Will your apartment lease be up soon? Are you planning to move to another apartment or perhaps even to a house that you've purchased? No matter where you're moving or why moving can sometimes be an extremely stressful event in your life. But by planning ahead and making arrangements now, you can reduce the amount of stress and the number of hours that you actually need to use to move on moving day. Some things that you should do now include:

Book a moving company: Sure, you could try to recruit friends or family members to help you move but this can be more trouble than it's worth. People may say that they'll be there to help you and then never show up or they may show up and damage some of your belongings because they don't know how to handle it. By booking one of your local moving services for your moving day now, you'll ensure that you have competent moving help on the day that you need it. Because spring and summer can be busy times for local moving services, make sure to call and make arrangements for your upcoming move as soon as you are able to do so.

Start sorting and packing now: Some people wait until a week or barely a month until the actual move date to start packing. While you don't want to pack up important things that you need, like your current wardrobe, you can start packing up things like holiday decorations and winter clothing. Not only will this help to ensure that you don't run out of packing supplies at the last minute, throwing out or otherwise getting rid of some of your unnecessary belongings will help to ensure that whatever local moving services that you hire to assist you are able to complete the move in a faster timeframe.

Get a storage unit: Grandmother's knick-knacks, birth certificates, school papers are all things that you are going to want to keep track of during the move. While local moving services will do their best to make sure that everything is where you want it, it's also possible that you'll simply lose track of which box or plastic tote that these things are in. Instead of having to search your new home for these important items, get a small storage unit to hold your most precious belongings. Once the move has been completed and you are settled into your new home, you can move these things out of storage yourself without having had to worry about whether they somehow got left behind in the move.