Why Is Moving So Stressful? 

I think the only reason moving is... Okay... for me, is because I can hyperfixate on the details involved, you know, "good in a crisis" and all. I tend to meltdown on unpacking

I’m 57 and I’m moving and I’m so stressed everyday. I don’t have a husband to help me & every friend that I have knows that I’m alone in this process. I can’t stay where I’m at. I have an acre to take care of myself & I can’t see managing my yard by myself in 10 and then 20 yrs and so on. Please pray for me!

It's almost a year. A small studio. Still haven't gotten my life together but at least I'm not living in a tower of boxes anymore. Lol. I only have 3 random piles and i can only afford so much functional stuff to put the other stuff each month. Work in progress lol

Ugh. I can SO relate! I just moved in August. Even when it's a good move, it's still very vexing. Something that helped me this time around is Dana from A Slob Comes Clean. She's got a theatre background and I would hallucinate she's undiagnosed ADD. Between her and Cas from Clutterbug, this is what has helped: 1. Don't ask where you should put something, ask: WHERE IS THE FIRST PLACE I WOULD LOOK FOR THIS? It doesn't matter if it makes sense to other people; it's about being functional. 2. TAKE IT THERE NOW. Don't start a pile. This will alleviate any additional mess if you get interrupted. Which, of course you will. 3. STORE THINGS WHERE YOU USE THEM AND HAVE AS MANY AS YOU NEED. E.g. I have a magnetic knife strip on the side of my fridge for my most used tools like pliers, tweezers, scissors, etc. I also have scissors at my desk, scissors in my bathroom, scissors with my sewing stuff. Before I did that, I had a bazillion scissors that I could never find. Same with tweezers--kitchen tweezers and bathroom tweezers. My toolbox is in my laundry room. 4. This is key: MAKE IT EASIER TO PUT AWAY THAN TO LEAVE OUT. We're used to spending time looking for stuff! If it's awkward to put away, there it will sit. As much as possible, store things in bins (no lids) and label stuff. I got rid of my dressers and use a shelf system with baskets. There's more I could say, but both Dana and Cas have YT channels; Cas has a show on HGTV. Dana's podcast is AWESOME and if you ever do a series about decluttering and organizing, they would make really great guests for you to interview. CONGRATS on your move!

"Lesson learned. I'll forget, but it was learned." This is ridiculously relatable 🤣

For finding tthings I have taken to labeling EVERYTHING as I put it away. If the labels need to come off afterwards (because things need to move again) I use painters tape. This keeps me from opening all the drawers and instead I just need to read all the labels. That's like 50% more efficient! I also just only move in a fews things at a time and make lists of what I need in certain places before I move and think about where they should go so I have a written guide when I'm there to hang at the door, like this. Kitchen: Cabinet under the sink: dish soap, brush for dishes, drying rack, cleaning cloths, house soaps (window cleaner and such), bucket Cabinet above the sink left: glasses, cups, dinnerplates, deep plates Cabinet above the sink right: breakfast cereals, small plates, bowls, stuff for on bread that is not in the fridge Usually each storage place has a theme, for example the cabinet above the sink on the right is the breakfast and lunch cabinet, it contains all I need to make breakfast or lunch, and the cabinet under the sink is for cleaning (which requires water from the tap in the sink). These themes are often what I put on the labels I stick on cabinets and drawers.

Pam and I have moved five times in our nearly 15 years of marriage. Each time, it's been plenty stressful. At least we got good help each time.

Q. Why is it stressful? A. Everything changed and your brain needs time to become familiar with this place. Q. What can you do about it? A. Give yourself grace (easier said than done) or radical acceptance. Otherwise knowing it will take time to get comfortable.

It’s like watching myself lol I literally needed my best friend to hold my hands through each move. I just can’t handle it. She even helped me find home for everything. My brain would just scream at me or shut down

My wife, Pam, also reminded me of another move coming up -- our adopted daughter, Kelly. Furniture, room arrangement, alarm clock, etc. Our family's getting a new addition, Mr. Green.

