Here are top 5 moving tips by one of our moving specialists at Top Notch Movers, Andrey. He has 4 years of combined experience being a foreman, dispatcher and a customer service representative.
He has successfully picked-up and delivered more than 600+ moves to households all around the USA.
He is a professional packer, loader, and estimator. Here, he is sharing his knowledge on how to be ready for out of state and in-state moves.
“You need to move” Top 5 Moving Tips
You receive a great job offer and are looking to move closer to New York or another state. I believe everyone will move at some point in their life. I moved only a few times and mostly local.
I am used to rent-a-truck and a help my friends. It was fun and an overall a great experience. Moving, I realized that it can be an option only if you are a guy and you know how to take care of the furniture.
At that moment I had a couple of years in my moving business behind my back. Knew how to properly handle furniture, pack the boxes, and stack the truck. So it was easy for me to move.
For people who have never moved before and don’t know how to do it properly, it can be very challenging and a hard thing to do.
Moving is not easy, I would even say it is extremely hard to move. It requires a lot of your own time and good organization skills. Let me explain to you what you need to be done before doing any research. To rent a truck, or hiring a moving company, or anything else. Here are a few things you need to consider:
1. How far away are you looking to move? “Top 5 Moving Tips – 1st”
2. What are those items that you will be taking with you? “Top 5 Moving Tips – 2nd”
3. Your building move-out requirements (if it is a condo or a high-rise building) “Top 5 Moving Tips – 3rd”
4. Do you need an additional insurance? “Top 5 Moving Tips – 4th”
5. Do you have friends to help you? Will they have time and availability? “Top 5 Moning Tips – 5th”
Top 5 Moving Tips Based On Those 5 Questions
1. How far are you looking to move?
That is a very important question. You need to answer it before you can begin gathering quotes from moving companies. Try, and calculate a budget for your move.
To see approximately how many miles you or your moving company will have to travel, simply put a zip code of your origin and destination in Google maps. It will show you the approximate amount of miles and hours for the trip.
Everything that is in a 100-mile radius from your pick up in moving business we call a “Local Job” or a local move.
A local move may be a bit easier and less stressful than a long distance move. But you will need to take the same amount of time to plan and prepare for it. So even if you move 10 miles away, you can be assured that everything will be perfect.
Everything that is over 100 miles from your origin will be considered as a long distance move.
A long distance move is a very complicated move to do, it consumes all of your free time, usually brings a lot of stress, and huge expenses.
Why do you need to know the number of miles traveling from point A to point B:
When Doing It For Yourself :
1. Check the price to rent a truck (usually will charge you $0.xx/mile)
2. Calculate the price of a gas (based on miles and truck fuel efficiency )
3. Know how many hours, days or weeks it will take to move
4. Book and reserve hotels or motels on the way if needed.
5. Get more accurate estimates from moving companies etc…
What am I trying to explain here, is that when you have a distance to go, you can build a route. From a route, you can plan your schedule.
2. What are those items that you will be taking with you? Furniture etc…
For the last few years, I’ve been to more than 600+ houses all around the USA. Provided estimates, and moved different customers with different needs. From all of that, I can tell you one thing for sure – everyone has different kinds of belongings (furniture, misc, boxes). It can be an expensive wood furniture with a marble top or a granite top.
It can be an IKEA pressed wood furniture, or it can be tables completely made of glass.
Every piece of furniture requires special attention and some of them even need professional packing. Let me provide you with some advice on how to understand what you will need to do to make sure your belongings will be protected.
GLASS, MARBLE, GRANITE – Top 5 Moving Tips
If you have those items, you better call a mover – they will pack it up for you. They can crate it and make sure that your glass will not break. If you want to do it yourself, let me give you advice:
Glass, marble, and granite can be packed in large bubble wrap and boxes. Heavy and big pieces of marble, glass or granite need to be crated or packed with heavy-duty blankets and a carton. Because heavy objects with bubble wrap will not make any difference. You will only waste it if you use it.
Next…
SOLID WOOD FURNITURE – Top 5 Moving Tips
This kind of furniture needs to be wrapped with pads or towels. This will assure that even if you will drag furniture on the floor, corners or sides of it will not get damaged. Usually, furniture that was made from solid wood will not require a lot of disassembling and will be easy to move, but, it is heavy.
Those pieces that are made from real wood, they are usually heavy. I would not suggest for anyone to try to move them around. Only if you have prior experience moving furniture.
Before trying to do it on your own, be sure you are in a great shape and have no health or back problems.
IKEA FURNITURE – Top 5 Moving Tips
Ikea is probably the cheapest furniture that you can get if you’re looking to buy some for your home. It looks beautiful, has a lot of different designs and usually can be bought and assembled without any side help.
