Highlights
- Moving across the country is viewed as the most difficult type of residential moving that can only be rivaled by international relocation.
- Moving to another part of the country is a serious business – it involves the safe transportation of your prized possessions over a great distance.
- And yet, the most challenging stage of a cross-country move remains the preparation period where many things can go wrong.
- These 20 tips for moving across the country will help you have a smooth state-to-state move from start to finish.
- Stage One: Serious tips for moving across the country
- 1. Follow a moving checklist
- 2. Hire cross-country movers
- 3. Compare movers
- 4. Request cost calculation
- 5. Inventory your home
- 6. Moving furniture across country
- 7. Moving across country with children
- 8. Moving cross country with pets
- 9. Make up your mind: driving or flying?
- 10. Change your address
- 11. Change home utilities
- Stage Two: Serious packing tips for moving cross country
Let’s get one thing straight: moving across the country often proves to be the toughest type of residential moving, challenged only by complicated cases of international relocation.
To move to a new residence that is located hundreds or thousands of miles away is definitely not something you can joke about – the mere thought that so many things could go wrong during that intensely transitional period is enough to send you into a state of panic.
This is exactly why we’ve created this seriously important moving across the country checklist so that you can take your long-distance move seriously.
What would you be willing to give to have a fairly simple, straightforward, and affordable cross-country move? 5 minutes of your time would be enough.
Read the next 20 tips for moving cross country in order to better understand the challenges you’ll soon be facing with your decision to move to another part of the country.
Stage One: Serious tips for moving across the country
Getting ready to move across the country requires impeccable organization on your part – know what things to do before you move across the country in order to take full advantage of the weeks, days, and hours you have until your moving date and keep the stress level to its minimum while keeping the efficiency as high as possible.
1. Follow a moving checklist
Regardless of the move distance between the two homes (neighboring state or coast to coast), the one thing that will remain unchanged is the myriad of tasks that are waiting for you and you alone.
The number of those jobs can be so overwhelming that you may quickly find yourself confused about where to begin. Moreover, the exact order of completing the pre-move chores is very important for gaining complete control of the remaining time.
Don’t waste time you can’t afford to lose – set up a day-by-day/week-by-week moving checklist for yourself and populate with it personalized and prioritized move-related jobs.
Moving Timeline: Week By Week Moving Checklist
2. Hire cross-country movers
Deciding to move across the country is a guarantee that you won’t lose valuable time resolving the ever-present dilemma: hire movers or do it yourself?
Because of the jaw-dropping distances of moving coast to coast, for example, New York, NY – Los Angeles, CA (2,800 miles), Miami, FL – Seattle, WA (3,300 miles), the only way you can have a normal household move without problems of any sort is to hire one of the top-rated cross-country movers out there.
There’s a good reason why self-moving is only suited for local moves – factor in all forgotten costs of moving by yourself and things will suddenly become clearer than ever.
7 Reasons to Hire a Professional Moving Company
3. Compare movers
It won’t be long before you realize that moving cross country by yourself is a bad idea due to the great distance and the increased costs and risks that the extra mileage will introduce. Faced with a fairly complicated long-distance move, your best option is to contact an experienced cross-country moving company and hire their quality services.
Okay, hire a professional moving company – check. But which one?
The thing is that you won’t really know which long-distance mover is right for you until you do a comparative analysis of several cross-country movers in your area. Basically, it comes down to making an informed decision after exploring your available options as far as price and additional services go.
How to Compare Moving Companies
4. Request cost calculation
It’s hardly a surprising statement that the cost to move across the country is almost always higher than the cost of moving locally. The real question is just how much higher, right?
Having your moving price calculated long before Moving day is something you just must do as it will introduce more clarity into your family budget and will hopefully ease your mind too.
Ask a few reputable cross-country moving companies for price estimation. Do not settle for online or phone cost estimates because they can never be as accurate as you need them to be.
Instead, request in-home surveys from moving company experts for much more realistic moving price quotes.
5. Inventory your home
Do you know exactly what items you’ll be taking with you to your new place?
The most cost-effective way to move across the country is to simply leave all household items behind and literally take just a handful of valuable personal belongings. Tempting, right?
Not really because such a long-distance moving scenario sounds more like science fiction than reality.
