So you’ve got your house keys, your renovations done, and you are close to moving in and enjoying life in your new home. What’s left is just to pack everything from your current place and move over to your new home and call it a day or simply hire movers. The final step of moving, however, requires careful planning and proper execution to minimise problems during the important day. So in this article, we’ll look at some moving tips you should pay attention to before you make your move.
Planning Stage
Preparing a plan of action is the most crucial part of moving as it gives you and everyone else that is involved a clear idea of the what, where, when, and how of the move. In fact, planning starts way earlier for some as this is where most of the work is, so let’s get started.
Decluttering
Moving to a new house can be one of the opportunities for you to get rid of unwanted things lying around your house. Start listing down things that you can sell, donate or recycle. Get rid of your junk months before moving in so that you can get a head start. This helps to reduce the number of things you need to manage on the day of the move, giving you more time and room to work around. You can also earn some extra pocket money from selling your pre-owned items on online auction sites and use it to hire movers for the big day.
Taking the Right Measurements
When it comes to moving furniture or heavy items into your new home, it is essential to know whether they can fit through your doorway. Take measurements of the doors, stairways, and angles of your new home to have an idea of how you can manoeuvre around the house when it comes to bulkier items. Planning ahead also means figuring out whether these large items can be dismantled into smaller pieces and then reassembled at your new house to avoid time wasted during the big day. You can also map out a floor plan of your new house to brief your movers on where specific furniture or items should be put before moving.
Backup in the Case of Emergencies
Having a backup plan can prevent stressful situations if things don’t go well during the moving day. For example, having an alternative accommodation in case you couldn’t finish moving all your furniture into your new home. Therefore, you should have a temporary place to stay. Prepare a first aid kit at the site should an accident happen during the move.
Cleaning up and Fixing the Old Home
The old home that you are moving out from has to be cleaned up or fixed whether you are the owner or the tenant. As an owner, the best way to sell, increase the real estate price of your old home, or rent it out at an average price is to ensure that it is in its best condition.
As a tenant, you are obligated to ensure that the home is in its original state before handing it back to the landlord. Hence, plan ahead for any cleaning, maintenance, or repainting jobs.
Cleaning and Preparing the New Home
Ensure your new home is sparkling clean from all the renovation dust and dirt before you move anything in. Do a few rounds of cleaning if one round is not sufficient in clearing off the dust and dirt because it will get a lot difficult to clean your new house after moving furniture and other household items in.
Packing and Labelling
It is important to pack your items separately according to categories and organise them under properly labelled boxes. This will reduce the chances of missing items. You may also pack items that you wish to throw away into garbage bags to identify them easier. Precious household items such as jewellery and important documents should be kept separately from other items. You should also move these important documents with you personally instead of others, especially if you hired movers. It is also good to label the unwanted items so that everyone is aware of what not to move over.
Additionally, labelling is also helpful especially if you are planning to prepare a list of all the things you are moving with you. Labelling and a list go hand-in-hand to keep you organised. Labelled boxes and a copy of the list could also help movers to know what they are moving such as what is fragile and what is not, and where it should be put when they arrive at your new home.
Moreover, you should carefully select the kind of packing materials that you will use. Cardboard boxes can be used to carry light to medium weight items, while for heavier items, it’s best to consider something stronger such as plastic boxes. You will probably need to purchase a box cutter as well, for when you unpack at your new home. There is a wide range of packing supplies available for sale online, so make sure to well equip yourself before you start packing.
Pack Fragile Items Separately
Fragile and breakable items should be packed separately from the rest of the household items and labelled as fragile to reduce the risk of breaking them during the move. You should also wrap these items with a protective wrap such as bubble wrap or plastic wrap to further protect them from breaking. For larger items such as TVs or glass tables, you should also cover the edges to cushion the impact. Do make sure that no heavy objects are placed on them during the move as well.
Pack Essential Items Separately
Essential items such as clothing, toothbrush, soap, toiletries, and other daily use items should be packed separately from the rest. You’re probably not going to be able to unpack everything on the first day, so there will be a lot of trouble unpacking and finding essential items from separate boxes, especially after a long day of moving. As they are mostly lighter items, bring them along with you personally so that they are always within a hand’s reach when you need them.
Moving In or Out Restrictions
Similar to restrictions on renovations where it is usually not allowed during weekends, moving in or out can be restricted to certain days and times as well, especially for those living or planning to move into high-rise buildings. This restriction is often implemented by the management in order to avoid disturbing the other residents that are staying in the area.
Always make sure to check with the management regarding the date and time of your move to ensure that there are no restrictions that may hinder your important day. For those living or planning to move into high-rise buildings, you should also ask about the specified elevator and parking spot for moving.
Accommodation for Children and Pets
If you are a parent with kids or a parent of fur kids, you need to consider their safety first. Your progress may be seriously slowed down by them, or they may even get injured in all the chaos that is happening during the day. A good solution to this is to temporarily accommodate them somewhere else, such as with other family members or at a pet hotel. Without them to worry about, you can fully focus on the task at hand and get everything moved out and in within the timeframe that you planned.
