Home, Moving Tips
When you contemplate the act of moving, you have two primary choices: take responsibility for the move yourself and garner some reluctant volunteers to help you physically move or hire professional movers. There are some moving situations that are applicable for doing it yourself, while others almost demands you hire professionals. The following are some moving situations that make hiring professional movers well worth the cost:
When Hiring Professional Movers is Necessary And Well Worth The Cost
- You’re Moving a Great Distance Away: If you’re moving right down the road or even to another location within your current town, you can likely get away with moving yourself. However, if you are moving across country or even just states away, you need to hire professional movers. You can’t expect your family and friends to commit to driving your belongings hundreds of miles away. In addition, the logistics of moving that much stuff across the nation is simply more than most people are equipped to handle. For example, when driving across country, weather and road conditions can damage your belongings, which makes a moving truck or van necessary.
- You’re Moving Valuable And/or Bulky Furniture/Items: If your couch, entertainment center or other furnishings are heavy or bulky, or you have valuable possessions, with which you want to be extra careful, you likely want to hire professional movers to help you. The scene from Friends, “pivot, pivot, pivot!!” is a comical showcase of what it takes to move large pieces of furniture down narrow hallways or up and down stairs . Your friends and family, as well as yourself can easily injure yourself trying to move extremely heavy items without the proper equipment. Also, you don’t want to give volunteers the responsibility of taking care of your valuable possessions. Professional moving companies have their own insurance policies that will allow them to reimburse you if the worst should happen and your property is damaged in a move. In addition, if you would like even more protection, you can get moving insurance to further protect yourself.
- You Have a Stipend: If you are moving to take a new job, you might have a stipend that pays for moving expenses. If this is the case, why not employ professional movers to complete the job? There is really no reason not to take advantage of this if you are given the choice.
- Time is of the Essence: When you need to get a move completed quickly to get out of an old place or into a new one, hiring professional movers is a good idea. After all, when getting packed, moved and unpacked is time sensitive, you don’t want to wait for your friends and family to find the time to help you move. Instead, hire professional movers to successfully move your belongings from one home/apartment to the other, without waiting on your friends and family’s schedules to open up.
Hiring professional movers to help you move your possessions from one location to another is an expense. However, even with the cost involved, hiring professional movers is often the better option when compared with doing it yourself. After all, you should consider the worth of your own time as well that of your family and friends when evaluating the cost of hiring a moving company. In the situations outlined above, hiring professional movers is the best choice.
Sources:
https://www.statefarm.com/simple-insights/residence/the-ins-and-outs-of-moving-insurance
Moving Tips
If you are relocating, you have a lot to think about and a lot to accomplish. Use this handy moving checklist to help you avoid forgetting any of the following 10 things.
1. Return Borrowed Items and Retrieve Ones That Belong to You
If you are like many people, you’ve loaned out a few tools or dishes or borrowed a couple of items from neighbors. Try and return these things or retrieve your items before you move. Do so the week before you move, so you have plenty of time.
2. Contact the Local Government
Depending on which state you live in, you might need to get a permit to park a moving van or pod on the street outside of your new home. If you have a driveway that you can use, then a permit isn’t necessary.
3. Change Your Address
Unless you want your mail being delivered at your old address, put in for a change of address with the United States Postal Service (USPS) at least two weeks before your move.
4. Obtain Medical and Dental Records
Unless you plan to continue using the same medical and dental providers, ask for copies of your records so that you can take them with you.
5. Obtain School Records
If your child is going to a new school, you might want to get copies from the old one. While it is possible to send some of these records electronically, it is often easier to do so the old-fashioned way.
6. Handling Insurance
Mortgage companies require homeowners to obtain insurance on their properties when they purchase them and take out a loan. Make sure that you not only have insurance on your new home, but that you cancel your old homeowner’s insurance as well. You should also check your coverage to see if it protects your possessions while they are in transport.
7. Contact Your Utilities and Service Companies
Unless you want to receive a bill for services that you aren’t using, contact all of the services (cable or satellite TV, Internet, and home phone) and utility companies (gas, electric, and water) and provide them with your last day of service. Don’t forget to contact the newspaper delivery person, trash service, and any other service (pool, lawn, or landscaping) that you receive.
8. Clean Up
Unless you leave your old home in the condition it was in when you sold it, your risk the sale. Make sure that you clean up!
9. Check the House One Final Time
Since you aren’t the only one taking belongings from your home to a pod, car, van, or moving truck, it is easy to leave something behind. Take a final sweep around your home to make sure that you have everything. Be sure to look in the attic, garage, and crawlspace.
10. Pay the Movers
Although some movers require payment in full up front, just as many are willing to take a percentage before the job and the remaining balance once it is completed. If your movers have done an exceptional job, tipping them is a nice gesture that shoes your appreciation for all of their hard work.
