The Ultimate Checklist to Prepare for Long Distance Moves
Are you planning to move cross-country or abroad in the forthcoming months? If you answer yes, you aren’t the only one planning it. The latest stats show that around 8.4% of US citizens moved in 2021. At the same time, another survey shows that some 22% of US citizens decided to move or knew someone who planned on moving due to the pandemic.
Nowadays, most people are moving across towns or relocating to spaces that accommodate their work-from-home routines. Some are doing so for lifestyle changes. Others are making more dramatic changes and settling in far-off regions with low living costs. Surprisingly, people are even trading the big city life to move to another location. According to recent reports, the growing number of people who decided to move to Florida in 2022 later regretted their decisions. Low wages, weather issues, and housing prices were the top reasons residents of the Sunshine State decided to relocate.
Regardless of the apparent reason, deciding to make a long-distance move is the initial step. After deciding where to relocate, you must devise a realistic plan to get all your possessions to the new place in one piece. It isn’t as simple as tossing your belongings in one container, shoving them in the van, and hitting the road. Every move requires proper coordination, planning, preparation, and execution.
For this purpose, we’ve listed some tips to ensure a stress-free long-distance move:
1. Hire the Services of a Reputable Mover
If you reside in West Palm Beach, a city in Florida, and have also decided to move out from this city due to high living costs and weather conditions. In that case, you must enlist the help of a reliable moving service to ensure a smooth transition. While affordability is crucial, an inexpensive option isn’t always ideal. After all, you don’t want to fall victim to a moving scam when relocating hundreds of miles away.
Therefore, choose the best long distance movers in West Palm Beach that possess the necessary resources and expertise to tackle every aspect of the long-distance move. By entrusting your possessions to skilled movers, you can attain peace of mind knowing your belongings are in the hands of experienced professionals and will get delivered to the new place with utmost care.
2. Create An Inventory List
When preparing to relocate, your possessions may end up dispersed across various states or continents. Creating an inventory list is imperative before you embark on a long-distance move.
Whether you choose to use a notebook or a mobile application to take inventory, ensure to come up with an exhaustive list of the things you own. Jot down all the significant possessions at your home, including kitchen items and furniture pieces. Be sure to scribble anything you might fail to remember during the move-out process.
This comprehensive inventory list can form the foundation for packing before the big move. Not only this, but the list can also come in handy when ticking everything off to ensure that your belongings have arrived at your new place.
3. Carve Out Time to Downsize and Prioritize
A long-distance move is an excellent opportunity to take a long hard look at your possessions, downsize, and prioritize them. It’s also a great way to ensure that the clutter accumulated at your place doesn’t come to your new destination. Consider this a spring cleaning of your possessions before you start fresh at a new location.
Therefore, take some time to think about the items you don’t use, want, or need to survive. For instance, the spare television that has been sitting in your living room for over a year now; do you need it? Likewise, what’s the point of dragging a malfunctioning cooker across the borders? In the same way, get rid of the books that you don’t bother giving a second read, electronic appliances that you haven’t used for years, and clothes that you haven’t touched.
Consider tossing them away, selling, or donating them to local charities. Purging and reducing your load can significantly help tackle moving costs. Additionally, it can also streamline the packing and unpacking process.
4. Pack and Organize Belongings
When planning a long-distance move, you must pay extra attention to how well you pack your household items. After all, the longer the traveling distance, the greater the likelihood of something getting damaged or broken during the transition.
Therefore, try to be strategic when packing goods and use boxes that are comparably the same size and contain manageable weight. Also, instead of cramming a lot of items together in a single box, try to stuff a combination of lighter and heavier items so that it’s easy to transport the boxes from one place to another.
With that said, try to be extra cautious with fragile household items and cover them in bubble wrap or paper sheets. In addition, group these delicate objects together to keep things organized and ask your movers to be super careful with them.
5. Update Your Address and Utilities
More often than not, people get so immersed in the moving activities that they tend to forget the other crucial aspects of moving that also need to be catered to. Updating the current address is vital to reroute your important documents and letters when traveling vast distances.
Change your current address on various delivery platforms so your packages arrive at the correct destinations. Also, inform your family, friends, and relatives about your destination. While this may not be an essential moving tip for some; however, when you keep them in the loop, they might be able to lend a helping hand during your moving process.
Another critical yet often overlooked task is updating the utilities at the new place. Contact the current provider and ask them to disconnect the utilities. Once done, reach out to the providers at your new home and schedule an appointment to set up the connections.
Final Words
Moving is challenging and might not always go as smoothly as you envisage. However, with proper organization, planning, and execution, you can break this seemingly daunting task into manageable steps and turn the whole process into a memorable experience for all the right reasons.
Make an inventory list, take some time to downsize and prioritize, and engage the services of a reliable moving company. Also, keep tabs on the crucial tasks that must be completed before, during, and after the moving process. And don’t feel hesitant to reach out to friends and family members if you need help.
Remember, a long-distance move may include adjusting to potential weather changes, different time zones, and perhaps even different cultures and traditions. Nonetheless, a proper plan in place and giving yourself time to acclimatize can help you settle in well in your new surroundings.