Hey Rick! We just moved as well and we had 2 houses on the go. I totally agree about the stress level! Finding things that are still packed, fail! Opening 9 drawers to find the drawer you want - I actually printed out labels for the drawers until we're use to what's in each drawer. My only suggestion is to try to do 1 room at a time! Start to finish! And even then... distraction and other issues arise and the task can't be completed! Good luck and remember to breathe through all of that!

I forgot to comment the first time I saw this. I move every 6 months. I live mostly out of boxes. What isn't in boxes is where I left it before I got distracted, or more likely, it was the distraction and it's where I left it when I remembered what I was supposed to be doing and rushed off. Anywho - your messiest part of the house would be the cleanest of mine.

Right!!???!! For me, it's all the sorting and deciding where everything is going to go. I'd rather get stung by a bee. And I'm allergic.

Moving house make ones personalities showing very obviously. I am moving house in the stretch of three weeks, and the fact that I’m not a meticulous person make it the more difficult. I feel like I’m moving water from one point to another with a bucket full of holes. So stressful.

Thanks for reminding me that I put a cup of coffee in the microwave like 2 hours ago 😖😳

Moving used to be very traumatizing for me, once I remember my brain fog was so bad I could not organize anything, fortunately my dad was with me helping out

🥳 Thanks for keeping it real and relatable 🙌🏻. ADHD Tribe FOUND ✅! Good luck in your beautiful new home! Those views look stunning 🏡

Geez, I hate moving! I have such a hard time getting rid of things. I usually can't. Then sometimes it takes years to fully unpack everything. I think there's stuff we never unpacked from moving to our current place years ago. And like Rick said, I don't know where anything should go in the new place! And we usually end of having to move in the awful summer heat or when we're really busy and it's very inconvenient and there's no time to move. Rick, thank you for this video! I wish you a smooth move! I mean your move to the new place. "Remember, I'm pulling for you. We're all in this together."

No suggestions because I'm worse at it than anyone, but I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to share a video with us. You have so many changes in your life and that's pretty challenging for ADHDers. Thank you Rick, and in a month it will be much more settled.

How Rick makes a video. 1. Rick gets stressed. 2. Rick starts talking. 3. Mrs. Rick sighs, sets up tripod, camera, lights, microphone. 4. Rick keeps talking.

My wife and I have moved 4.5 times (in the middle of hopefully our last move in at least 5 years) since 2020, 2 of which were cross country. My advice for anyone is break it down into manageable steps, pack one room a week and if needed hire movers to help you load/unload if friends aren’t available. It’s ok if it feels like you’re never gonna be done, trust me, we all have more stuff than we realize and that’s ok. Having a decent overlap period can help alleviate the stress, but it’ll never feel like you have enough time. If the place you’re moving into isn’t gonna be home for at least a year or two, prepare for the reality that you might not be unpacked by the time you have to move again. We lived in our most recent house for almost two years and still have a few boxes that are packed

I liked all the healthy food options in the fridge 😁

Labeling with words or pictures is great. When I moved last year, I drew rough maps of the whole house and different rooms, and wrote labels on them (like the parts of a plant cell in science class) to "study". Definitely turning the patience dial up to 11, with yourself and each other. Like road construction... expect delays and put good music on.

First time I lived somewhere for more than 18months, I and the kids had lived there for 7 years. Que reallocation of house to youth homelessness program. I wasn't aware that moving could, and would, be a traumatic experience. (PTSD, ACE, ASD combined to create a panic)

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I laughed so many times and pressed stop to translate my dad (We both have adhs) because it was so funny! Love you and your videos!!!!! 💕💕💕💕💕

Dear Rick, congratulations on the new pad! Pro tip from one hubby to another: that kitchen will have to go, and no matter what you may think, you’re always wrong. You’re welcome! :)

“I know there’s instructions, but I’m busy.” Would be a good t-shirt.

