Residentail moving tends to be a stressful and exhausting process. Whether you are moving across town or across the country, without proper planning, your move can quickly be derailed. Residential moving doesn’t have to be a frustrating endeavor, with the plan you can avoid the last minute catastrophes and ensure a smooth move.
1. Get Organized Early
To cut down on your stress, you want to get yourself organized as early as possible. Chances are you have between 30 and 60 days to make a plan and get organized to make sure your residential move goes smoothly. Moving Magazine can provide you with tips to get your organized for your move.
2. Figure Out Your Move Strategy
Figuring our how you are going to get from point A to point B is an important item that needs to be decided. Are you going to ask your friends to help you move, or will you hire a reliable moving company?
3. Seize the Opportunity to Purge
Take the opportunity to get rid of the items that you no longer use. Hold a yard sale, or donate items to your local charity. Put larger items like furniture up on sites like Craigslist, recycle old magazines and catalogues, and shred old documents.
4. Put Together a Packing Kit
If you have a team helping your pack, stay organized by establishing a system. Let each person tackle an area or room, and arm them with a pen, black marker and packing materials. This will help you save time and help get things done before the move day.
5. Label Everything
To make sure that you can find everything when you are ready to unpack, make sure that you label all sides of the box (avoid the top). Whoever is bringing in your boxes may not be interested in making sure that all of the labels are facing the right way so you can easily retrieve them. Labeling every side of the box will make it easy for you to find what you need in the stack.
6. Prepare a Moving Day Kit
Set one box aside and place essential items in it that you will need on moving day: cleaning supplies, light bulbs, toilet paper, garbage bags, a change of clothes, etc.
7. Be Ready for Your Movers
Whether you are having your friends help you move, or you’ve hired professionals, like Jay’s Small Moves, you want to be sure you are ready for them when they show up at your door. With a moving company, be ready and packed before the crew arrives. If you are scrambling for boxes you will only delay your move and end up costing you more money.
8. Protect Your Valuables
When it comes to your valuables find a safe place to store them on moving day. Purchase additional insurance for anything that’s valuable or breakable if you are using a moving company. If you are moving a computer, make sure you backup important files just in case something happens during transport.
9. Hook Up Essential Services
When you move to a new place, it is important to make sure you understand how the transfer of utility bills are going to be handled. You also want to make arrangement to have your phone line, cable, and Internet installed shortly after you move in.
10. Treat Your Movers
If you’ve opted not to hire professional movers and have recruited your friends and family to lend you a hand, be sure to have food and drinks available for everyone at the end of the move. If you’re moving on a hot day, your moving crew will appreciate a nice cold drink.
It is never easy to deal with a residential move, but with a little pre planning and some organization, you can eliminate a lot of the stress that goes along with it. Get a head start and stay organized to make it through your next move unscathed so you can really enjoy your new home. Real Simple has more great ideas on how you can make your next move as stress free as possible.
Looking for ways to make your upcoming move as smooth as possible? Contact Jay’s Small Moves.