or individuals enter the battlefield optimistically. Little do the ignorant lot know the toll it would take on them mentally and physically by the time they have finished packing at their current residence and unpacking at their new abode.

Fortunately, I was not one of the ignorant as the recent move was my fifth. Being a single parent, I had pulled off all the four moves impressively on my own however, with deliberate planning and consistent effort. As usual, like all the other times, I commenced packing when I received the receipt for the holding deposit I had paid for a new modern townhouse that I fancied. A trip to Bunnings Warehouse was all I needed to commence packing. I started the process with the things that I did not use on a regular basis or would not be using in the near future. Every working day, on returning from work, I packed four to five boxes a day and in three days’ time I had stacked boxes in almost every room. In addition to this, I booked a removalist, notified change of address to energy and internet providers, content insurance and car insurance companies, arranged for postal redirection, so on and so forth.

On the appointed day, I signed the tenancy agreement, picked up the keys, moved contents to my new haven with the removalists assistance and much to my dismay realised that I had more to do. I organised kerbside cleaning, dragged the junk and discarded contents to the kerb, made a million trips to pick every single item that was left behind carelessly to please the landlord/real estate agents and filled the bins with trash that could not be left on the kerbside. It is customary to organise professional cleaning including hiring steam cleaning services and hiring mowers etc. As I occupied the property sans professional cleaning, I had no remorse or guilt in returning the property to the landlord without fulfilling traditions.

I must be suffering from selective memory lapses to have omitted the moving cost which usually comprises of rental bond for the new property, two weeks advance rent, removalist expenses, final electricity bill and water bill at the old property and installation expenses at the new amounts to a total of minimum $5000. If you are fortunate enough to get the full rental bond for your old property, your expenses would go down by $1500-2000. This is just the beginning. I can certainly vouch from my previous and current experiences that it takes at least a week to turn the new house into a livable home. Moving houses, undoubtedly an enormous difficult task.