Moving Tips
The process of moving is more than most people can handle alone. After all, even just considering the logistics of moving every item, including large appliances and furniture, from your home is a bigger job than most people can do without help. In addition, even if you could physically manage it, it isn’t likely you have a moving truck at your disposal. Therefore, if a move is in your near future, you are likely going to need to hire some movers. The following are some tips on doing just that:
Tips on Hiring Professional Movers
- Ask For Recommendations: The first step to take when you have decided to hire movers is asking for recommendations. Ask your friends and family members who they have used in the past. Ask if they were treated fairly and their belongings treated with care. If you don’t know anyone who has moved recently, consider researching local companies via Angie’s List or Yelp. Of course, ideally, you will want to get personal recommendations and then check reviews as well just to be safe.
- Don’t Wait too Long: The best movers are often booked weeks or months out, so if you know you have a move coming up, get with them as soon as possible to get on their schedule. If you are moving during the colder months, you might get away with a last-minute reservation, but in the summer and spring months, this is less likely to happen.
- Be Flexible: As we just mentioned, good moving companies often get booked. Therefore, it’s best to be flexible on your moving dates, to the best of your ability. For example, consider moving on a weekday instead of a weekend. This will make it easier for a moving company to find some availability for you.
- Understand How Movers Charge: Generally, movers charge by the hour for their labor. Usually, you can expect to spend around $30 an hour per individual mover helping you. Therefore, it’s a good idea to get an estimated cost up front. However, know this price might be less or more than originally quoted due to certain circumstances. In general, though, the estimates quoted by movers are typically a good indication of how much you can expect to pay as they are professionals at estimating how long a move will take. Keep in mind, if your move isn’t local, you will likely have to cover a mover’s travel time too, meaning their travel time from your new home back to their office. Ask about a fuel surcharges as well, as that is another element that can make up the total cost of hiring movers. Also, although you might think you can save money by hiring two instead of three movers, consider the fact that three movers will get the job done that much faster. In other words, sometimes, it’s more cost effective to hire more people, even though you are paying per person.
- Know Their Payment Methods: Many movers prefer cash payment overs credit cards and many will not take personal checks as payment at all. Therefore, make sure you are prepared to pay your movers in their preferred method.
- Ask Questions: Communicate the true scope of your project to any movers you hire. Ensure they have a large enough truck to accommodate your belongings without making a ridiculous number of trips. Ask questions up front, not the day of to ensure you and your movers are on the same page.
Keep these tips in mind when hiring movers for a more enjoyable experience.
Moving Tips
The process of moving your all of your belongings from one location to another can become arduous. Consequently, you might find yourself becoming overwhelmed and frustrated during the process of sorting, packing, looking for a new home, selling yours ,etc. Thankfully, the apps listed below will make the whole undertaking of moving a bit easier to handle:
- Real Estate Apps: Of course, when it comes time to move, one of the first steps you need to take is securing a new house. After all, not having a place to go once you have sold your current house can create quite a problem. While there are tons of real estate apps out there, one of the best is Zillow. This app, created and monitored by a Seattle-based company assists you in every phase of the home buying experience. You can literally look through hundreds or thousands of home or apartment listings from all over the country. Zillow goes above and beyond showing you options for your next abode, though, it also gives you the latest info on the going mortgage rates. The real time feature on the app is especially helpful as it allows you to see what a home’s neighborhood looks like, providing you with more than just some still shots of the home without outside references.
- Reducing Clutter Resources: One of the best ways to make your move easier is to reduce the amount of items you need to sort, pack and move. Therefore, a move is a great time to reduce your clutter. There are many apps and/or resources that can help with that. However, perhaps, the best are Facebook Marketplace and letgo. Facebook Marketplace is a feature on your Facebook page that allows users to place items for sale and reach many potential buyers, instantly. Anything you can think of to sell is valid, from home and garden items, electronics and clothing to vehicles. As an additional bonus, Facebook Marketplace also has home listings, which gives you another avenue to find a new place. Look for the marketplace icon beside the word marketplace on your Facebook home page to access this helpful tool. Letgo, is a free downloadable app that allows you to sell your stuff within your community. Take photos of the item you wish to sell, post it, and then see who is interested. You can also use it to buy needed items for your next place at a steep discount when compared to purchasing new items.
- Organizational Tools: Moving can get crazy! After all, simply consider what it would take to pack up every item in just one room of your house in an organized manner. Now, times that by every room that you have in your home. You can quickly see how overwhelming simply the organizing element of a move can become. Thankfully, there are some apps that make this process a little easier. Wunderlist is one such resource. This app allows you to set reminders for yourself, create to-do lists, gives you the option of creating folders that include tags, notes, due dates, reminders and the like. Wunderlist also syncs with many devices, allowing you and your family to stay on the same page, even if you aren’t in the same location. Another similar tool is Microsoft To-Do. It also allows you to make lists, prioritize tasks and share them with a group.
Use the helpful tools/resources listed above to make your move less stressful.
