With the official busiest moving day of the year, June 30, coming up fast, a new poll has revealed that British Columbians are finding moving home increasingly stressful – and suffer the most acute moving stress in Canada.
Despite the host of packing, moving and storage companies and solutions available, 79 per cent of B.C. respondents said they find moving home a stressful experience, which is a whopping 14 percentage points higher than a year ago. Among those, 17 per cent of British Columbians said that moving is “extremely stressful.”
Since last year’s nationwide poll, conducted annually by storage company BigSteelBox, B.C. residents have surpassed Ontario as the most likely to feel stressed out when it comes to moving.
The poll also found that, out of a list of major life changes, moving home was cited as the most stressful activity by more British Columbians (36 per cent) than starting a new job (30 per cent), quitting smoking (15 per cent), starting a family (11 per cent) or planning a wedding (seven per cent).
BigSteelBox attributed the increase in moving-related stress to not only the act of moving, but also everything that comes with buying and selling a home in pricey British Columbia, combined with rising living costs.
“It’s not surprising that British Columbians are experiencing more stress than the rest of Canada when it comes to moving,” said Brian Hawkins, director of operations at BigSteelBox. “We’ve definitely noticed the effects that increasing housing costs, new taxes and mortgage lending rules, and gas prices have had on our B.C. customers.”
For many, the stress of a home move doesn’t go away immediately, found the poll. Nearly a third of B.C. respondents said that it lasts at least three months after moving day, with 14 per cent saying it lasts over six months and 18.6 per cent saying the stress lasts three to five months.
Procrastination when it comes to packing was another finding of the poll, with 36 per cent of B.C. residents saying they wait until the last few days before the move to finish packing, and 11.7 per cent of those waiting until the night before. Once in the new home, only six per cent of British Columbians start unpacking the same day, found the survey.
