What to Do When Your Best Friend Is Moving Away

You just learned that your best friend is moving away soon.

Wait, what?

That piece of information may be rather unexpected for you or you may have suspected it for some time now. Either way, it’s nothing but bad news for you since you’ll be losing your best buddy sometime in the next few weeks.

It’s painful to realize that you won’t be seeing your best friend before long and that you won’t be able to hang out with them anymore – the thought alone makes you really, really sad.

Why, WHY does your best pal have to move away now?

Life is largely unpredictable and it’s how you adapt to the constant flow of changes that determines how much stronger you will bounce back from each difficult situation. And here’s the latest challenge for you: how to cope with your best friend moving away.

Read on to learn the top 10 things you can do when your best friend is moving away so that the imminent separation causes the least possible pain for both you and your pal.

1. Talk with them about the upcoming move

The very first thing you should do when you learn that your best friend is moving away is to find the time to discuss the matter with him or her. Hopefully, it’ll be your buddy who breaks the news to you in the first place.

The important thing is to get the chance to discuss the upcoming move with your friend while taking a pleasant walk in a park or while having a drink in your favorite bar. Talk openly about the big changes that are coming and how those changes will affect, directly or indirectly, your friendship.

Be completely honest with each other as you’ve been until that moment – talk about your expectations and your hopes, and most importantly – make plans about how you’re going to keep in touch with each other and when you’ll see each other again after the move becomes a reality.

View the fact that your best friend is moving to a new city as a test – a test for which you will have to find your inner strength in order to pass it.

2. Try to understand their reasons

It’s possible that you get to feel betrayed in a way by your best friend’s decision to move away. How could they do this to you? Don’t they love you anymore? Don’t they want to stay close to you so that you can hang out and do fun things together?

It appears that your friend has already made up their mind to move away, so very rarely will you be able to convince them to stay. Bear in mind that they must have considered all possible implications of their decision, so it must be even harder for your best pal to move away from YOU.

And that’s exactly why it’s so important to find the time to talk openly with your buddy – you just have to know WHY they are moving away from you so that there are no bad misunderstandings or hard feelings later on.

3. Support your best friend’s decision

Be a good listener and hear out what your best buddy has to say. The thing is that they can be moving away for a number of good reasons – moving for a new job (or a better one), moving for love (the best one of them all), moving for education, or maybe even moving due to health issues.

What should you do if your best friend is moving? The best thing you can do in that situation is to accept your friend’s decision even if it feels very unfair at the time. Your pal will expect your support, so that’s the exact moment to show them how much you care for them by being supportive and sympathetic.

If the main reason for your pal’s move is a happy one, then you should try to share their excitement and be happy for them – never an easy thing to do when you’re saddened by their imminent departure.

If the underlying reason behind your best friend’s choice to move out is an unhappy one, then you must show them that you’re there for them during that tough transitional period.

4. Help your best friend with packing

It’s crucial to offer your best friend your moral support but it’s also important to offer to help them out with the actual move when the time comes. After all, that’s what friends are for – to help each other in difficult moments.

So, what to do if your best friend is moving away? Lend them a helping hand with packing – the most laborious and time-consuming task in anyone’s moving checklist. Unless your pal has already hired professional packers for the job, that is.

Ultimately, there are two distinct ways you can help your friend with the packing task:

• Give them packing advice. Your friend may have no idea how to organize the packing job – they may not know which rooms to pack first or when to start boxing up their things. So, one of the best things you can do when your best friend is moving to a new city is to recommend them a good Packing Checklist (Packing Timeline) to help them tackle the job faster and more efficiently.
• Give them a hand. Offer your packing assistance to your buddy – the chances are that they will gladly accept your offer, especially if they happen to have little time left until the move-out day.

The best packing tips for moving

5. Help your buddy with moving heavy furniture

Stop wondering what to do if your best friend is moving away – just free up enough time in your calendar to help them with all the heavy lifting that’s bound to happen on Moving day.

If your friend is moving across the country (long distance), then they are most likely going to hire professional movers for the job, so your help on Moving day won’t really be needed. However, if your pal is moving locally, then they may have chosen to rent a moving truck and attempt to pull off a DIY move without using the services of a professional moving company.

Ultimately, one of the absolute best things you can do when your best friend is moving away is to help them on Moving day to lift, carry and load big and heavy items such as furniture pieces, appliances, and boxes.