Complete a home inventory so that you do know what items you’re really moving to the new house or apartment. As you’re going from room to room with a trusted notepad or an electronic gadget in your hands, remember to decide the fate of each possession of yours – Keep, Sell, Gift, Donate, or Recycle?
6. Moving furniture across country
Most furniture pieces are big and heavy, and therefore you should focus on resolving the dilemma of whether it’s better to pay to have your furniture moved to another home or not.
In some cases, purchasing new pieces of furniture upon arrival proves to be more cost-effective than paying professionals to pack, load, transport, and unpack the pieces that you own right now.
It’s a tough call, no doubt, but unless you have priceless antique furniture that you can’t even think about leaving behind, doing the math often favors moving as few furniture pieces as you possibly can.
What to Do With Furniture When Moving
7. Moving across country with children
No matter the major reasons to move across the country, expect much more worries and difficulties when you’re embarking on that moving journey with kids.
The added responsibilities will only make the tough relocation even harder for you as a parent so it’s important to think ahead and get ready for the challenges as they come one after the other.
Consult our Moving with Children Guide to keep stress levels from escalating. There, you will find detailed information about what to expect from and how to prepare your baby, toddler, pre-schooler, school-age kid, or teenager to have a smooth transition not only between the two homes but between the two worlds as well.
How Does Moving House Affect Children?
8. Moving cross country with pets
Moving with pets across the country will keep your hands rather full as well.
Non-surprisingly, pets have their own needs, so you are advised to find time to tend to those special needs in order to keep your animal friend safe and calm before, during, and after a house move of such a magnitude.
Whether you’re moving with a loyal dog, a graceful cat, a lovely bird, beautiful fish, or an exotic pet, you can be sure that it won’t be long before they sense that something big is about to happen.
Remember that even the best cross-country movers are not allowed to transport pets, so you’re in charge of finding the best way to transport your pet to another state. Make sure that they are healthy before the trip (a pre-move visit to the vet is a must) and that their routine remains as unchanged as possible under the circumstances.
9. Make up your mind: driving or flying?
Your long-distance mover will be charged with the task of protecting and transporting your possessions from Point A to Point B, but what about you and the people you are moving with? How do you plan to reach the new address?
Moving across the country in your car is the most common way to reach the destination of a long-distance move. And if that’s your plan too, then remember to have your transportation vehicle serviced prior to Moving day so that the moving trip goes as smoothly as silk. Also, plan your car journey well in advance to avoid potentially bad last-minute decisions.
On the other hand, if you intend to fly to your new home, then you should definitely think about how to move your car across the country. Contact a few top-rated car shippers and get price quotes so that you can select the best offer in terms of pricing and conditions.
Ship a Car or Drive It When Moving Across Country
10. Change your address
A cross-country move will surely introduce many changes in a person’s life.
And the fact that you’re moving across the country means that your postal address is going to change as well. It’s quite logical, isn’t it?
It’s best to change your address with the United States Postal Service (USPS) approximately 2 weeks prior to your move-out date. This way, you will continue to receive your mail without any issues.
Interestingly enough, you can also change your address right after the move but the risk of getting important pieces of mail lost will be somewhat higher.
Luckily for you, there are 4 ways to change your address: 1) in person at the nearest USPS office, 2) online, 3) over the phone, and 4) by mail.
How to Change Your Address When Moving
11. Change home utilities
In some relocation cases, you’ll also need to change your home utilities… unless you’d want to experience what it’s like to unpack in the dark once you make it to the new place.
Don’t forget to get in touch with your current utility companies and schedule the disconnection of the utilities in the place you’re leaving soon. Timing is important here, so remember to do this task approximately 2 weeks before moving out.
Then, contact the utility providers in the new state and arrange for the reconnection of the utility services – electricity, water and sewage, gas, Internet, cable TV, telephone, waste removal, etc. – in the new home.
Thanks for the tip to empty, clean, and disassemble large furniture before packing them up for a long move. My wife and I decided that we want to move across the country so that we can experience the East Coast, and so we need to start preparing for long distance moving. With transporting heavy furniture, I will be sure to connect with a professional moving company.
My husband recently got a job on the east coast, so we will have to pack up and move as soon as we can sell our house. Tip #10 will be helpful when we start packing. I feel like I can handle easy things like clothes and books, but you are right about getting help for things like the piano. We will also need to start shopping around for transportation options.
