Fell in Love with a Place? 4 Steps to Prepare for a Long-Term Stay

It is a story that many people dream of. You hop on a plane for a quick getaway, but then you fall in love with the place, you feel more like yourself than you ever have before, and you know that you have to spend more time here.

So, one night (these decisions always seem to be made at night), you decide that you are going to follow your gut instinct and make the move.

If this is the position you are currently finding yourself in, and you have wildly fallen in love with a place, here are four steps to prepare for a long-term stay.

1. Make your plan for moving.

Once you have fallen in love with a place, it is likely that you want to move there and start your long-term stay as soon as possible. Unfortunately, in most scenarios, this is not realistic. Instead, you need to make a thorough plan for moving.

By taking the time to plan out the move, you will be giving yourself the opportunity to prepare for this life-changing event in the most efficient and stress-free way possible.

So, what exactly do you need to plan?

Just as with any move, no matter how close or far you are travelling, you need to recognize your timeline and then plot the necessary tasks on the schedule. By considering all of the phases of the move and the various functions that need to be sorted, and then dividing them down into smaller chores, you should be able to schedule in the required time to guarantee it all gets accomplished.

2. Sort out everything at home.

Depending on the circumstances, there is a good chance that if you are looking to have a long-term stay in a new locale, you are first going to have to sort out some things back at home. This may entail packing up and selling your house or ending the lease on your apartment.

Unless you solely live out of a suitcase and are embracing the "digital nomad" lifestyle, you are probably going to have to pack up a few things.

Regardless of whether you have been living in a 10-bedroom mansion in the countryside with extensive wardrobe storage solutions or a studio apartment in the middle of a big city with not much space, packing can seem like an overwhelming beast of a task, and certainly not something that anyone particularly enjoys doing.

The best packing strategy is organized, streamlined and disciplined, and focuses on dealing with one room or area at a time. By doing it this way, you are less likely to forget to pack something, you will be creating less mess (which will help keep your stress levels down), and it will mean that you are packing related items into the same box, making it more convenient when you open them next.

Whatever you do, don't skimp on the moving boxes. It is critical that you have high-quality boxes that are sturdy and robust enough to withstand whatever comes their way while you are enjoying your long-term stay.

To really be the queen of the organized move, opt to purchase packing labels that enable you to write down a description of the contents in each box and indicate in which room they should be opened.  

3. Opt for long-term storage.

What are you going to do with these boxes? Unless you are shipping them all to your next destination, the best option is to secure long-term storage. Luckily, in this day and age, there are plenty of high-quality mobile storage solutions for you to choose from to suit your needs.

If you are going to use self-storage as the new home for your worldly belongings, make sure you schedule (see #1) plenty of time to gather and store your possessions suitably. For example, you want to be padding and wrapping your breakables, and you need to ensure that all of your boxes are stacked correctly.

You don't want to find yourself coming back from your long-term stay and seeing that your belongings have had devastating damage brought to them because they weren't carefully packaged.

For this reason, you may want to work with logistics firms in Melbourne or professional storage companies in Dubai (or wherever you reside) as they know exactly how to pack, wrap, and store.

4.  Look after yourself.

It can be easy to get so wrapped up in your big move and the excitement of what is to come that looking after yourself and other aspects of your life can fall to the wayside. Try your best not to allow this to happen.

After all, you don't want to show up in your new place wholly stressed and fatigued. Take it day by day, stick to your schedule, enjoy your last few weeks (or months) at home, and arrive at your new locale raring to go.

Have you ever visited a country, fallen in love with it, and then decided you want to go for a long-term stay? If you have, what did you do to prepare? If you haven't, where in the world would you like to do a long-term stay?

Tell us your thoughts and experiences in the comments below!

 

Author Bio

Chris Humphrey is the General Manager of Easytruck Moving & Storage. In 2013, the company combined their expertise in professional moving services & storage to create an entirely new approach to the business – and mobile storage was born! Easytruck now operates over 30,000sqft of air-conditioned facilities in three convenient locations in Dubai and is the only Mobile Storage operator in the UAE.