Moving to a new city alone can be both an exciting and stressful experience. You can enjoy the opportunity to make a new beginning and at the same time feel reluctant to meet strangers. You will have to enter a new world with no one lovable and trustworthy standing by your side. But, moving alone will teach you to stand independently and create a life that you have always desired for yourself.
Moving alone can give you a lifetime experience if you have a nice frame of mind. It would be a great idea to prepare yourself well and know what to expect from the new city. You can consider learning how to make a smooth move and embrace yourself in the new environment.
Tips to move alone to a new city
Research and Plan
- Create a concrete plan and try to adhere to it.
- Choose a moving date.
- You need to decide if you would be hiring professional movers or making a DIY move.
- If you choose professional movers, then you need to look for a suitable moving company, depending on your budget.
- You will also have the option to hire rental trucks to move your belongings to the new city.
This will help you relocate smoothly without facing much stress. Avoid procrastinating while you are preparing for the move, put on your thinking cap, and go-ahead organizing things.
Prepare a checklist
A checklist can be your best companion when you must move to a new city alone. We recommend you make a list of all the things that you need to do in the moving process.
- Decluttering your home- It would be a great idea to choose which items you can donate, sell, or discard. By doing so, you may need to take only the necessary items with you and not increase your burden with the unnecessary items.
- Organize a garage sale- While getting rid of the unwanted items, we recommend you organize a garage sale and generate extra money for yourself.
- Taking big decisions- You may need to take big decisions like choosing the right moving company that suits your budget.
Create your budget
You need to establish a budget regarding how much money would be required in the moving process and how much you can save after the move is complete.
Remember the essential documents
You can use a binder to consolidate all the important documents and keep them with you during the moving process.
Select the best city
The city you choose to live in should be meeting all your needs and requirements as well as your budget. Here are a few things you might want to consider while you select a suitable city to move to:
- Job opportunities and cost of living.
- Affordable housing.
- Entertainment prospects.
Pack your moving boxes correctly
Moving alone can be tough until you execute the following steps to pack your belongings into the boxes efficiently.
- Make sure to pack heavier items in small boxes while lighter items in large boxes.
- Pack your non-essential items room by room like the decorations in your living room or books in your library.
- You must put a label on each of the moving boxes and organize your items as much as possible.
Don't forget to forward your mail
There is no need for you to wait until the moving day to forward your mail. Simply, you need to set the date and time of forwarding the mail in advance, as you might not want to miss any of the important letters or bills.
Here are a few basic steps for you to follow:
- Click on the USPS.Com.
- Choose the Quick Tools tab.
- Click on "change my address."
- Get redirected to the USPS Official Change of Address form.
Bid bye to friends and neighbors
This could be the toughest part, especially when you are moving alone to a new city. We suggest you invest some time to properly say goodbye to friends and neighbors. If you can’t take time out individually for each of your friends, perhaps you can host a formal farewell party and meet all at one time.
Steps to adjust yourself to a new city when you move alone
Move out and connect with new people
This is the part you would be most stressed about when you move to a new city alone because you don’t know whether people will like you and if you will make friends or not. Though it will take some time, you will meet new people who can be your friends.
How to meet new people?
- Participate in the activities you like or those which you have always wanted to do but never got the opportunity to try. Perhaps you can join polo dancing classes, volunteer projects, or book clubs and get a chance to make new friends. You may choose activities that happen semi-frequently and regularly. A good idea would be to make one or two friends from each activity you participate in and create a big network of friends.
- You can search in Couchsurfing or Meetup for activities happening near your location. This will help you meet the locals and find events as per your area of interest.
- Try apps like Bumble or Tinder, if you want to meet people one to one. Of course, it’s a dating app but you can make friends through it easily as well.
- Don't disappoint yourself if the people you think are good friends aren't your friends. You should remember that a person will come to your life for a reason, a lifetime, or a season.
Do cool things
Once you move to a new city, you should try doing everything, regardless of whether you have a company or not. You can spend your weekends visiting the museums to which you have always wanted to go. We recommend you look for free days because some of the biggest museums in the country are free for at least one day a year. You can go to the local bear bar and roam around in various neighborhoods to find some cute cafes and boutiques.
If you are living in a big city like New York City, San Fransisco, or London, you will gradually feel stressed staying amidst the tourist every time. Once a new city starts to feel like a home to you, there isn’t any point for you to feel like a tourist again.
Start living with amazing roommates
You may not like to live with strangers, but sometimes the huge expense of big cities will force you to share your room with strangers. Even if your budget isn't a constraint, it would be a great idea to live with roommates after moving to a new city. Possibly, they can be your first friends and help you to identify what you should do and what you shouldn't do.
Again, this would introduce you to a new set of friends and you can easily expand your social circle. We recommend you find like-minded roommates who are around the same age and experience as you. Also, you can share the high living cost and plan to live in a better neighborhood, where all activities lie.
Gym Membership
This is the most initial thing you should do after moving to a new city. Doing exercise will give you a lot more energy so that you feel awesome.
Forget about the old life
It's not possible to forget everyone and everything about your new house but you should concentrate on creating your new life in your new city. You need to keep yourself away from social media, mostly during the holidays, instead, you can schedule a lot of fun activities and focus on making new friends.
Connect with new neighbors
Many people prefer to keep away from their neighbors while they move to a big city. Until your neighbor is crazy, it seems a good idea to greet them while you see them. This little communication that you have with them proves to be therapeutic at times when you feel lonely. Also, you can visit the same grocery store, gas station, or coffee shop frequently and establish a good rapport with them regularly.
Build a home as fast as you can
It sounds good to pile your moving boxes and suitcases for months after you move into your new house. But it seems a better option to unpack your items as soon as the movers drop your items in your new house and leave. This will give you the feeling of creating a new home, settling, and being positive about your future.
To make your house look perfect, you don’t have to rush to Ikea and buy costly furniture from there. The key idea would be to create a neat and organized home. For example, if you don’t have furniture to keep your belongings, you can apply the DIY trick for some time.
Learn the different hacks
Every city or town will have a few hacks that will make life easier for you, we recommend you learn about them.
Here are a few possibilities:
- Different ways to save your money.
- Unique public transport - Identifying those subways that you might need to avoid.
- Hidden places where you can enjoy happy meals by paying not much more than what you would pay for McDonald’s happy meal.
You can learn these tricks either by trial-and-error method or by discussing them with your friends or colleagues. Of course, these hacks are helpful, but they might increase your budget to a certain level as well. Try these hacks will make you feel more like a home in the new city, especially if you are moving for the first time. You will feel more confident about the place and its people when you go outside.
Ready to move?
Every move will be an adventure, mostly when you are doing it alone. This will give you an excellent opportunity to explore new things about yourself, do things independently, and meet new people. Don't allow the fear of meeting strangers to deprive you of enjoying your new life in the new city. You can follow this guide and feel comfortable about making your next move without any difficulties.