Thank you for all the long distance moving tips. My husband and I have to move for work, and we have never moved a really long distance before. I really like your tip about making sure to do a comparison analysis of services in our area. It would be good to make an informed decision about what movers we want to hire.
My parents live a few states away from where I’m at right now, and I want to move closer to them now that my husband and I have had a baby. I like your suggestion to get rid of things that won’t be useful to you in the near future by having a moving sale. We’ll have to do that, and I think that we’ll hire some long distance movers so that we’ll just need to worry about the baby.
My family and I are moving to a new area soon and it’s pretty far away from where we live now. This is going to be a big stressful move, so I really appreciate the tips in this article. It’s a smart idea to hire cross country movers to avoid any problems.
I really appreciate your tip to try and find anything in your house that you are willing to sell. My wife and I have been thinking of getting a smaller house so we won’t have to spend as much money, but that means that we will have to get rid of some of our stuff. I will be sure to tell my wife that we should take an inventory of everything in our house to find anything that we can get rid of.
You made a great point when you said that hiring movers ends up being cheaper in the long run when moving across the country. My cousin once moved by himself from Maine to South Carolina- It was a total pain! An expensive pain. If I ever have a long distance move, I will be trusting professional movers to ensure a successful move.
I really like your tip about having a professional furniture mover handle heavy or antique furniture when moving to a new country. My parents are looking to spend their retirement in Europe, and they’re planning to bring most of their old furniture and heirlooms for the move. I’d definitely share this article with them so they can better gauge their options with international moving companies. Thanks!
My wife and I are planning a move from Florida to Washinton and having a home inventory is a great idea. I agree that you need a long distance moving service for such distances is a requirement. The distance combined with the number of trips just would not be easily feasible.
Your advice to hire a long distance moving company so you can enjoy a stress-free moving experience across the country is really helpful. My husband and I have been living on the east coast, but he was just offered a job on the west coast. We’ll start looking into long distance movers to help us get our belongings safely to their destination.
I really like how you suggested completing a home inventory so that you know what items you’re really moving to the new house. I am moving to a new home next year. Thanks for the tips on moving.
Comparing between the moving services is good to take the idea in respect to price and services which they are providing to you as most of the company have variation in prices and services too which mean if the company is charging you more and providing the less service then there is no chance to hire them as they are not useful to you.
My husband was able to buy a home in another city and we will be moving their next month. It was suggested here that we should have a moving checklist and compare movers before hiring one. Moreover, it’s recommended to go to professionals for quality residential moving services.
I moved from Idaho to Maine for under $3000.00 renting a truck and packing everything myself. That’s including gas costs. It took me 6 days. I got rid of a lot beforehand of course , but I still had a 20 foot truck full. All the boxes I started collecting a couple months in advance so I didn’t pay for a single box. I packed everything tight with towels and blankets to protect the fragile stuff. The only thing that broke was a printer I had because I didn’t realize it wasn’t built very well. My kids transitioned well . I was worried about someone stealing the truck at night on the way , but I was fortunate.
It’s interesting to know that knowing what items you will be taking with you during your move can help you to reduce costs. My husband and I are looking to move to another city, and we are looking for advice. I will make sure to perform a home inventory to take with me only the essential.
I appreciate that you mentioned that you should pack only the things that will be helpful in the future when moving. My mom collects anything that comes into her possession, and we are trying to help her pack. I will need to contact a good moving service that will take care of her things as she moves across the country.
It was helpful when you said to explore the available options and price. My family is moving sometime soon. I guess it would be good to get a jump on what type of moving companies would be good for us.
My husband and I are moving to Ankeny, IA, and we need to find a service that can help us move into our new home. We love your tip about moving furniture across the country and deciding whether or not to pay someone to move it or do it yourself. These tips will be useful as we search for a professional to help us move.
I really enjoyed your tip to make a day-by-day or week-by-week checklist for yourself to follow as you’re getting ready to move. My brother was telling me that he was thinking about moving to another country. I’ll pass this tip onto him once he’s made a decision.
Hello, all this information was very helpful. Thank you very much! Keep posting such kind of info on your blog. I’m really impressed by it.