Moving interstate is no easy feat and the whole process can be quite daunting, especially if you’ve never moved house before. This is why it’s important to plan your house move well on time and organize each stage of the moving process carefully and thoroughly. If the very thought of moving leaves you paralyzed with anxiety, take a deep breath and check out these useful tips and tricks that will help you keep stress to a minimum and breeze right through your household move.
1. Make a plan
Moving of any kind is a stressful experience because there’s a seemingly endless list of things you need to do and take care of. This is why it’s crucial to plan everything carefully and on time. Even if you’re still in the early stages of planning a move, you should start making a checklist right away to save yourself from making some of the most common moving mistakes that could cause you a lot of grief down the road.
The further away you’re moving and the bigger your household is, the earlier you’ll need to start with the planning process. Planning a move involves everything from saving money for the relocation costs, finding out as much as you can about your new city and looking at properties to making an inventory of items you’re taking with you, gathering all the necessary packing supplies and organizing your moving day. Only once you write everything down will you become aware of how many things you need to take into account when moving, so don’t leave everything to the last minute!
2. Pack the smart way
Once you’ve set your moving budget, researched your new area, and organized your moving day, the next item on your checklist should be packing. Taking the time to pack the right way is the best thing you could do to minimize the stress involved in moving.
Firstly, you need to decide what type of boxes you’ll need for each group of items. Use rigid corrugated cardboard boxes to pack cookware and wine cases for glassware, pack books in medium sized-boxes, find some extra large-boxes for bulky items. If you have a lot of clothes on hangers, simply keep them there and wrap them up in garbage bags to save time on unpacking.
Before you unplug and pack your electronics, take pictures of the cables so you can set them up quickly once you arrive in your new home. Finally, don’t forget to cut holes in the sides of moving boxes to make lifting easier.
3. Separate fragile items
Preparing fragile items for moving can be tricky, so make sure you’ve got the right supplies before you start packing. Start looking for boxes that have high quality and can buy near your area. Besides sturdy boxes of different sizes, you’ll also need plenty of bubble wrap, packing paper, some pliable cardboard, a quality pair of scissors, and large packing tape roles.
Plates should be placed vertically in medium-sized boxes and the bottom of the box, as well as the space between each plate, should be filled with bubble wrap or crumpled packing paper. Each glass should be wrapped individually in packing paper and packed in boxes by putting heavy items on the bottom and the lighter ones on the top. To protect very valuable items like heirlooms from breaking, use blankets and pillows on the bottom and the top of the box.
4. Hire a removal service
No matter how skilled you are when it comes to packing, moving interstate is no easy matter and the best way to avoid a moving disaster is to hire a reputable interstate removal service.
Professional movers will know how to handle each of your items properly so you won’t have to worry about losing or breaking your valuable belongings. A removal service team also uses adequate vehicles and has all the right equipment to ensure the whole process runs smoothly. Professional movers are familiar with interstate routes and will know how to navigate the roads efficiently to help you move everything on time.
But that’s not all! Hiring a moving company is not only more efficient than trying to move house on your own, but it can actually help you save money because you won’t have to pay multiple individuals to take care of things like lifting heavy items and storage.
5. Get rid of clutter
Only once you start packing will you realize just how many things you have accumulated over the years in your household. This is why you should you this opportunity to get rid of anything that you don’t use anymore.
Check expiration dates on food items in your pantry, cleaning products, and medication, and throw away anything that’s past its use-by date. If you’ve got piles of clothes you haven’t worn in ages, pack them in separate boxes and donate to a local charity. When it comes to objects with sentimental value, it’s ok to keep onto some of them but you should also be brutally honest with yourself and ask yourself if you’re holding onto certain items out of habit or because they really mean something to you.
6. Prepare furniture for moving
Furniture can be one of the trickiest items to move, especially if the removal service you’ve hired has requested that you disassemble all the furniture before they arrive.
The first thing you need to do when preparing furniture for moving is to gather the right tools for disassembling. These include a hammer, pliers, a wrench set, screwdrivers, painter’s tape, and plastic Ziploc bags. Don’t forget to measure your furniture first so you can figure out which items need to be disassembled in the first pace and which are small enough to fit through doorways.
If you’re not sure how to deal with complex pieces of furniture, make sure you look up instructions online before you start taking anything apart. Once you start disassembling, remove one part at a time and make sure you save all the nuts, bolts, and other small pieces in Ziploc bags.
7. Prevent Spills
One of the biggest worries house movers have is cleaning up a huge mess caused by improperly packed liquids. To minimize the risk of major spills, use up as many of the liquids you have in your present household and don’t buy any new ones at least a month proper to the moving day.
You should also keep in mind that most removal services have a list of liquids you’re not allowed to transport interstate. These include rubbing alcohol, bleach, ammonia, cleaning solvents, fertilizers, and other toxic, flammable, or corrosive substances so make sure you check with the moving company before you start packing your liquids.
You first need to seal all the liquid containers tightly and put them in zipper storage bags. You don’t want liquids to leak through and spill onto other items, so use plastic bins instead of cardboard boxes to pack bags with liquid containers. This way, it will be much easier to clean up potential spills. Line the plastic bins with garbage bags for extra safety and don’t forget to secure the lids with plastic tape.
8. Label moving boxes
Imagine trying to unpack in your new home while surrounded by dozens of unlabeled boxes without any clue what each box contains. Don’t make this rookie mistake and make sure you label each box the right way.
Use high-quality permanent markers in different colors and assign each color to the room where the items in the box belong to. For example, you can use black for living room items, red for your bedroom, blue for the bathroom, and so on. Come up with a system that makes sense to you and don’t forget to write other important instructions on the box, such as ‘fragile’, ‘this side up’, or ‘handle with care’.
Final Words
To recap, moving process can be made a lot easier if you plan everything on time, pack smartly and secure fragile items, hire a professional removal service, de-clutter, prepare furniture and prevent spills, and label all your moving boxes properly. While you can’t expect that moving interstate will be a walk in the park, these clever tips and tricks will make your life much easier and save you from stressing out more than it’s necessary.
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