A week ago, we moved house in Switzerland from Lausanne to Morges. If you’ve had ever moved house, relocated or been through a renovation process, you would know that it is a REAL roller-coaster ride of emotions. The stress, the chaos, the excitement and the exhaustion….there’s really only a few other things in life (maybe parenthood?) that can rival it in terms of intensity!

Looking back over the whole time, I have to admit there are many things that we could have done more efficiently and differently if I had my time over. The dust’s finally settled and I am sitting in my new living room typing this post to reflect about the whole process of moving house in Switzerland – the ups, the downs, and the honest reality of it.

I have also specially prepared a Swiss MOVING CHECKLIST compiled based on my personal experience, so stay till the end of the post!

Lesson 1: Start Early, but not CRAZY early

I am an anxious person by nature, and when it comes to stressful situations, my coping mechanism had always been to start early. As a student, you would never catch me skiving. if the finals are due in November, I would have already started revision a full month ago. As a bride-to-be,I spent an entire year planning for my wedding.

I guess it’s this typical Singaporean kiasu-ness inherent in me, this constant need to prepare in advance, to avoid being caught off-guard and to obtain self-assurance.

Except that when it comes to packing and still living inside the apartment, this mental strategy turned out to be a super bad and unproductive decision. It simply messes up your life and you feel like living in limbo.

Our move was initially scheduled on July 17, and could you actually believe it, I actually started packing on Jun 16! Worse, I’d made the critical mistake of semi-packing up my kitchen and bedroom first, and also not consulting my husband on what were the essentials he needed in the lead up to the move.

Here’s how the situation turned out:

Incident No 1:

Vince: “Where’s the wine-glasses?”

Ollie: “Oops. I packed it.”

**ends up unpacking**

Incident No 2:

Vince: “Where are all my shorts? I can’t find them!”

Ollie: “Oops. They’re packed. I thought you could wear your pants and jeans.”

Vince: “But it’s summer now!?”

**ends up unpacking**

Incident No 3:

**Half-way through baking chocolate bread**

Ollie: “OMG. Where’s my whisk and vanilla essence?”

Realised it’s packed it a week ago.

**ends up unpacking**

There were so many other cases of similar happenings, but could you see how my anxiety ended up backfiring?

I’d thought that by starting early and do a little bit of packing everyday, that would give me some tangible sign of progress and provide some form of short-term relief. But doing so only resulted in me wasting MORE time unpacking and repacking, because essential stuffs that are needed have to be taken out.

Worst of all, it caused us to suffer living in a tense and chaotic home environment cluttered with boxes for an unnecessary extended period of time.

If I could rewind time and redo this move again, I would focus less on packing early, but more on calming myself down and PLANNING early. By setting out a timeline up till moving day and sticking to it, planning a checklist of things to do before the move, and packing WELL, labelling my boxes in categores.

I’d hate for anyone to repeat the same mistake as I’d did. That’s why up I decided to compile a Swiss Moving Checklist!

In it, you will find a reasonable timeline and specifics on what to do from 3 weeks in advance up till post-move, along with some useful moving resources and hacks I’d acquired during my own moving process.

I hope it will useful as a guide to for anyone of you that is perhaps also in the process of moving house in Switzerland or potentially relocating to this country 🙂

You can sign up to my mailing list HERE to get this freebie!

(NOTE: For existing subscribers, you will be asked to update your preferences: check box for Swiss Moving Checklist”)

LESSON 2: FOCUS ON ONE AREA AT A TIME

So many times I found myself wandering from room to room and almost wanting to faint at the sight of ALL THE STUFF EVERYWHERE, and it got me so overwhelmed and stressed out. One moment I’d be packing the toiletries in the bathroom, the next moment I’m frantically folding clothes in my bedroom, and I ended up finishing neither.

But on the final night when I was just focusing on JUST the kitchen, and Vince tackling the basement, we were much more efficient and focused in the packing. And guess what?! It was all done in a matter of hour in one night.. That’s way faster than me starting 3 weeks ago in the bedroom and packing little by little!

Lesson learnt: It’s much easier if you stick to packing just one room at the time and not be distracted. Start with the rooms or items you use the least first – winter clothing, storage items in the basement, study room etc.

IMPORTANT: SAVE THE KITCHEN AND BATHROOM TILL THE LAST. After-all you need to eat and shit everyday.

LESSON 3: THE MORE THE MERRIER (AND EASIER!)

Moving is so much more enjoyable and manageable when you have a support network to rally around you!

We did not engage a moving company this time, but we were incredibly lucky to have had the help of our close friends who lent us trolleys, cars, and physical labour before and on moving day!

