They say that mistakes are the usual bridge between inexperience and experience, but moving out of one home and moving into another is not the best time for the trial-and-error approach.
In fact, some moving mistakes can be truly costly, potentially costing you time, money, nerves, and energy.
Avoid mistakes when moving house at all costs. Or at least do your best to keep your move mistake-free from start to finish in order to guarantee its successful end.
Whatever you do, don’t make any of the following mistakes when moving home. Yes, to err is human, so it’s time you became a superhuman to be able to avoid these 10 common moving mistakes.
1. NOT researching your moving company
Before you commit to a contract with a professional moving company, you need to make sure you have researched that mover thoroughly to avoid any serious problems come Moving day, and then possibly even worse problems after that.
Department of Transportation. All interstate movers must be licensed by the U.S. Department of Transportation to operate legally within the country. As proof of their legal status, licensed moving companies are issued with USDOT numbers by the Department. Luckily, it’s easy to check whether a mover has such a USDOT number – just visit the official DoT webpage and do a simple search with the company name.
Better Business Bureau. The BBB is dedicated to helping consumers find businesses they can trust, so you’d better check their database of moving companies records to see if there are any complaints against the movers you’re considering for your move.
One of the most common moving mistakes is to assume that hiring professional movers will always cost more than moving by yourself. As a result of such a judgment error, you may choose to move on your own without realizing that organizing a self-move in your case will be much worse from financial and safety points of view.
Sometimes it may be hard to decide whether to move by yourself or hire movers, especially when you’re moving locally. In such cases, one good way to avoid moving mistakes is to take into account the major hidden costs of moving on your own: purchasing packing materials, renting a moving vehicle, paying for fuel, renting moving equipment, covering all road expenses such as road tolls, taxes, food, and lodging.
Also, due to inexperience, you may need to cover the expenses for possible property damage or likely personal injuries caused by accidents on Moving day.
Ultimately, you should look at all available move options and select the one that will work best under your set of circumstances. Thinking you can move all by yourself is one thing, knowing that you have the experience, the friends and the equipment to complete the DIY move successfully is something completely different.
The only way to get accurate moving quotes is to have moving company representatives visit your home for a visual survey.
It’s important to keep in mind that some major moving mistakes may cost you dearly – cost you time, money, and effort, while other smaller relocation errors won’t really affect the flow of your house move.
One such big blunder to avoid at the very beginning of your preparations to move out is to fail to ask for in-home moving cost estimates.
You’re going to need multiple cost estimates from different moving companies in order to be able to select the best quote in terms of pricing and conditions.
However, when you get in touch with such professional movers, some of them may offer you to complete the cost estimation over the phone or via e-mail. It’s a clear mistake to agree to have your costs estimated without having moving experts come to your home for a visual on-site survey.
Request in-home moving cost estimates from several (at least 3) reputable moving companies and be adamant about it because it’s the only way to get accurate price quotes. The moving company representatives will visit your home and measure up the approximate weight and size of your items, determine which of those items will require extra packing care, and discuss whether or not you will need to buy moving insurance.
Finally, the moving experts will give you precise cost estimates that reflect the final bill.
4. Organizing your move WITHOUT a moving checklist
It’s a well-known fact that proper organization is the key to a successful house move. In this train of thought, the better you have managed to organize each stage of your upcoming move, including all the tasks within that stage, then the smoother the entire relocation will be.
One of the biggest mistakes when moving house is to start the preparation period without a clear plan and strategy about how to organize your time and how to arrange all those tasks in terms of priority. One thing is clear – you will have to follow a very good moving checklist to make sure you stay on track all the way to Moving day, and even beyond that.
A great moving checklist – customized and prioritized – will serve a number of crucial purposes at the same time:
it will keep you focused on the tasks at hand, thus preventing loss of time when starting and finishing random jobs without a good plan;
it will keep you motivated by assuring you that each completed mini-task gets you closer to your goal;
it will keep you stress-free as you know you’ll be able to complete the pre-move preparations on time.
Organizing a move without a moving checklist is a very bad idea, but packing by yourself without a good plan can sometimes be even worse. Why?
It’s simple enough: packing for a move is, by far, the most time-consuming task you’ll ever face during the move. So, pack without a packing calendar and you’ll be likely to end up way behind schedule, which will hurt your chances of having a problem-free move.
Needless to say, the worst packing mistake is underestimating the time it takes to pack your stuff. You may happen to know how to pack quickly, but when you initiate the packing process with days or even weeks of delay, it’ll be really hard for you to catch up with the packing schedule.
Don’t start packing on your own without having a detailed packing calendar – customized to your specific packing needs, of course – to guide you.
Initiate the packing process as soon as you possibly can;
Start packing from the storage areas in your home (basement, attic, garage) because they often turn out to be the hardest premises to sort out and pack;
Pre-pack anything that you won’t use until Moving day itself – specialized items, out-of-season clothes, and shoes, collectibles, spare or duplicate items, etc.
