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Our moving day tips start with advising you to prepare well in advance for your big day. Give yourself time to do the essentials at your existing home or rental property before you get the keys to your new home. If you plan accordingly and give yourself plenty of time to carefully execute the big task at hand, you’ll make moving day a breeze!
Moving Tips to Help Prepare for Moving Day
Like we already said, timing is critical when you know you’re going to be moving. Getting started early can be a huge factor in your moving day success. Here are a few other moving tips and tricks that may help you make your day go as smoothly as possible.
Decide how you will move
Using a Moving Company? Or Moving Yourself? Movers charge more in the summer months than the winter months so try to book your move mid-week and not on a long weekend or holiday to avoid paying higher rates. If you decide to rent your own moving truck, you should call around different companies in your area and get rates and availability for the time you are planning on moving.
Declutter
Who says you have to take EVERYTHING with you to your new place? New place, new you! This is a perfect time to declutter. As you pack you have the oportunity to get rid of some unneeded and unused items. And if you do it right and in enough time, you could even make some money to help offset your moving costs!
In a large open area like the garage or empty room set up three tables marked:
- Keep
- Discard
- Sell
Separate what you want to keep, discard or sell and box up your keep pile for moving and then your discard pile can either be thrown away or donated to charitable organizations within your community. Sell anything valuable that you are not actively using anymore on online or by having a garage sale.
Get Packing
The easiest way to move is by packing your belongings in boxes. So get yourself some boxes! You can use boxes that you get from deliveries, or by asking stores if they have any extra boxes they are planning to discard. Of course you can always purchase new boxes of various sizes online or from a local moving company. Get boxes of various sizes to make organizing and packing easier. Aside from boxes you will also need some packing tape to secure your boxes and a good way to label what is inside.
It’s easier to pack items by room. And make sure you label the contents by what room they belong to and by what is inside. This way you know exactly where the boxes go when you get to your new home. Start packing your things as early as possible by only leaving unpacked the things that you will be using until you move.
For larger items and furniture it can help to secure moving blankets to help secure and protect items that can be easily damaged during a move.
Moving Tips Quick Overview
12 – 6 Weeks Out
- If you have a landlord, give your notice that you’re leaving well in advance of the end of your lease
- Book a moving company or moving van well in advance
- Create a record of your assets before moving for insuring the move
- Sort through your belongings into keep, discard or sell
- Get packing early
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6 – 2 Weeks Out
- Send a change of address notification to the US postal service so that your mail gets forwarded to your new address on the day you will be in your new home. Keep the change of address active for one year just in-case you overlook a change of address.
- Advise your insurance company of the new change address
- Banks and Credit Card Companies
- Government – IRS
- Drivers License
- Book vacation time at work
1 Week Before
- Take down any fixtures you’re not leaving behind
- Pack a moving day bag with essentials
- Make sure that you have paid all your bills before moving
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On Moving Day
- Drive with the movers so they don’t take a two hour coffee break along the way
- Keep all your receipts from the move
- Make sure you have turned everything off where you are moving from and that the windows and doors are locked and all keys are back to the landlord