Tips For Moving and Packing
Moving to a new home can be a stressful process. Sorting things, cleaning, packing, and transferring services are all steps that have to be addressed before moving out. However, there are several ways to make your moving process easier and faster.
So let’s dive into the best ways to streamline the moving process, from the best way to pack, to the easiest way to transfer your internet services and utilities to the new home.
What are the best ways to prepare for a move?
Before you move out, you have to organize all of your belongings. There are several steps to prepare before moving out that’ll make the entire process painless, as long as you set everything up ahead of time.
Decide if you will hire a moving company
First, you have to decide if you’re hiring a moving company. Having your friends and family help is a great and cheap alternative, but it can often be slower and harder to handle. A moving company can be particularly useful when you’re moving heavy or big furniture to your new home to avoid any damage.
Establish mail forwarding
Then, you have to set up mail forwarding to ensure all of your mail gets sent to your new address. This is a temporary solution to give you enough time to change all of your mail to the new address while avoiding getting old mail sent out to potential new owners of your previous home.
Switch over utilities accounts
After you have mail forwarding set up and ready to go, it’s time to swap all of your utilities to the new address, like electricity, gas, and water. This step is essential to ensure your new home has access to utilities before you move so you can power all of your electronics, have running water, and generally maintain access to all the amenities you’re used to.
Contacting your internet provider to get your internet shut down or transferred can be just as essential as transferring utilities, especially if you have smart appliances that require an online network. Finding out ahead of time if your new home has access to fiber optic internet can be a great advantage, so you can move to a new and faster internet plan if you don’t already have one.
Organize and label your boxes
When everything else is set up, you should grab boxes and packing materials like box-sealing tape and a marker to write on the boxes. Organization is key both to helping you pack and to helping you unpack after you get to your new home.
Tips for packing when moving
Keep a Sharpie handy
The best way to pack for a move is by getting as many boxes as you can and keeping a Sharpie by your side at all times. That way, you can easily sort all of your belongings into different boxes and label them to make it easier to unpack.
Rent or buy a dolly
If you decide not to hire a moving company, you should consider renting a dolly to help you move heavier furniture and appliances around. A dolly can also speed up the moving process by allowing you to move multiple boxes in one trip.
Use size-appropriate boxes
Packing heavier items like books in smaller boxes allows you to move them around easier and prevents the box from ripping open. Also, vacuum-sealing clothing, fabric items, and other similar things can help you save space when boxing them.
Set essential items aside
Save your essential items, the ones you’ll likely need as soon as you move into the new home, for last. Pack them in entirely different boxes and label them as such to help you get settled in as fast as possible.
Tips for decluttering when moving
When packing for moving out, decluttering is almost unavoidable. There are many things that are often easier or cheaper to just buy brand new. Some things might be too old, so you might want to throw them away, donate them, or sell them.
To help sort everything out, split them up into 3 or 4 piles:
Then, ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you like it?
- Does it fit?
- Is it something you often come back to?
If the answer to any one of these questions is no, then you should consider either donating or tossing it away. If you have enough time, selling it is probably the best option to make money out of something you don’t use anymore and would likely throw away anyway.
But the most important part of decluttering is moving the least amount of things possible to your new home. The fewer boxes you need to relocate, the fewer trips you'll need to take. It’s also considerably easier and faster to unpack everything if you don’t have many boxes lying around.
Start packing
While moving to a new place can be stressful and time-consuming, you can speed it up considerably by following our tips for moving and packing. Streamlining the whole process and organizing everything will make it easier and less stressful, both while moving out of your old home and when moving into your new place.
In addition to all of your belongings, transferring services and utilities to your new home is just as important. At Fidium Fiber, we make transferring your internet service to another address simple and straightforward. So check out if your new address has fiber internet today and make your address transfer before moving!