Moving is actually a delight for me.

Having just moved between rentals, I tried to minimise the overlap and ended up having to do everything on the one day! Definitely not recommended. At least this time, I managed to finish packing BEFORE the movers arrived -- still stayed up all night, though. I'm taking it easy on the unpacking (too easy). Here's what helps me: 1. Label each box with a 2-letter code (so you can reuse the box next time) and write down what's in each box, at least roughly. Makes finding things much easier -- though not fool-proof. Try to make the first letter mean something (like B for Books). 2. When I couldn't decide how to finish each box, talking to another person helped a lot. Worst case, just have lots of spare packing material to fill the gaps: bubble wrap, air pockets, shredded cardboard packing (this stuff's great, and comes in sheets), old envelopes, newspapers, etc. Photo albums are good for finishing boxes of paperbacks. 3. Use a digital floor plan to figure out where to put your furniture. I'm procrastinating on drawing one in Visio, but there's great free software such as SweetHome3D. Worst case, draw it manually and cut out the furniture shapes to size. 4. Get someone else to unpack the kitchen, then just keep moving things around until you're happy with them (hopefully in collaboration with the other person). It's not going to be perfect the first time; even little things like the height of a shelf can make you reconsider what you did at your last place. 5. DON'T SWEAT THE MESS! Everybody understands that you've just moved. They don't care about that study room you showed. It wasn't even particularly bad. Take your time, and use the space you have to spread things out and organise them at your own pace. Just try not to run out of steam and stop unpacking completely. Oh, and don't schedule a rental clean on the same day as the movers come! Hope this helps someone.

A: try to find the "final home" and don't move things around. That, for me, is the hardest part about moving. Put those plates in that cupboard - then someone wants to move them to another one. Except I keep going back to the first one. So now, when we move, we draw it out and for storing plates we are like "how far is this cupboard from the dishwasher? Can you reach that cupboard while the DW is open? How far is the cupboard from the stove, to load food onto it? From the dining table?" For coffee and tea, we try to keep stuff we use together near each other. So, we have a tea & coffee shelf at the bottom of a cabinet with drink-related stuff. Then, the coffee mugs are also on the bottom shelf of the neighbouring cabinet. The coffee and tea makers sit below. All of these are very near the fridge, since we want creme, etc. And we keep a cup of small spoons right there, so it is easy peasy. It takes some (ok, a lot) thinking and planning out at the beginning, but it is worthwhile because when you are done, there is very little "WHERE IS THAT THING" going on.

I moved every year for uni. You’d have thought I’d be a light traveller because of this… nope! I moved with more and more things every year as I lurched from deadline to deadline to illness to extension to deadline…. Been in this current place for 2 years (having started my new housing contract, and 2 jobs on the same day!)… hopefully this upcoming move won’t be as stressful!! I’ve been grouping like-with-like over lockdown. Decluttered A LOT. Much more to go, but I am in a better starting position this time around! … though packing hasn’t started yet because I don’t know what I’ll need in the next 2 weeks XD (most stuff is in plastic storage boxes for organisation, at least!). Good luck settling in! I’m finding it a useful but necessary habit to finish small tasks if I’m aware I’m about to dab something down. Having a spot to have things, even if it’s just a quick 5-min pick-up at the end of a day if I forget mid-task, has helped me not feel so overwhelmed starting the next day. Oh, and sleep :p

Keep your eyes on the prize: It’ll all get done eventually. I’d pop by to make coffee (and bring some homemade cookies) if I lived anywhere near you guys.

Additionally, trying to fix stuff while more things are breaking down with this old house. I don’t have the money or resources to purchase another house before mine sales. I have major stress bcz my house have foundation problems and I’m worried that I can’t get it sold or for the amount that I need to purchase another one. I’m a childcare provider so it’s not like I make tons.

