Preparing for Long Distance Moving

03 Dec Preparing for Long Distance Moving

Every move requires planning ahead, even when you’re moving to another home within the same town or neighborhood you currently live in. Long distance moving, though, requires a lot more thinking ahead. When you’re packing up, not only all your physical belongings, but your entire life and relocating to a home hundreds or even thousands of miles away, there’s a lot of room for messing up and unwanted stress. I mean, moving that far will entail a minimal amount of intrinsic stress, but, proper foresight will significantly reduce the stress of moving and your transition to your new home. With so many things to do, though, planning ahead can be a bit overwhelming. That’s why we’ve compiled this guide to help you in planning ahead for long distance moving.

Start Right Away:

Once you’ve finalized your plan to move, there’s absolutely no time to waste! NOW, is the time to start, no matter when you’ll actually be moving. In fact – Hey! Why haven’t you started yet?! Long distance moving requires long distance planning; that’s the distance in time on your calendar from right now until moving day 🙂 No joke!

All jokes aside; long distance moving comes along with about a million and one details to iron out (hey, didn’t we just say no joking…) and if you don’t start right away and use your time well, you’ll, no doubt, be overwhelmed in the last minute. So plan ahead and reduce last minute stress.

Be Organized:

Whether you’re the naturally organized type or you’re more laid-back; making a list of long distance moving tasks is absolutely crucial. There’s way too much to do for you to keep track of it all. And yes, you can accommodate your personality. If you’re the organized, neat type; well then, go ahead, make a google drive spread sheet listing all your tasks, how long you need to accomplish each one, and a box to check it off when it’s completed. If organization is not your thing; well, then take out a clean sheet of paper, that should do the trick, and jot down a numbered list of to-do’s. And by the way, when you’re done, put it in a place where you’ll remember where it is. Oh, and keep a pen close by so that when you remember something to add, you can do so right away; because with that much to do, that’s bound to happen a lot more than once.

Once you’ve created a to-do list, sit down with your calendar and list, and assign the most significant items to specific days on the calendar. This way you’ll ensure that they will get done in a timely fashion. You can even put these in as reminders on your phone and/or calendar.

And, finally, think of an hour or good time-of-day each day that you can dedicate to moving prep; whether it’s phone calls, decisions, research, shopping etc. This way, you’ll be forced to devote at least this minimum amount of time each day to your long distance moving plans. This too, can be entered into your calendar and put in as a reminder to ensure that you don’t forget to devote this time to moving related chores.

This tip is your key to a stress free move; so take it seriously.

Hire a Reliable Moving Company:

Since long distance moving is much more complex and significant than local moving, hiring the right moving company is crucial. You’ll want to do some research into some of the best long distance moving companies. The best way to start is to get some great recommendations from family or friends who have used a long distance moving company in the past. However, if you don’t have any recommendations, you can do some online searching; for each result, check the company’s reviews and experience level.

Once you have a list of 3 reliable long distance moving companies, call them and schedule a time when they will come down to your home and give you an in-home estimate. This is important with every move but is even more important with long distance moving. Remember; you’ll be spending a lot more time with your movers than on a local move.

While doing research and meeting with the companies for estimates, look out for the most reliable, reputable and trustworthy long distance moving company. After all, you’ll be entrusting all of your belongings with them. Not only that, but your entire moving experience will be based on which moving company you choose. Now, of course price is important and you do want to make sure that the estimate fits within your alloted budget. However, going with the cheapest company can end up costing you in time, energy, stress and money during and after the move. So as much as affordability is a significant part of your choice, remember that cheapest is not always best. In fact, often, you’ll end up just paying more afterwards. And besides, you definitely wouldn’t want to entrust your belongings with incompetent movers, especially when you’re moving so many thousands of miles away.

Address Change:

Changing your address can entail updating your information in many different places. For starters, you’ll have to change your address on your drivers license as well as your car registration. After that, depending on any number of various mailing lists you may be on, you may have to update your address with any number of organizations. Do some research and thinking to come up with a clear list of address changes you’ll have to make before your move.

Prepare on the Home Front:

Make your current home and belongings ready for packing. Start by going through your belongings and deciding what you’ll be taking and what you’ll be leaving behind. Then, from whatever you’ll be leaving, decide; is it trash? Does it have to be discarded? If you’re not taking it along because it’s not usable anymore, then it’s probably garbage. How will you dispose of it? Is it something large, like furniture, that movers need to discard? Or can you get rid of it on your own? Next, anything you’re not taking, perhaps because you won’t need it in your new home, but is still usable and in good condition, figure out how you’ll get it off your hands before moving. Do you have friends or family who can use it? How will they get it? And what about anything that’s good but you have no one to take it off of you? For those, you may want to lump them together once you’ve gone through all of your belongings and make a garage sale. This way, people who need these things can buy them and you can get rid of them while making some money to help pay for your long distance moving. And for all the things that you will take along with you; make sure that they are clean, organized and ready for packing.

Prepare for Arrival:

Preparing for your arrival at your new home town will ensure a much smoother transition when you get there. There are so many things you can consider. Firstly, if you have kids in school, you’ll want to research schools in your new town and find out which ones suite your children. A great place for researching schools is GreatSchools.org. Then contact the school and get registration under way. Next, find out about utilities in your new home. Who provides them and how can you sign up so that when you arrive you’ll have running water, heating or air conditioning, and electricity. Another aspect to consider is your automobile. Are you going to be taking your car or vehicle with you? How will you get it to your new home town? Will you be driving it on moving day? If you are bringing it along, as we mentioned before, you’ll have to update your car registration information. Unless it’s not worth bringing your car along for the move… Are you better off returning your lease or selling your car and getting a new one in your new town? All these are questions to consider, research and decide. Once you have come to a decision, you can decide how to proceed. Finally, being that we’re talking about long distance moving, if the climate is different in the area you’re moving to than the weather where you currently live, make sure you have the proper attire prepared and acccessible for when you get there. Preferably, you should have enough clothing prepared for the first few days after the move since unpacking can take a while. These are just some of the details you’ll want to work out before moving day in order to ensure the smoothest possible transition.

Moving Insurance:

No matter what your assets are comprised of, make sure that you’re aware of what your home and auto (if you’ll be taking your vehicle along with you) insurance covers in terms of moving. Remember, long distance moving is a bigger deal than local moving. When you’re transporting your belongings thousands of miles away, realize that there’s a lot more time for issues along the way. Not that you should anticipate any issues, but just realize that they are more likely to happen. Therefore, in case there are any issues, you’re better off being covered. That’s why, though moving companies do offer a limited insurance plan, it’s a good idea to buy a more comprehensive one if you have a lot of valuables.

Long distance moving is a big deal and has potential to have a lot of stress involved. Planning ahead so that all the preparations don’t hit you like a ton of bricks in the last minute, is an extremely important way of relieving that stress. In addition, hiring a reliable, trustworthy long distance moving company, like Reputable Moving, is another key to reducing the stress of long distance moving.

So if you’ll be moving long distance, let Reputable Moving long distance moving company take care of it… ‘Cause we’ll do what we do best – take the stress out of your move!