Moving -- 5 Ways You Can Prepare

If you’re getting ready to change locations any time in the near future, it’s never too late to plan. So many details go into this day so it’s important to try to have as much in order as possible. By following a few steps and doing a bit of research, your moving experience will be more manageable than you imagined.

Hold a garage sale
When you’re getting ready to start packing up your belongings, you want things to go smoothly. To help minimize any stress or frustration, only take essentials. This means you want to eliminate anything you’re not using or haven’t used in some time. Having a garage sale is a perfect way to help you get rid of things you don’t absolutely need to take with you. A garage sale will help you clear out a lot of clutter and so you only bring things that are truly important to you or necessary in your life at the current time. Best of all, you may also make a little cash in the end.

Transfer utilities
No matter how great your new place will be it won’t be a place to call home until you’ve transferred your utilities and have necessary electricity, water, gas, phone service and more. On average, people usually plan this out in about a month in advance. Also, plan to have everything turned on the day before you’re actually scheduled to arrive, just in case something happens that requires you to relocate a little earlier than planned.

Focus on packing
Whether you want to pack up everything yourself or hire a company to do it, you need to make sure you have a few things clear ahead of time. Take time to properly organize and label everything to ensure smooth unpacking later. If you’re using a company or service, be sure to make a clear inventory of everything that’s going to the new location. Also, keep in mind that if you pack yourself, but have a moving company transport everything, they will not take responsibility for things that may break during the process.

Arrange for child care
It may surprise you to know how chaotic moving day can be, especially if you have a small child. If possible, arrange to have child care on that day. As a result, you can focus on making sure everything is going as planned. This will also make it easier for you to concentrate on communicating details with friends and family that are involved, as well as follow up with the moving company regarding all the details you discussed.

Carry a cell phone
With so much going on, sometimes it’s easy to forget that people will need to stay in touch with you throughout the moving process. Make sure you have cell phones turned on so the necessary people can contact you. Also, don’t forget to have everyone’s necessary contact information in case of any emergencies or unexpected changes that may pop up.