Austin Real Estate

Austin Real Estate Sell Your Home Reports Moving Tips

Moving Tips

Once you have located your new home, now comes the fun part: moving. Whether you are moving two streets over from your current home, across town, or clear across the country, you have two options for moving. Either employ professional movers or do it yourself.

There are pros and cons of both choices, so first sit down and decide how much you can afford to spend, and what option you feel works best for you. Let's look at what those differences are:

Professional Movers

Professional movers come in many different forms. There are those on the less expensive end of the system, consisting of two to four people with a truck, all the way up to the executive level of packing and using a huge semi-truck to delivery your belongings. Usually, what you pay for is what you get.

Most moving companies provide sturdy, reinforced boxes. The cost of these boxes is included in the amount quoted for the move. Professional movers protect your furniture using padded blankets secured with rope or bungee cords to ensure no damage occurs. If you are doing the packing, make sure you carefully mark each box, specifically pointing out to the movers the boxes that contain fragile items. In most cases, when using professional movers, you don't have to worry about the weight of the boxes, because they know how much to pack and use dollies.

If working with professional movers, one semi-truck may contain several households of furniture, so your belongings may not be the first on their route. Talk to the movers and determine when they are targeting arrival at your new home. Keep in mind that traffic, construction, weather, can all be factors in delay. For this reason, it's important to have phone numbers and e-mail addresses for not only the movers but also the main office should your belongings not arrive on time. In addition, make sure the movers have phone numbers where you can be reached as well. If the schedule shows arrival for 5 p.m., have someone at the house from 4 p.m. until the truck arrives.

Self-Moving

By visiting your local grocery or business dumpster, you can find all the boxes you need. Many businesses throw out boxes in all sizes, which are also industrial strength. Cost: nothing. You can use old blankets, pillows, or towels, or, some rental companies will rent padded blankets for a very small fee. Just be sure that you wrap breakable items carefully and don't stack boxes of breakables on top of each other.

Mark all boxes carefully. Separate your fragile items, and consider moving those in your car instead of loading them into trucks with your other items.

When packing your boxes, keep the weight of the box reasonable. If you can't pick it up, it's too heavy.

Basic Guidelines

• Before moving, consider having a garage or yard sale. This is the perfect opportunity for cleaning out the old and eliminating all those unwanted items from being packed and moved.
• Carefully mark the boxes containing towels, toiletries, sheets, and other necessities so that you can unpack those first and at least be able to make your bed and take a shower.
• Other boxes that you want to get into as soon as you arrive at your new home can simply be marked with "Open me first." This might include coffee, eating utensils, or clothing that you've packed separately to cover a few days.
• If you have children, let them help write the labels. This will free you up to do other things, will help them get used to their new address, and will help them feel involved in the process.
• If you have cats or other small curious animals, make sure you keep them closed off from packing as well as the moving day activity. Pets can easily get into boxes without anyone knowing, or they can quickly run out a door and be lost.
• Allow anything electrical to return to room temperature before plugging it in. For example, if it's extremely cold outside, condensation could develop. Then, when you go to plug them in, you could get shocked.
• Don't pack food that could spoil. Refrigerator items such as mayonnaise, butter, milk, etc. should be placed on ice in a cooler and then moved or given away. If moving across the country where boxes will take days to arrive, don't pack any perishable foods at all.