Biggest of All? Not Properly Planning! 
Ah, yes: planning. No household move is smooth without it! If we seem to be driving that thought into the ground in our blogs and web pages, you’re right! We are! After all, when you employ us to do your move, we’ve got a vested interest in ensuring that it’s pulled off successfully. And if you’ve
hired a mover other than us? In that event, planning becomes absolutely imperative! The more prepared you are up front for not only everything that should happen but also a few things that shouldn’t happen but could, the better your move will go. So, by all means, plan!
Boo-Boos That Planning Can Help You Avoid - Taking on too much yourself. Keep your head! Unless you’re Superman or Wonder Woman you can’t do everything. Ask friends and relatives for help|assistance]29]. Let the kids pack the personal stuff in their bedrooms. Split up the inventorying and packing of various rooms between yourself and your spouse. And engage a professional moving company to do the loading, shipping, and unloading – or whatever else you don’t have the time, the expertise40], or the inclination to come to grips with personally.
- Waiting until the last minute to take care of everything. Moving is done in stages. By way of illustration, there are timelines for terminating services (gas, electric, phone, and so forth) at your current address and turning them on at your new address before you get there. Special arrangements must be made and time must be taken to pack and haul large or priceless belongings. When the movers pull up in your drive, everything that’s got to go had best be ready to go if the move is to keep on schedule. Delays can cost you – and a lot more than money. Dashing around at the last minute is a sure way to ensure that things get lost or left behind. Or damaged.
- Not having a Moving Day plan for the kids and pets. Are the kids traveling with you or your spouse or staying with grandma until the move’s over? Have plans been made to cover their school situation? Can you take Fido with you or is he better off being boarded until yougotten settled in}76} your new home? You know these things must be appraised. Don’t wait to appraise them!
- Not not alerting your moving company to changes in your schedule. Has the start date of your new job in your new city changed in a way that might necessitate rescheduling91 your move date? Can’t make the time originally set aside for the home survey that influences your move estimate? Need to have the movers show up a little later than planned on Move Day? Okay, sometimes changes are inescapable. There’s no reason for them to be a stumbling block, though … if you alert your moving company to them well enough in advance!
- Not reading the paperwork from your mover thoroughly. What? You didn’t see that added charge for the moving company’s packing services on page two of the contract? Or the cost of packing and shipping that massive grand piano of yours? Or that your moving insurance doesn’t truly cover the total valuation of your possessions? Of course, maybe none of that stuff was actually in the contract – and should have been. If you didn’t read it, how would you know? Surely you’ve heard the old adage that you shouldn’t ever sign a contract you haven’t read. Heed it! Or you’ll surely get a bill you weren’t banking on!
Follow the precepts above, start planning early, and you could see that your household move has all the adventure you hoped for – and none of the trauma you feared!
