Moving house can be one of life’s most stressful events. Between finding a buyer for your house and organizing to transfer all of your possession to your new home, there are a lot of steps that need to be completed. As with everything else in life, stress can be reduced with good planning before and during a house move.
The complexity of a house move depends on a few different factors. For example, a local move will be less complicated than a long-distance relocation. The size of your family and the amount of possessions you own is another factor.
Hiring a professional moving company is an important step to ensuring a smooth and stress-free move. In this blog post, we will put together the perfect local moving checklist to ensure that you are fully prepared when moving day rolls around.
8 Weeks Before Your Move
‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ is a good phrase to remember when moving house. It takes time and planning to ensure that everything you want to bring to your new home is prepared. A good way to start this process is to create a moving binder or even a Google Doc—somewhere where you can keep track of everything that needs to go with you.
You can create different sections for each item of furniture that you have in your current house. Some items will be traveling with you; others will be donated, while others may be thrown away. Once you have this much figured out, you’ll start to see the process much clearer.
Also, worthwhile making note of at this point is furniture measurements. You don’t want to discover on moving day that certain items won’t fit through the door of your new home. Having this information to hand will help your moving company when they arrive.
This time also presents an opportunity to find a moving company. Click here for professional movers that you can count on.
6 Weeks Before Your Move
Time for another quote: ‘If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six sharpening my axe’ (that’s generally, though likely erroneously, attributed to Abe Lincoln). This saying should sum up your first 2 weeks of planning, where you prepare for the real action.
Now that you are just 6 weeks out from your moving day, it’s time to start preparing your boxes and identifying items that may need special care and attention. It’s also a good time to perform a deep clean of the house, which will help you to start clearing out any items you won’t be bringing with you.
You can start labeling your boxes, too. For the kitchen, you’ll likely need several different boxes, ones especially for cutlery, others for electrical items, and others for plates, etc. etc.
Now is also a useful time to take photos of all the electrical items that you’ll be bringing with you. This will be handy when it’s time to start putting the wires back in at your new home.
4 Weeks Before Your Move
You should have finalized your moving company by now and have made arrangements for moving day. You may also want to purchase moving coverage to protect your belongings when they are in transit.
Around this time, you should start making travel arrangements for yourself and your family, whether this includes buying flight tickets, renting a car, or organizing the transport of pets.
There will likely be plenty of loose ends to tie up before leaving your current house and neighborhood. You should contact your utility, TV, internet, and home security providers to cancel any existing services and arrange for new services at your future home.
1 to 2 Weeks Before Your Move
Now it’s time to really start packing and putting everything in their correct box. If you already have all of your boxes labeled, this should be a straightforward process. It’s a good idea to purchase packets of plastic plates and cutlery around this time, which your family can use instead of relying on items that need to be packed away.
The same goes for food. You may have to rely more on takeaway meals during the last couple of weeks. The less home cooking you have to do, the more prepared you can be for the big move itself.
With regards to larger items of furniture, you can start disassembling them now. This will save time on moving day. Items like bookshelves, section couches, and bed frames can all be disassembled around this time.
Now is also the time to update your car’s registration, insurance, and your driver’s license if that is necessary.
Moving Day
Your moving company will take over, and your job will be to facilitate the loading process. They may have queries and questions about particular items or boxes, so be sure to make yourself available to answer them.
Check all of the official paperwork from the movers and sign the inventory list. Take one final walk-through to see that everything has been accounted for. Then, it’s time to say goodbye and turn your face to a new and exciting chapter.
Prepare Your Local Moving Checklist
Preparing a local moving checklist helps to take the stress out of a house move. When you give yourself time and have a structured plan, it’s amazing how less daunting a house move can seem. The above checklist for moving locally will help you to say goodbye to one house and hello to another with a minimum of fuss.
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