Unexpected Additional Trips
In order to move everything over completely, you will need to take a certain number of trips depending on the number of people and type of vehicles available to you. Even with careful planning, you could miss out on certain things sometimes and this would require an extra trip or two. This would lead to another frustrating trip especially if you live in Kuala Lumpur where back-and-forth trips would waste a lot of time and also incur additional costs due to the extra fuel consumption and toll payment. It is a good idea to leave some room for the final trip so that there is enough room for any missing items, or you can hire a professional moving company.
Moving Day
Phew! Now that you have got the planning out of the way, it is time to put everything into motion. Most of the things that you should consider have been done during your planning stage, but there are a few things to keep in mind during the moving day as well.
Be Wary of Theft
There aren’t any major reports of theft that happened with movers so far, but this doesn’t mean that it would not happen to you. You will most likely keep the doors open in both houses to facilitate the moving and amidst the chaos, opportunistic thieves that happen to pass by could sneak in or pretend to be a mover without you noticing. It is imperative to have at least one person at both sites to manage the move and keep the place guarded against these intruders. If you are moving along, get the assistance of a friend or family member to help you prevent theft.
Inoperable Service Elevator
This could be frustrating as this is a problem that is out of your control when it happens. However, it is good to anticipate that it could happen and pre-inform the management so that you could use another elevator should the service elevator break down. Some management offices only operate for half a day on Saturdays, so if you are planning to move during the weekend, ensure that the security guards are informed by the management so that they can provide you with an alternative should the elevator you are using break down.
Time Constraints
When it comes to something as important as moving, you should always start planning early and avoid rushing. Start with the bulkiest items to get them out of the way first. When you are hasty, chances of missing out on important steps could cause further delays, leading to unwanted extra costs or time to move.
Make preparations in advance and start the process early to mitigate this problem as packing in incremental steps could help reduce the workload needed on the day itself. You can also consider hiring relocation services as they have the right manpower and transport to get the job done for you.
Benefits of Hiring Professional Movers
Moving to a new house can be overwhelming, especially when you have just gotten over all the paperwork, renovations, and cleaning to get your new house ready. Depending on the distance between your old and new house and the number of items that you are moving, hiring a team of reliable movers offered by relocation services can be lifesaving to save the trouble of moving yourself.
With movers, you could also be saving fuel and toll costs of multiple trips due to the manpower and truck rental services, and also have better peace of mind with their insurance coverage. In fact, there is a wide range of movers that offer affordable prices for efficient service.
Save Time
Professional movers are trained to take prompt action when moving items for you so they will be able to meet your timeline and moving requirements. You can even get everything moved over in a single trip as movers can provide a selection of trucks to move many pieces of furniture and items at one go. However, it is very imperative for you to give movers a proper estimate of the items that you are moving especially large or heavy items so that they can prepare the right manpower and vehicle for you.
Save Cost
As mentioned above, hiring a team of movers could help when you plan to move your things to your new home in a single trip. This helps to save fuel and toll costs when you need multiple trips to move everything yourself, even more so when the distance between your old and new house is far. There are many lorry rental packages at reasonable prices available as well, so you are spoiled for choice when it comes to hiring reliable movers.
Some of these professional movers also offer insurance coverage for moving. It is a good add-on to have in the case of any accidents when some of your items are lost or broken during the trip.
Avoid Breaking Your Furniture or Items
There is always the possibility of dropping and breaking some of the items when you are moving, especially when they are heavy. In worse scenarios, you could even injure yourself when trying to carry these things yourself. Professional movers are more experience and are trained to do the heavy lifting, so the chances of breaking things and getting injuries are a lot lower.
Save Energy and Stress
Think about this. You’re already exhausted from all the paperwork and back-and-forth communication between the agents, developer, bank, contractors, and cleaners to get your new house ready. Moving to your new house can be daunting after all these as it is chaotic, messy, and tiring, which could drive you crazy with all the running around and planning. Relocation services and their wide range of professional movers could really help lighten your load and burden and ensure a smooth process throughout. Movers may even come with good customer service and insurance for damages for added peace of mind throughout the process.
Office Movers
Besides providing an array of services for household relocation, some of these professional movers also provide a range of services for corporate relocation. These corporate relocation experts also offer a wide range of efficient movers services which could include wrapping for furniture, packing services, lorry rental packages, insurance for damages, professional delivery, furniture assembly, and a wide range of storage options so you are spoilt for choice when it comes to relocating your office.
结论
If you are planning to hire a team of movers, make sure to select your preferred choice based on your own requirements whether it’s the array of services that they offer, the lorry rental packages, or even the choice of individuals.
The relocation process is always a daunting task, even when you have successfully moved everything over. You will still have to spend days if not weeks unpacking and shopping around for the rest of the things to furnish your new house so always remember to start planning as early as you can. Enjoy your new home and happy moving!