Consider using second-hand cardboard boxes to cut moving costs.
Number 6 on our list of common moving mistakes to avoid is the issue of cardboard boxes – the major packing expense and the KING of all packing supplies. A single packing box is not expensive but considering that you’re going to need A LOT of boxes to pack up your things (40-50, or more depending on the number of stuff you’re moving), then you can see why purchasing all those packing boxes new can easily qualify as a mistake.
Don’t forget that most or even all cardboard containers you’ll need can be found for free – a fact that will help you lower your packing costs considerably. Paying for boxes is obviously NOT one of the worst packing mistakes you can make, but you’ll still be spending money on something that you can get free of charge.
So, where to get free moving boxes? Start off your search for free cardboard boxes by asking friends, colleagues, and neighbors whether they have any boxes they don’t need – a post in your preferred social media network will usually work great: HELP! I need packing boxes.
Also, take a quick tour around the large local businesses (supermarkets, home depot stores, bookstores, home electronics stores, etc.) and speak with their managers about getting cardboard boxes for free.
There are a number of big mistakes to avoid when packing for a move – packing at the last possible moment, packing without a clear strategy, NOT packing an essentials box, and NOT labeling your boxes.
And yet, there’s one serious mistake that can easily be identified as the worst moving mistake ever – packing and moving all of your belongings without sorting them out first.
Only in rare cases will it be okay to pack up and move everything you own – for example, if you’ve recently decluttered your home and got rid of all outdated, worn out, damaged, and broken items, things you never liked, duplicate items, and possessions you haven’t used for years.
However, if you’ve lived many years under one roof without decluttering on a regular basis, then your upcoming move is the perfect time to do so.
It’s easy to see why packing it all is one of the biggest packing mistakes:
Time. More items to pack and move will mean more time wasted in packing, moving, and unpacking.
Money. More items to pack and move will mean more money for packing supplies and much higher transportation costs too – the total shipment weight affects greatly the moving cost.
Space. Will you have enough space in the new home for all the items you will most likely never use again?
Speaking of mistakes to avoid when moving to another home, one such blunder will be to fail to understand your insurance options, and thus to neglect to purchase adequate insurance for the more valuable items you own.
To trust your moving company is one thing, but to assume that nothing bad could possibly happen to your prized possessions is something completely different. Anything can happen during a house move, so you must play it safe.
Your moving company will offer you Released Value for free, but that liability coverage will only get you compensated with 60 cents per pound per item if any of your belongings sustain damage while in your movers’ custody. For example, if your 50-inch flat-screen TV weighs 40 pounds and gets damaged during the move, your movers are only liable to compensate you with $24 for the damage. Oops!
Be smart and opt for Full Value protection for all your valuable possessions. This way, your professional moving company will be liable for the replacement value of every item of yours that gets damaged or missing.
Don’t make any rookie moving mistakes – instead, discuss your insurance options with your chosen movers and choose the liability coverage that works best for you.
SAFETY is paramount when moving from one home to another.
Mistakes are never fun because they will take something away from you – it can be lost time, it can be wasted money, or it can be energy, efforts, and nerves gone, never to return. In the context of your move, a careless moving mistake can take all of those precious things all at once.
Both your move-out day and move-in day can be rather unpredictable and fairly dangerous, so even a small error on your part can quickly turn into a serious accident.
So, you must be proactive and employ safety measures on Moving day in order to prevent costly property damage or even personal injuries of any sort.
Always use proper moving equipment to keep the home damage-free and to avoid any dangerous situations that may lead to injuries. When moving on your own, an appliance dolly with soft rubber wheels is a must.
Make sure all exit paths are clear of obstacles and various hazards to guarantee yourself safe passage out of your home.
Keep small children and pets away from the packing and moving action on Moving day – have somebody you trust to take care of them while you work.
Dress appropriately for the day of the move – use comfortable clothes and shoes that will give you good traction and ankle support.
10. NOT exploring all good ways to cut moving costs
While it’s not considered one of the top moving mistakes, failure to explore all good options to lower your moving costs can still be classified as one of the common moving mistakes that most people make when moving out. After all, moving house is an expensive business, so you must try to cut the moving expenses as much as possible.
In brief, here are the best ways to bring down the cost of your move:
Find an affordable mover. Request multiple cost estimates from reputable moving companies and choose the offer that you find the most compatible with your family budget. Thus said, stay away from moving quotes that are too good to be true because they could turn out to be fraudulent.
Declutter your home. Declutter your home to save money! As mentioned above, packing and moving all the items you currently have in your home will cost you too much. Do the right thing and get rid of any items that you don’t plan to use in the future.
Pay less for packing supplies. Most of your cardboard boxes you should be able to find for free, but you can go a step further and use the packing materials you already have in your home to lower the packing cost even more.
Pack it by yourself. Professional packing services are expensive, so pack whatever you can by yourself (books, clothes, shoes, etc.) and leave only the extra special items (a grandfather clock, antique furniture, etc.) for the pros.
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