When moving, one of the biggest concerns is preparing your furniture and protecting it against damage. There are many ways that environmental conditions or accidents can put your furnishings at risk, but, by planning for those incidents, you can reduce damages or eliminate them altogether.

Know Where Your Furniture is Going

Depending on the size of your new home and your plans for its living spaces, it may be necessary to plan. Tagging each item of furniture with the destination room is a good precaution and will help eliminate errors, especially if you’re working with professional movers.

If your new home is nearby, it may be wise to measure the dimensions of each room and measure the furniture, so you’ll know for certain that your furnishings will fit.

Break Down What You Can

You may have some items, such as end tables or nightstands that can be easily disassembled. Breaking these items down into smaller pieces will make it easier to pack them and protect them against damage. Additionally, this will make more room in the moving van.

Drawers should be removed from dressers and hutches. In addition to making the larger pieces lighter and easier to handle, the drawers can be packed with your clothes or other belongings and wrapped with movers’ wrap to reduce your need for boxes.

Gather Your Packing Supplies

You will need a few special items to pack your furniture correctly. Cheap Movers SF (http://www.cheapmoverssanfrancisco.net/) says these items will help you to ensure each item is protected for the move.

Bubble Wrap – To be used to protect fragile items (lamps, mirrors, etc.) and wooden pieces that may be easily scratched, dented, or broken.

Sealable Plastic Bags – Place pillows and sofa cushions inside larger plastic bags. Use smaller food storage bags to store screws, washers, and other small pieces. Be sure to label each bag with the name of the furniture to which the pieces belong.

Industrial Strength Plastic Wrap – For wrapping larger pieces of furniture, such as dressers, sofas, and tables.

Wrapping Your Furniture

Before you begin the actual wrapping, you’ll need to prepare the individual items. Where wood pieces are next to each other and may rub together, during transit, it’s wise to slip a piece of cardboard between them. This will protect against scratching. If you don’t have sofa covers, slip blankets over the sofa, loveseats, and other upholstered items.

Furniture should be wrapped securely, but not too tightly. Apply several layers to ensure each item is protected, starting at the top and traveling down to the base of the item for each layer. Once the item is wrapped, an index card can be taped to it, identifying where it will go in the home.

Getting the Furniture into the Truck

Before loading up the van, it’s best to lay moving blankets on the floor. This will keep the bottoms of the pieces from getting scuffed or damaged. Larger items should be loaded first with smaller items going into the van next. Boxes should be packed last. If you don’t have friends willing to pitch in, consider hiring professional movers to help load the van. This isn’t something you should try to handle on your own.

Moving is a stressful experience, but it can be easier with a little preparation. Your goal is to deliver your furniture and other items to your new home without suffering damages. By taking the time to prepare and protect each item, you can ensure a happy and quality move that won’t be more disruptive to your life than necessary.

When gearing up for a long distance move, it is easy to get overwhelmed. From working on a moving day budget to sorting through a household’s worth of furniture, clothing, and the like, getting through the moving process is almost always a stressful time.

Seven Common Moving Mistakes

The easiest way to make your moving process less stressful is to know the most common moving mistakes to avoid. Planning a long distance move? Scroll down to get an idea of everything not to do during the moving process.

1. Doing Everything Yourself

Certainly, many aspects of moving can be done by a non-professional. In fact, you have a lot of long distance moving options that range from complete DIY to a full-service move. When it comes to the actual packing and moving of major furniture and valuables, it’s best to trust professionals to do what they do best.

While you may think you’re saving money by not hiring professional movers, in reality, you may be paying a much steeper price. According to Cheap Movers moving services Santa Clarita, CA, many people that are determined to do their move on their own end up injuring themselves from improperly lifting heavier objects. Likewise, it may take more time than you realize to get all your packing done if you don’t have a team of trained professionals assisting you.

2. Packing the Wrong Way

When you are tackling some of the packing yourself, you should try to avoid common packing pitfalls. Avoid packing huge boxes full of heavy items, as it makes it impossible for you or movers to lift. Similarly, don’t use old or dilapidated packing equipment. A raggedy cardboard box can easily cave in or break, resulting in your belongings being damaged.

3. Failing to Label Your Boxes

Once you’ve sorted your items and have everything squared away, it’s on to the next one, right? Not, so fast. Failing to label each box is one of the worst mistakes you can make. When it’s time to unpack your things, clear labels will help to make quick work of the process.

4. Not Allowing Enough Time for the Move

When planning a long distance move, always follow this rule of thumb– give yourself more than enough time than you think you might need. There’s no way around it; moving is incredibly time-consuming.

Don’t shortchange yourself when it comes to preparing for your long distance move. Set aside several blocks of time for you to get everything handles before your moving day.

5. Not Getting Insurance on Valuables

Getting your most valuable belongings insured is an important step in the moving process. Without insurance on these items, you may find yourself out of luck in the event that they are lost, stolen, or damaged during your move.

