What to do when you move to a new city alone

The challenge of moving to a new city alone is not be underestimated. Moving to a new city is already hard enough, but when you’re facing that major change in your life on your own, things can become even harder, especially in the very beginning.

Only time will tell whether you’ve been truly ready for what the new city life has to offer you. For now, your top priority when you move to a new city on your own is to do whatever you have to do to breeze through the immediate post-relocation period without making any major mistakes.

Moving to a new place alone comes down to making the right choices while staying true to who you are and what you believe in. Here are the top 7 tips for moving to a new city alone:

#1: Find the right home for yourself
In the majority of cases, you’ll already have secured a place to live in the new city before you decide to move out of the current house or apartment. At times, however, circumstances may force you to stay with a friend for some time or rent a place temporarily until you find the right home for you.

Moving to a new city alone without having secured a decent roof over your head will add extra pressure, but you will soon make it work by setting your priorities right (figure out your requirements concerning the new home), researching your housing options (location, type of dwelling, size of home, and its current condition), and making sure you can afford the home (ideally, its monthly rent or mortgage shouldn’t exceed 25% of your disposable income).

How to find the right home when moving to a new city


#2: Start unpacking your stuff, little by little
Moving into a new city alone will often mean that you won’t have any good friends to help you unpack and arrange the contents of all the freshly-delivered cardboard boxes. This is why you’ll have to finish this arduous task on your own.

Naturally, you’ll want to unpack all the essentials boxes first, and then you’ll want to make sure the bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom are all unpacked and ready for use. Follow a good unpacking checklist because it’s really important to plan and organize the unpacking job in a way that it won’t clash with other equally important tasks. Also, such an unpacking timeline will help you maintain a much higher level of efficiency while unpacking and arranging your stuff in the new home.

What to unpack first when you move into a new home

#3: Find a job and focus on it
Ideally, you’ll be moving to a new city for a job (job-related relocation), which basically means that you won’t have to worry about securing a steady monthly income. But if you don’t have a job yet, then, obviously, your top-priority task is to find one as soon as you can.

During the initial post-move period, a place to work and a decent pay will really help you deal with moving to a new city alone. Focus on whatever it is that you do to block any negative and depressing thoughts from entering your mind. Also, your chance to spend time with your work colleagues will make the transition period much easier, while your adaptation to the unknown environment will become much faster.

How do relocation packages work?

#4: Make new friends
Yes, moving to a new city alone can be really tough as you won’t have close family members and good friends to support you and help you out whenever you happen to need help. The good news is that you should have plenty of opportunities to meet new people and turn some of them into good friends.

How to make friends in a new city? One of the guiding rules is to arm yourself with patience – you can’t expect to find great friends in a week or so. Meet your neighbors, interact with your co-workers, and pursue your hobbies and interests by signing up for classes and joining various clubs.

Another guiding rule is to open your mind and say YES! to unique opportunities to meet and spend time with people with similar interests.

How to make friends in a new city

#5: Explore and get to know your new city
Moving to a new area alone is a huge leap from your comfort zone, and as a result, the relocation itself will most likely make you feel ill at ease or even miserable. You probably don’t know a soul in that new area, and the place you’re expected to call home now is so unfamiliar and strange that it’s frightening at times.

Exploring the town or city you’ve just moved to is one good way to overcome that unwelcoming sense of unfamiliar strangeness. Take a long exploratory trip within the city itself, locate important landmarks, and find places of interest that you will definitely re-visit later.

What to locate first when moving to a new city

#6: Protect yourself from relocation depression
In addition to all the stress you must have endured during the long weeks of getting ready to move out, you’ve also recently survived Moving day itself – the most stressful day of the entire move. Add that stress to that fact that you’ve just got separated from family, friends and a city and a home that were perfectly familiar, and you may soon start to feel the sheer force of one powerful side effect of moving to a different city alone – relocation anxiety.

Relocation depression is a strong nostalgic reaction to losing the comfort and familiarity of your old life. If you suddenly notice any disturbing signs such as lack of energy, excessive sleep, reluctance to go out of the new home and unwillingness to meet or interact with new people, you may be down with relocation depression.

Besides giving yourself enough time to acclimatize properly, follow the link below to learn how to cope with relocation depression.

How to overcome relocation depression

#7: Manage your new city budget
Now that you have overcome the fear of the unknown and have found a good solution to the puzzle How to move to a new city alone, you may find it difficult to slow down the momentum of the relocation pace and shift into an unnecessary overspending mode after the move is over. The thing is that it’s relatively easy to rush into Home Depot stores to purchase all the things you think you’ll need for the new home.

Above all, be careful how you manage your personal finances right after the move. Be a sensible shopper: fight the impulse to buy all the things on the first day, and keep your eyes and ears open for priceless information about deals, sales, coupons, and of course – the cheapest places to shop in town. Also, cut your transportation costs by learning about and using the most cost-effective ways to commute to work and travel around the city. Remember that using your own car is not always the best way to save money when moving to a new city.