The dark side: Ikea is the worst furniture to move, very fragile, breakable and hard to disassemble when it is already assembled. Most moving companies will not even take responsibility to move your IKEA furniture. Because it is so fragile and breakable. Sometimes you should move it on your own.
Our Advice – Disassemble all of the IKEA furniture by yourself. Treat it as glass. Make sure you have all the screws in one place and have it all ready for the movers. It will save you tons of time and money.
If you are moving on your own, be careful and try to work with Ikea furniture as a very fragile item.
YOUR BUILDING MOVE OUT REQUIREMENTS – Top 5 Moving Quotes
You need to know all the rules and regulations of your place before you will be ready to move-in or move-out.
A lot of communities and condos have restrictions, permits, reservations etc. You need to make sure that you set-up your move-out date with your community or condo. So, you can move-out with no extreme rush or any other surprises that you might have along the way.
Follow these rules to avoid any moving delays or issues.
Let me tell you about most common situations that happen frequently and what kind of problems moving can bring:
1. A customer didn’t put a reservation for the elevator.
Problem #1: the building will not let movers do the job and move customer out of the apartment.
– Simply because there is no reservation for the move-out or elevator.
Solution #1: Always plan ahead and call your office manager. Set-up your move-out date and put in a reservation for the elevator.
2. A client didn’t know that building has a strict policy and will not let anyone move on Saturdays and Sundays.
Problem #2: Now customer needs to wait till the first weekday to reschedule the move.
Solution #2: Make sure you contact management of the building and ask them as many questions as you can. Also, be sure you understand their policy and rules.
3. A customer didn’t know that the building has a loading dock with low-clearance.
Problem #3: Low clearance usually under 11.5”. When you rent a truck or hire a moving company – most of the trucks will have clearance 12” and higher. So now when your move is about to start, your movers or you would need to park all the way outside of the building. It will take you or them 3 times longer time to load the truck.
Solution #3: Ask the manager in your building about the loading dock clearance and let the moving company know about it. Before they will come to your place. If you have to rent a truck, simply rent a truck with lower height then the height of your loading dock.
4. Our customer was not aware of a time limit.
Problem #4: You have your movers scheduled for 12 pm because you like to go to breakfast or do some other things before your move? Make sure your building will allow moving company or yourself to move out after 4 PM.
A lot of buildings have a time limit – 9am-4pm – 9-am-5pm… And all of them are very strict with their rules. At 4 pm they will simply put you outside and will not let you move.
Solution #4: First, do your move. Then you can go for a nice lunch with your friends and not be worry about squeezing into a time frame.
As I said, there is a lot of planning when you move and if you will not do it in the right way, you can get stuck in the middle of your move. So be patient and make sure to gather as much information as possible in advance.
ADDITIONAL INSURANCE or “Everything could happen” Top 5 Moving Tips
Insurance is a good way to cover your losses if accidents appear during the move. If you are moving, you might want to get homeowners insurance. If you are looking to move with a moving company, ALL OF THEM have standard insurance – $0.60 cents/per pound/per article or so. Top 5 Moving Tips
This coverage will not help you a lot if your t.v. that cost $2,000 will break, let me show you the way you can calculate your coverage:
T.V. – 50lb – 50lb x 0.60 = $30 – The amount that you will get for your broken T.V.
Piano – 700lb – 700 x 0.60 = $420 The amount that you will get for your broken piano.
As you can see, coverage is a bare minimum and will not cover the price of the item.
In case you have a lot of valuable things like T.V.’s, marble tops, glass, antique furniture, valuable items or pictures, you would most likely need and want to get an additional insurance. To be sure that in case of an accident you will be covered and protected.
Moving companies usually ask Bakers International or MovingInsurance.com to take care of their customers. They work with them to provide a price and coverage for their upcoming move.
Major carriers usually use their own insurance. I would never, never suggest you use insurance with a major carrier, only because insurance that they have will not satisfy your requirements.
If you looking to use containers for your move – container transportation companies usually provide you an insurance on all of your belongings that stay in the container during the transportation.
But they also require you to pay additional for it.
Rent a truck – when you rent a truck I would suggest making sure that you have cargo insurance. In case of an accident you will have coverage that will help you cover the expanse of your loss.
5. Do you have friends or relatives to help you with your move? Top 5 Moving Tips
If you do – it’s good, but as a professional mover and just a regular guy who moved himself a quite few times, I would suggest you pick our professional movers over your friends, why?
Just because not all of your friends know how to properly handle your belongings, pack and stack and don’t care about them.
Don’t take a risk – call our professional, licensed moving company and let us help you make your move. We’ll get you trained professionals who provide elite moving services.