House Cleaning, Moving Tips
When it comes time to ready for a move, one of the most impactful things you can do is to properly organize your belongings. One way to effectively accomplish this is embracing the famous method of Marie Kondo known as the KonMari method. You might have seen her show on Netflix or heard of her bestselling book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.” Read on to learn more about the KonMari method of tidying up:
It’s a Minimalist Approach
The theme of Marie Kondo’s method is to discard items that lack value and then to properly tidy and/or organize the remaining items. When you determine if an item has value to you, you have to consider if the item serves a role or sparks joy. If not, it needs to go.
There is a Proper Way to Go Through Your Items
It’s overwhelming to think about organizing your home in its entirety. However, by following the KonMari method, each space is broken down into more digestible units. For example, you go through a room in the following manner, discarding items in this order:
Utilize Subcategories Within These Broad Categories
When you are organizing your items, it might be necessary to break down your items within subcategories. For example, when organizing clothing, you might need to break down into tops, hanging clothes, folding clothes, skirts, pants, underwear, socks, etc.
Once You Have Minimized, Move to Organization
Once you have given your house a once over and gotten rid of any items that don’t spark joy, it’s time to organize what’s left. By doing this, you will make the packing process much easier as you will know where everything is and where it needs to go in your new space. Using the KonMari method, you will do this by following two basic rules:
- Store items of the same type in the same place: For example, don’t have magazines, books, shirts, shoes, etc. stored in various locations within the same room.
- Keep storage space together: When storing items don’t spread it out over several rooms, keep it all in one general location.
The KonMari Folding Method
Perhaps more famous than her book is Mari’s method of folding clothes when storing. Her folding method stands clothes in an upright manner, folded so that a glimpse into your drawer will allow you to see all the shirts, shorts, skirts, etc. you have available. The theory is that when you stack clothes in a traditional method, you can’t see what you have and end up forgetting items. This way, you can see what you have at a glimpse.
Do it All At Once, Not a Little at a Time
Finally, to completely embrace the KonMari method, you need to do all your organizing and discarding at once. The term in Japanese it ikki ni. This means “in one go.” This means don’t go through your home a little at a time, but instead take a day or two and finish the job completely.
In conclusion, organizing your home using the KonMari method with make the process of packing, moving and then unpacking so much easier. You will find less to move and what remains will already have an assigned space. Therefore, why not try it to make your upcoming move as easy as possible?
Sources:
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/organizing/a25846191/what-is-the-konmari-method/
Marie Kondo — The Japanese Tidying Master (#234)
Moving Tips
The process of moving is obviously made easier if you can reduce the number of items you need to move. One way to go about doing this is throwing a garage or yard sale. The following are some helpful tips to follow to make your yard sale as successful and profitable as possible.
Pay Attention to the Time
In general, yard sales are most successful when thrown in either late spring or early fall, but summer is also a great time for them. As far as the time of week, aim for a day when most people will be off work and thus free to come browse your sale. This means planning a weekend sale. Saturdays are ideal, but some people have found success holding yard sales over two days, either Saturday and Sunday or Friday and Saturday. Plan to start your garage sale early in the day. In the summer, this is vital as early morning temperatures are much more manageable when it comes to being outside in the sun.
Don’t Eliminate Any Item As a Potential Sale
Although it might seem like junk or trash to you, don’t underestimate what someone will buy. Attempt to sale anything! Of course, be honest if an item is broken, but go ahead and place it in the sale, you never know who might be interested. It is often items you never expect to get interest that sale the fastest.
Advertise Your Sale
You can advertise your yard sale on social media, as well as posting signs around your neighborhood and posting on community message boards. Consider including some details about your sale on signs/ads when possible. For example, list the hours, dates and location of your sale, but also include an overview of the items you will have. This will give people an idea of what type of items you will have on hand. You don’t have to make a complete list, just highlights. Also, make sure the day of the sale that you have plenty of directional signs hanging in your neighborhood, guiding potential buyers to your house. People will often give up on finding you if they aren’t sure where you are once turning into your neighborhood, so make sure there are balloons, signs, arrows, whatever is necessary to guide the way.
Prepare For Your Sale
Once you have all your items gathered, begin prepping them for your garage sale. If you are selling lots of clothing items, ask around and see if you can borrow a garment rack and hang items up. If you don’t have access to this, rig something to hang clothing items up so they can easily be perused, don’t simply lay them in piles. Also, make sure as many items as possible have stickers or labels, showing their price. Buyers will get tired of asking you the price for each item if you don’t label them ahead of time. To avoid having to price each item individually, you can group items in boxes, baskets, hampers, etc. and select a price for everything in the box. Also, make sure you have adequate change on hand for customers who need it.
Get Rid of It All
Have a plan in mind on where to donate unsold items and remember that anything you don’t sell will be donated at the end of the day. Therefore, is someone wants to haggle with you on a price, go ahead and take the offer (within reason) because otherwise you will have to haul the item away at the end of the day and make no profit on it.
These tips will ensure you are ready for a profitable yard sale to reduce the amount of items you will need to move.