"The beeps are different here" - that had me howling. I know exactly what you mean. Glad you're enjoying the new place!

Thanks, you cheered me up on a really stressful day of moving

My favourite solution to the moving problem is to mock perform a task (much like you were doing there with warming a coffee) and put the thing I am looking for in the place I was looking for it in the first place... Example: Task in kitchen: slice a pork loin into pork chop. step one: get cutting board, so I open a cupboard where the cutting board should be and... it's not there. time to move it. step two get sharp knife, go to sharp knife drawer and there's only spoons. guess I'll have to move them around. eventually you will have the kitchen into an efficient state for ANY task. This is one of the reasons why my glasses are next to my water jug, and my coffee cups are in another cupboard nearer to my coffee maker. Sure they could go together, but that's not where I look for them, so it's not where they go.

The music is so Rick! 🎵🎵 I can relate to his stress.😂

Love every minute for it!!

Love the new house, Rick! Congratulations!

Hi Rick! Would you mind telling me what your delicious substitute coffee is?? Also, moving is hard work for sure, but oh that wonderful feeling of owning your own home makes it so worthwhile!!💙☕

Moving in my twenties was exciting, but I’ve now moved at least 12 more times, and the novelty has worn off. I lose so much valuable time packing, unpacking, making old things fit into new rooms, and then trying to reclaim my schedule (so, months) that I’d rather burn my current rental down than pack again, and we’re on the verge of moving again.

Oh my goodness! I don't even know where to start. Hubby and I both have ADHD with kids (two of which also have it.) Hubby and I have moved somewhere around 18 times in 20ish years cuz... you know...boredom.... and some other legit reasons. This last move just about killed us. We were selling our house and living in the new place and had an overlap of over 6 months. Juggling kids and packing and all that what horrific. We've been living in this place for well over a year and we still aren't settled. Then to top it all off....wait for it....pun intended.....the toilets just overflowed this morning....just started bubbling up and it went down the hall where there was a bunch of stuff that we've been sorting. Sometimes I want to punch people who say ADHD is a super power! 😆 🤣 😂

This was perfect timing for me, I'm moving soon! I always wondered exactly why moving is just so unsettling for me. As an adult diagnosed with ADHD at 54 (I'm 56 now), I am learning that there is so much more to ADHD than "just" distraction. Thank you so much for your channel and I absolutely LOVE The Red Green Show! My family (my parents and my children) have been watching it since day 1. Well, my daughter was a newborn and my son was 2, but they still "watched" it with me :) Thank you again for this channel, you have really helped me xo

OMG The coffee making - it is so me in the kitchen, doing literally anything, even though I moved here 2 years ago 😅 also I still can't figure out how to properly use all devices there. They supposedly can do some fancy stuff, but I know only the easiest basics 😁 Edit: I just wanted to add, that I should learn and get used to all of this, because i moved over 20 times in my life already 🙄

I LITERALLY just googled this. Moving right now. You got cameras in my house, Rick?

LOL just yesterday I was saying I need to buy 25 screwdrivers so I'd always have one.

Every last person with ADHD: "My {significant other} may not want you to see/hear/know this but...". {Somewhere, possibly several miles away, the significant other involuntarily facepalms and does not know why.}

☺️ i know the feeling 🤣🤣💞

Great channel!

Eliot wants to know what happened to the unofficial add test!

Why is everyone talking about trying to figure out where things being out of place. How about having a ton on things to pack when your supposed to be out in two days

I thought this video was going to be about literally moving, like moving your body to do things. As soon as I got to the video it clicked.

Just don't glue yourself to a chair and you'll be fine. LOL. Where are the model trains gonna go?

Had to move 3 times in 10 months. No wonder I’m at my breaking point

What happened with Totally Add? 🥺

You look like you need a drink, lol

What happened to your video, "10 signs it's not ADHD"?!