10 Things to Do Before Moving
Create a budget
Creating a budget is a great way to find out where you can cut expenses as well as figure out more efficient ways to get moved. If you create your budget and see that you have enough room to hire professional movers they will be able to streamline the entire process and take the stress out of moving in general. If you decide to move, creating a budget will still let you know how much money you can spend on gathering supplies or buying dinner or drinks for anyone who decides to help you and possibly even gas depending on how far you’re moving.
Change your address
You will want to update your address to your new home address as soon as possible. This means credit cards, mortgage statements, cell phones, and utilities which you’ll need to have switched over to your new home anyways. Another thing you should do is go down to the post office or fill out a form online to have all of your mail forwarded to your new address. This will help bridge the gap from the time that you are actually moving out to when you’re in your new home, giving you enough time to remedy if any company still has not changed your address after you’ve requested it.
Purge
there’s nothing better than a good purge of unwanted or unneeded items. Quite frankly, when you start packing it’s only natural that you find things that you just don’t love anymore. If your items are still in good condition there are several charities that can take lightly used clothing, kitchenware, or even old board games. That being said, do not try to donate items that are not in good condition. If it’s stained, cracked or broken in any way, just throw it away. When moving to a new home, it’s best to move with the essentials and the things that you truly love because we all know that even though you purge before you move, eventually you will keep accumulating more items so this will just be one of many purges that you have in your life.
Create a system
When you are packing, go through each room and pack like-items together. If you create a system where you can put labels on boxes saying this goes to the living room, this goes to the master bedroom, this goes to the kitchen. If you want to add an additional level of labeling, you can go to the dollar store and they have little dot stickers that are different colors, so you can pick one color for the important items that you want to open right away, and then you can pick a different color from ones that you can wait a little bit longer. Then, you can also pick a color for the things that it honestly you don’t use on a day-to-day basis and they can be stored until you’re ready to use them so there is no urgency in opening the box. That being said, do not make your systems so complicated that somebody else can’t understand what it means. If you do, all that will happen is people will constantly be asking you what do I do here? Should I open this box? All of which is just going to make your life much more difficult during a move.
Gather packing supplies
Gathering supplies to move is much more than just getting boxes packing tape and bubble wrap although those are very important as well. Something you should consider with your furniture, is how can you move it in the safest way possible? At Tucson Moving Service, we are well-versed in the tools that are best at helping move large, heavy, and awkwardly shaped items. At a bare minimum, you should have a dolly so that you can stack boxes on it and roll it out to your vehicle or moving van. However, another item you might consider getting is moving straps that will help you maneuver extremely heavy items that you really should not try to pick up and move.
Ask for help
Unfortunately, many people get overwhelmed when it comes to moving whether it be locally or across the country. The best thing you can do for yourself is ask for help. Take note of your personal strengths such as if you are extremely organized make sure that you created a system, as we talked about before so that everything is as streamlined as possible when helpers arrive so they aren’t standing around waiting for you to make a decision. If you aren’t as great at organizing but you have a friend or family member who is, ask for their advice or input and you may be surprised about how helpful that will be for you. Play to your strengths! Also, consider that the worst thing that can happen when you ask for help is that somebody can say no and that’s okay because there are always other people that may be able to help you. Part of it is being courteous enough to ask someone well enough in advance that they can make arrangements to help you out. Do not ask somebody a day, a week, or even two weeks ahead of time. if you have the option to give someone a month’s notice that would be best.
Measure everything!
It may seem time-consuming to measure all of the furniture you will be moving, however, it is an important step that you should not overlook. You need to know the measurements not only of your furniture but also the moving van or truck you will be using, and the measurements in your new home. The last thing you want to do is arrive at your new home and realize there’s no way to get your couch in through the door or that you have too much furniture in general that won’t fit into certain rooms in your home as you planned. If you have measured ahead of time you will be able to make tough decisions regarding furniture that may not work in your new home.
Clean before you move
Cleaning your new home prior to moving in is an important step that is made difficult when you are moving a long distance. If you do not have enough time to get there before the moving truck arrives, you may have to move furniture around after the fact. Most homes that you move into will have been cleaned but in the event that for some reason cleaning certain surfaces was overlooked it’s always good to just give the entire house a good wipe down, with special attention being paid to the counters, floors, and cupboards.
Load truck in a smart way
When loading a moving truck or van, you will want to start with the things that you will need the least. That means they will be at the very back of the truck. The reason you should load the things you need the most last is that they will be the first things off of the truck. This is particularly important if you have something like a bed that you would like to unload first considering that unpacking the entire truck could take a few days.
Check, double check, triple check…
We know it sounds tedious, but along the journey you will want to check, double check, and even triple check every single step. That means from start to finish when you are making a plan to move, figuring out moving dates, who can come out and help you move long distance, planning your hotel stays, or if you’re driving straight through, getting your car checked. Keep in mind that things can change rather quickly and any intentions that you may have had may need to be re-evaluated as the journey goes along. Stick to your original plan as much as possible, but remember that being flexible will help keep your stress down.
Getting ready for your big move but feel like the stress is starting to get to you? Fill out the form below to receive our guide to the "Most Common Moving Day Mistakes," so you can learn how to avoid unnecessary stressors.