6. Not Booking a Moving Company Ahead of Time

Calling a moving company with little to notice is a terrible mistake to make. If you hope to hire a reputable long distance moving company, you should do your best to make a booking sooner rather than later. On popular moving dates, most companies fill up rather quickly. Keep this from happening to you by calling a moving company as soon as you know you have to move.

7. Making the Budget Too Low

Wanting to save more money may lead you to inadvertently set a lower moving budget than you can manage. When getting estimates, be sure to get an accurate price. In most cases, you’ll end up spending more than you think, so plan to set a higher budget.

Don’t make your move more challenging than it needs to be. Use this guide to keep yourself from making these common seven moving mistakes. By planning accordingly and packing properly, you’ll be well prepared when moving day arrives.

Though it may not be the easiest thing in the world to do, it is possible for you to take your beloved garden plants with you when you move to a new locale. Here’s how it can be done:

First, Consult With the New Owner

A lot of people who buy a new house have largely based their choice on its curb appeal. This refers to how attractive the facade and the front yard are when a person is standing on the curb looking at it. For some buyers, a lot of a house’s curb appeal is found in the trees, flowers, and shrubs found on the property. You should make sure that the buyer is alright with some of those plants being removed. This should be done well before the house and property are sold.

Know Which Plants Can Be Taken

If you are planning a move out of state or out of the country, you should check with the government agency to find out which plants you can take with you. Some plants cannot be taken from one state to another state.

When to Move Them

Ideally, plants in the garden shouldn’t be moved during the summer, unless the season is unusually wet. It’s the growing season, and digging them up might be too traumatic for them to recover once they are transplanted in another yard. Experts recommend fall and winter as the season to remove trees, shrubs, and other perennials, which are plants that come back year after year.

Digging Them Up

When the plants are finally dug up, it is a good idea to save as many of their roots as is possible, and place them in pots with potting soil that stays moist throughout the move. If the plant is too big to be placed in a pot, wrap its roots in burlap.

Moving Them

If it is at all possible, prepare the new site to receive the plants before the move, for it is important that they are transplanted quickly after you arrive at the new place. During the trip, the plants should be protected from direct sunlight and wind, so it’s best to put them in a truck or your car. According to Cheap Movers San Diego (http://www.cheapmoverssandiego.com/), many moving companies won’t take plants.

If the drive is especially long, you should make sure that the soil of the potted plants stays moist.

At the New Place

You should first check the plants when you arrive at the new location, and remove branches that are damaged. This should be done with clean secateurs. It’s important to get the plants back into the ground as soon as possible, but if it is too hot and sunny when you arrive, the transplanting should be done early in the morning.

If the weather is hot and sunny, some plants may need to be protected by garden fleece. All need to be well-watered until you are established in your new home. A layer of mulch around you helps to lock in moisture and suppress weeds.

If you’re moving from one home to another and enjoy using your smartphone, there are a few apps that you can download to assist with everything from packing to finding a home. Using the apps together can decrease the stress that is sometimes associated with the complete moving process. When you’re looking at apps to help with moving, you need to think about the things that you need to do first so that you get all of the benefits that the apps have to offer.

Realtor.com

This is an app that features houses, apartments, and mobile homes that are for rent. You can filter the properties that are available based on the city or zip code as well as how many bedrooms and bathrooms you need. There is an option to send a message to the person who is responsible for the property so that you can get more information and set up an appointment to view the property. You can receive notifications about new listings that are posted when they are available.

Sortly

When you’re packing everything in your home, it can sometimes get confusing trying to remember where certain items are at and if you’ve even packed some items or not. You can view a comprehensive checklist of the things that you should pack first while also having an inventory of your belongings. The app works by using pictures that you take of each room in your home. Once everything is in a box, you can assign a coded label for each one to make everything easier to unpack later.

MagicPlan

This is a fun app to use if you aren’t sure how to design your new home. Take pictures of the rooms in your new home. Then, Magic Plan will give you ideas about where to place furniture, appliances, and decorations so that you can get a better idea of how your home could look before you move anything into the house. You can change the colors and the layout of the details that are offered or completely start over if you want to see other options.

Nextdoor

After you’re settled in your home, you can use this app to discover who lives in your neighborhood and where to visit. You can view some of the services that are offered, which is beneficial if you need utilities connected. Nextdoor sends notifications about any crimes that are taking place or any emergency information that you need to know about.

Mint

Moving can take a big chunk of money from your bank account. Mint can help you make a budget for the utilities and other payments that you have to make each month. You can link to your bank accounts so that automatic payments can be made each month and so that you can see graphs of how much money you’re spending and how much you’re making.

Whether estimating long distance move costs for your family budget or employer reimbursement purposes, calculating the cost of moving does not need to be a huge hassle. There are obvious costs like your moving truck, moving materials, and labor. This article addresses those obvious costs as well as many costs you might not consider off […]