Do remind your pal that the safest way to handle all the heavy lifting is to use the proper moving equipment such as a moving dolly, furniture sliders, and straps. Also, go through the proper lifting techniques again to prevent painful personal injuries of any sort and avoid costly property damage.

Safety tips for moving heavy furniture

6. Help your friend find a good mover

If your friend is moving to a new state, then the most logical choice for him or her will be to use the services of a professional moving company to transport their belongings all the way to the new address. Therefore, one thing you can do is to help you pal find one of the best long-distance movers in the country.

Start the hunt for reputable interstate movers by asking your friend to get a free cost quote from top-rated cross-country movers in the town or city. Once your pal gets into contact with such trustworthy moving companies, advise him to ask those moving companies to send representatives to his home for accurate cost estimates in writing.

When your good friend is moving away, an excellent way to help him out is to look at the written cost estimates he received and pick a moving company that’s both affordable and reliable. Check whether the moving companies are registered with and licensed by the U.S. Department of Transportation (check their USDOT number).

Also, make sure the moving companies are members of the American Moving and Storage Association (AMSA) and accredited by the Better Business Bureau (BBB-accredited).

How to find reliable movers

7. Create great memories before your friend moves away

It can be really tough to deal with a best friend moving away, especially when the move becomes only a matter of time. The good news (is there any good news at all?) is that your friend is still here so you still have the chance to spend more time together and create some great memories in the meantime.

The fast-approaching separation will still be painful for both of you but the memories of the quality time you spend shortly before the move will give you the strength to carry on before you can see each other again.

Whenever you can, assist your best friend with their tasks so that you two can finish them faster and free up time in the moving calendar for something fun. Here are some ideas to have fun together with your best friend in order to form some invaluable memories and keep the stress of moving under control:

• Go out in nature, go hiking, fishing, or camping together;
• Play a sport you both enjoy, either indoor or outdoor;
• Go watch a movie together;
• Steal a weekend for yourselves and to go someplace exciting, maybe to a place that is meaningful for you in some way;
• Take plenty of photos and record video clips to document your fun pre-move time together with your best friend.

Guide to moving to another state

8. Organize a farewell party for your friend

Without a doubt, one of the best things you can do when your best friend is moving away is to help them organize a farewell party before they leave town. Or you can choose to throw a surprise farewell party for your best buddy and invite many of your mutual friends in secret and then SURPRISE! your friend with the idea.

Farewell parties tend to provoke strong emotions – often, bittersweet emotions. On one hand, it’s great to have many good friends in one place reminiscing the old times, laughing, singing, dancing, and just having a good time. On the other hand, your best friend is leaving soon so sadness will inevitably settle in at some point during the goodbye party.

You can think of various games to stay entertained during the party but do consider getting everyone to give a short speech in order to say goodbye in their own words to the friend who’s about to move away soon.

It’s okay to be sad when your best pal is moving away – just remember that the move will not and should not be the end of your friendship – see below how you can stay easily in touch with each other.

9. Think of a goodbye gift for your friend

One thing is sure – it won’t be easy to cope with your best friend moving away. Unfortunately, there’s nothing you can do about it and the sooner you accept that some things will always stay out of your control, the easier it will be for you to deal with the change.

Giving your best friend a goodbye gift is the perfect way to show them how much you care about them. So, think of something nice and meaningful to give them before they move out. The best thing about this idea is that gifts for friends moving away don’t need to be expensive at all – the only condition is that the farewell gift has to be something that means a lot for both of you.

Here are some good ideas for goodbye gifts:

• WRITE a goodbye letter to your best friend moving away – there are no set rules, just express your feelings in a creative way.
• MAKE a photo album or a scrapbook that’s full of lovely memories.
• CREATE something unique for your best pal – draw a painting, write a poem, compose a song, knit a hat, gloves or a scarf – a beautiful and valuable token of your friendship that your friend will cherish for years to come.

20 Tips for moving long distance

10. Promise your friend to keep in touch

The farewell party is the perfect moment to make plans about how your friend and you will keep in touch and when you will see each other again. Your best friend is moving away but the long distance alone should not matter when it comes to close friends.

Luckily, there are many ways you can stay in touch after they move away: phone calls, instant messaging, free Internet calls, e-mails, social media networks, and even the old fashion way of exchanging letters and postcards.

Ultimately, it’s up to you both to keep your friendship alive after your best friend has moved away. If possible, make concrete plans to visit each other from time to time simply because there’s nothing like seeing your best friend face to face and spending time with them.

Must-read: How to deal with moving away from home, family, and friends