What new homeowners need to know about long distance moving

So you’ve found your dream home, your offer has been accepted, your current place is taken care of, so all that you have to do now is get the actual move organized. There’s no doubt this is an exciting moment in your life, however, there’s a huge difference between moving across town and moving to a place which is several states away.

This means there’s a lot to think about and do before you get to the end point, and can start planning a party to celebrate taking up your new residence. To help you along we’ve put together this helpful list of things all new homeowners need to know about the whole business of making a long distance move.

Tip 1 – Plan, plan and plan some more

Planning isn’t always successful, often because the end result is simply unachievable. Keep your plans realistic and focused, and make sure each task is allocated to the right person or people to reduce the chance of something going wrong.

You may want to make use of shared cloud options like Google docs or spreadsheets to allow everyone to access and update everything in one place. This is much easier than having to plan several meetings to catch up on what has (or hasn’t) been done. Adding early deadlines for tasks is a good idea too.

Tip 2 – Making lists really does help

Lists are a great way to make sure everyone knows what their individual responsibilities are –these can be taken from the master list, and added to a phone or a notebook depending on what is most convenient. Lists help you prioritise, meet deadlines, stay on top of the change of address paperwork that can easily be overlooked, and know what is in each box or packing crate. This last point will save lots of stress and time when you get to the new place.

Tip 3 - Moving truck fees can vary dramatically

It’s standard practice to get at least three estimates, but make sure what they offer for their fee is clearly stated. If one includes taxes and gas costs and another adds those on you need to know when making a comparison. Some companies charge less for an off-season move, so check that out is it applies. One more tip - don’t hide anything when an assessment is carried out to create the estimate.

Tip 4 - Choose a company with experience of long distance moves

Long distance house moves can be quite different from more local jobs, so when checking out references, reviews and testimonials do keep this very much in mind. It’s not usually wise to make your choice based only on the fees charged, look instead for moving companies that can meet all your needs.

Tip 5 – You won’t regret buying special ‘moving insurance’

It’s always sensible to have this in place to cover costs should anything break or get damaged during the move, and when that move involves a journey of many thousands of miles, possibly with a mid-route loading and unloading too, the chances for an accident are inevitably higher. It’s possible that the moving company includes some sort of basic policy in with the fees, but it is unlikely to be as good as you need it to be.

Tip 6 – Roughly planning the way your new place will look inside will help with packing

By deciding where things like furniture, functional and decorative items will go in the new place you can pack one room’s content together, and unpack easily once moved.

Tip 7 – You won’t regret seriously decluttering before you pack

Clutter is what holds up most packing processes, so why not pencil in time way ahead to start sorting through things and deciding what can be thrown away, donated, or even sold. [If you hire a packing service they will put every single thing into the crates, with no mercy, leaving you with the unenviable job of unpacking and decluttering at the other end.]

Tip 8 – It’s sensible to pack an ‘emergency’ bag well before the move

This could contain basics like underwear, socks and a change of clothes for everyone moving, plus basic toiletries, towels, bathroom tissue and bedding. This saves scrabbling through dozens of boxes looking for basic items. [You can make a second similar bag on the day of the move with coffee and other essential arrival foodstuffs.]

Tip 9 – You can better protect fragile items by packing them together

Obviously, you want to keep heavy and light fragile things in different boxes, but packing them is much easier this way as you can go overboard with the protective wrapping and make the most of the space. It is also easier on the movers who don’t have a dozen boxes or cases to give special attention to.

Tip 10 – Adding your name to moving boxes could save a lot of stress

Adding the destination room to the box will make things even less of a nuisance! Still, at least make sure the name the move is booked under and possibly a contact number are on all boxes. It’s very unlikely that this information will be needed, but things do get separated from the crowd – especially if your goods end up in storage for even one day. It may be a special box to you, but for them it looks like a thousand others, and without some identification anything lost could be gone for a long time.

Tip #11 - Check out your destination logistics for a smooth conclusion

It’s important to know ahead of time if there is space for the moving truck to unload near your new place. If not then they will need to plan for a smaller truck to shuttle your belongings over, which could cost more. If the new home is an apartment is there an elevator fee to pay when moving in? Does the elevator need to be booked ahead of time?