My two girlfriends Maha and Sheryl helped with moving the boxes, and sorting out the kitchen. The husbands (Manu and Fabrice)helped Vince with the heavy loading and unloading of our furniture and driving the truck. Thanks to them, our apartment was in semi live-in condition by the end of Moving Day: The kitchen and dining table were fully set up, and we had the guestroom sofa ready for the night, since our double bed was still unpacked.

It was really #teameffort and without the 4 of them, it would have been impossible for just me and Vince to handle this move all by ourselves! I’m super grateful knowing that we have friends we can rely on during important occasions like this.

LESSON 4: KINDNESS COMES IN BOXES

Since we did not engage the help of moving company, we had to source for packing materials e.g. boxes by ourselves. I went to supermarkets like Coop, Migros and Otto’s to pick up some boxes, but still they weren’t large enough to handle bulky furniture. So I tried reaching on the expat forums in Facebook, casually asking if anyone would be kind enough to donate unused cardboard boxes.

A lady who lived closeby saw my message. She had just finished moving recently and happened to be left with tons of spare boxes. I told her I would come down to collect them, but when she realised that I didn’t have a car and was intending to come with a trolley, she said not to worry, she could easily drive them over!

The next thing i know, I have 20 large boxes driven up to my doorstep. :’)

The saying is true: ASK, and you will surely receive. You will be surprised by the kindness and generosity of friends and strangers alike.

I urge you to reach out to as many people as possible during the moving process, it’s definitely a time where you’ll need and appreciate any extra help.

LESSON 5: FORGET ABOUT CLEANLINESS

Moving is the time you simply have to LET GO of your expectations of tip-top cleanliness, It was crazy have to deal with all the amount of clutter, dust and dog hair everyday. We were had to manually vacuum every single day up towards the moving day because just the robot cleaner itself wasn’t sufficient!

Remember, try to stay sane and know that this is all part and parcel of the moving process. And also consider it time to get a Dyson!

LESSON 6: TAKE TIME OFF PACKING

Besides those occasional 15-minute breaks from packing, take time out for real breaks where you can take your mind off the moving process and catch a breather. Go out and have dinner. Hang out with friends. Journal your feelings about the move. Call your family. Take a walk outside and enjoy nature.

We went on a scenic hike in Bien 2 weeks before our move, and I also enjoyed a fun e-biking trip in France with my colleagues.

Yes, it might have taken away time from my moving plans, but I NEEDED this break to stay energised and to keep going.

LESSON 7: EXPECT A MIXED BAG OF EMOTIONS

When we first relocated to Switzerland, Morges had been our first choice to settle in. We really loved the cute little village vibes (while being modern at the same time), the convenience that living in a compact town provides, and also the chance to live right by the lake. Unfortunately our application did not get through at that time, which was why we decided to settle in Lausanne, since it was closer to Vince’s workplace anyway.

2.5 years later we’d come full circle.

Of course we are happy and excited about starting a new life in our new neighbourhood, but deep down we will still miss Lausanne. This city is special to us. It’s the place that welcomed us when we first arrived, wild-eyed and unknowing to everything Swiss. Slowly we got used to the rhythm of this bustling university town, the diverse mix of people (Swiss,French Portugese, Spanish, Africans, Chinese), and settled into this second home.

In our short time living in our humble apartment in Prilly, we hosted our 10 family and friends from Singapore who came to visit in 2019 during the pre-Covid days. Those were the most precious times we’d had spent with our loved ones.

Within these four walls, this apartment also saw us through Vince’s 30th birthday, adopting our first dog, numerous apéros, barbecues and gatherings. In this apartment, we had periods of loneliness, identity crisis, laughter and fights, it even tided through a long month of lockdown in 2020!

We were also extremely lucky to have neighbours whom we know by their first names and could go beyond just saying the standard “bonjour” and “bon soirée”. They helped us with dog-sitting, we invited each other over for coffee regularly, exchanged baking treats, and recently we even celebrated the arrival of their newborn.

I don’t know how my new neighbours would be like in Morges but all I can say is…it will be hard to match up with our old neighbours, they were really our angels in Switzerland :’)

From the daily walks with Kaya at park Valency, seeing the Christmas lightup in the Old Town, having picnics along Ouchy with friends, taking sunday walks in the Lavaux vineyards…These are the all things I’ll miss about living in Lausanne.

To all readers that have been for following our Swiss journey all this while, thank you for your support!

We are really grateful for the memories that Lausanne had blessed us with, and can’t wait to share with you all that’s to come in our new chapter in Morges!

Love,Ollie