A new year means a new you, and maybe a new home! If you’re planning on moving in the new year, set a goal for yourself to make it as easy as possible. Of course, you’ll still have to deal with COVID-19 precautions, especially as cases continue to surge. However, that doesn’t mean moving in the new year is impossible. In fact, with the appropriate planning and hiring professional movers, your move can be easy.
So whether you’re moving down the street or across the country, you can get your new year started off on the right foot. Just follow these tips and you’ll be on your way to moving to your new home.
Research Professional Movers In Advance
Whether you plan on hiring long-distance movers or local movers, you need to do your research well in advance. There are dozens of companies out there, but not all of them are the same and, unfortunately, some of them might be scam companies. Even reputable moving companies don’t offer the same services or prices for that matter. The best moving company for your friend might not be the best one for you. That’s why it’s important to first figure out your needs. Are you just looking for basic loading and unloading or do you want the movers to also pack and unpack for you? Do you have bulky items such as pianos, pool tables, or large pieces of furniture? All of these details can help you narrow down your search in the beginning.
Instead of a haphazard Google search, first make a list of moving companies you’ve heard of whether that’s ones your friends and family have used, ones you’ve used in the past, or companies that have positive moving reviews online. From there, look at the services they provide and then narrow the list further to the ones that offer what you need. You should call at least 5-6 different moving companies and talk with them about their rates and services. At the same time, you should also look out for potential red flags. Some examples include:
- Not answering your questions directly
- Wildly low or high estimates for the move
- Anger or irritation when you ask questions
- General unprofessionalism
- No information on their site and very little when you do a search on them
Always follow your intuition. If you think a company seems like a bad fit for whatever reason, don’t hire them! Legitimate moving companies want to put your mind at ease and answer all your questions so you hire them.
Make a Schedule
Moving is all about time management. The more planning you put in, the easier the move. So instead of putting everything off until the last minute, take a look at your planned move date and then create a schedule from there. You don’t need to plan more than two months in advance. Heck, even one month should give you enough time to plan your move.
When creating a schedule, consider your move date and then work about a month backward from there. On a calendar, pencil in when you need to:
- Start packing
- Book your movers
- Purchase moving materials
- Have your mail forwarded
- Send transcripts to your child’s new school
- Turn off your utilities for your old home and turn them on in your new home
- Update your driver’s license if you’re moving to a new state
- And so on
Don’t forget to add the dates of your actual move, the last day of your work, or your child’s last day at their current school! Most importantly, make sure to schedule in some relaxation days so you’re not completely overwhelmed during the moving process!
Pack Early
If you’re moving in the new year, the best thing you can do is get a head start on your packing. Moving is stressful and packing is doubly so. Rushing to pack your entire apartment or house adds extra stress. And with COVID still around, you should let your boxes sit untouched for at least a day to prevent the spread of the virus via surfaces anyway. To reduce your moving anxiety, start packing about a month or six weeks beforehand. Even if you live in a small apartment it’s still a good idea to start as early as possible. You can start packing areas or items that you don’t use on a daily basis first.
If you simply don’t have the time or desire to pack and label everything, many of the top-rated moving companies do offer full packing services. While convenient, this can bring up your moving budget quite a bit, so you’ll need to decide whether it’s worth the cost or not. For many people, not having to worry about packing is a luxury they are willing to pay for. When you hire professional packers, they will take an inventory of all your belongings and pack everything based on the room and type of item. Fragile items will always be packed separately and handled with the utmost care.
Whether you choose to pack yourself or hire professionals to do it for you, you can cut down on packing time by decluttering your home before you move. Moving is the perfect time to take stock of everything you own and decide whether you really need it in your new home. As a rule of thumb, you should generally get rid of items that you haven’t used at all in the past six months – with exceptions for seasonal items. Instead of just throwing these items in the dumpster sell as much as possible and use the money you raised to fund your moving expenses. For everything else, see if you can donate them to an organization or give them away to friends or family. If all else fails, you can always post items on your local Facebook, Nextdoor, or Craigslist page.
Keep and Inventory and Label Your Boxes
There’s nothing worse than moving to your new place and realizing you have no idea what is in any of your boxes because you didn’t label them. It might seem tedious, but labeling your boxes makes the unpacking process much easier. Plus you can direct the movers where to put the boxes when they unload the truck, making it easier for you to unpack on arrival. You don’t need to have a fancy printout or sticker for your boxes. A simple sharpie will do. When labeling your boxes, make sure to include not only the room the box should go in but the contents as well. You don’t have to get too specific. Instead, you can just list the general category of items such as books, cutlery, dishes, clothes, etc. so you have a general idea. This way, you’ll know which boxes you’ll want to unpack first and which ones can wait a bit.
While you might not want to write out a full list of items on the box, you should keep an inventory of everything you have and keep that on you before and after the move. You could even provide the list to the moving company. That way if anything goes missing, they will also have the list to cross-check.
Moving in the New Year
Make a resolution to reduce your moving stress this new year by planning your moving details in advance. The better you plan, the less stress you’ll have. And who wants to spend the first few months of the new year dealing with an out-of-control move? Sure, it might take a bit more time upfront, but if you get organized, pack in advance, and hire professionals, you’ll realize that moving doesn’t have to be a hair-pulling affair. In fact, if you plan it well enough, you might even get some time to enjoy yourself!
This new year, moving doesn’t have to be hard! Call up Great Movers and talk to us about our moving services as well as our packing, storage, and other add-ons.
FAQ
What COVID-19 precautions do you take?
At Great Movers, we want to make sure our customers and our movers remain healthy and safe. For that we:
- Do daily temperature checks of all our staff
- Sanitize our trucks daily
- Require our moving crew to wear masks and gloves during the entire move
- Enforce social distancing between customers and crew members
- Require movers to sanitize their hands before and after moves
If I move last-minute will it cost me more money?
When you hire us, you won’t have to pay any last-minute fees or worry about peak/off-peak moving times. Our quotes will always be the same regardless of what day you move.
How much time should I set aside for moving day?
It depends on how much you need to move and what services you need us to provide. If you want us to pack and unpack everything, it will take us longer than the standard loading/unloading. Moves can take anywhere between 4-8 hours so make sure to plan accordingly.
