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Timeline to Prepare Your Household for a Cross-Country Move

Timeline to Prepare Your Household for a Cross-Country Move

Most people consider moving to be extremely difficult and time-consuming. Both of these complaints have validity, but they can also be easily managed by preparing a timeline checklist. Starting at two months away from your moving date, make a checklist of things that need to be done and start checking them off.

Two Months Away From Your Cross-Country Move

  • The first thing you should do is to declutter your home. Decluttering your home should be your first step because it will determine how many boxes you need to pack up all of your belongings and how large of a moving truck you need to rent.
  • Once you’ve gone through all of your possessions to determine what items should be recycled, thrown away, kept, or donated, it’s time to start packing. Packing materials, such as boxes, aren’t cheap. They are, however, free if you know where to look. Visit local restaurants and liquor stores to see if they have any empty boxes they could give you.
  • Once you’ve acquired enough boxes and packing tape, start packing items that you won’t need for a while. This should include seasonal clothes, seasonal gear, keepsakes, seasonal decorations, excess toys, and seasonal shoes.

One Month Away From Your Cross-Country Move

  • With all of your unnecessary items already packed away in boxes, it’s time to start looking at other items in your home. You can start small moving preparations for your refrigerator by starting to use frozen food in the freezer.
  • This is also a good time for you to call your utility companies to let them know that you’ll be moving. Schedule a date for them to come out and turn off your utilities so that you’re not being charged after you’ve already moved out.
  • Take the time to measure your large pieces of furniture as well as the boxes that you have packed. This will help you determine which size moving truck you should rent.
  • Speaking of your moving truck, this is also a good time to start calling around to check on the availability and prices of a moving truck with the intent on reserving one for your moving day.

Two Weeks Away From Your Cross-Country Move

  • This is when you want to start packing up the rest of your items. Clothing, shoes, electronics, dinnerware, cookware, and other household items can start being placed into boxes and totes. Since you do still have two weeks left at your current home, leave out enough plates, cookware, and clothes to serve your family for these final days.
  • You should also call up the utility companies in the city of your new home to schedule a technician to turn on your utilities. This may take a while as you may need to set up a brand new account and confirm your identity.
  • Go to your local post office or visit the USPS website to submit a change of address form to ensure that you’ll start receiving your mail at your new home. Also, take this time to call and cancel your local newspaper subscriptions.

One Week From Your Cross-Country Move

  • Start cleaning and unplugging appliances. Drain your fridge, washer, and dishwasher. The movers at www.cheapmoversbaltimore.com recommend creating an overnight bag to use during the journey to your new home. Get all of the boxes lined up near the front door for easy loading.

Decluttering: Keep, Toss or Donate Things Before Your Long Distance Move

Decluttering: Keep, Toss or Donate Things Before Your Long Distance Move

Making a long distance move is stressful, expensive, and nerve-wracking. The cheapest way for you to make your move easier on your budget and your nerves is to declutter before you start packing. Decluttering your possessions may seem like a daunting task, especially if you have a lot of junk, but the chore is easier if you break it down and purge room by room.

You can make the job even easier by using the checklist below from New Jersey movers to separate your junk into specific piles.

Is It Stained?

When it’s time to declutter your stockpile of clothing to make your long distance move quicker and easier, the best way to determine what clothing items should be donated and which should be thrown away is to look for stains.

Many charities and homeless shelters won’t take clothes that have stains, holes, or tears. As you’re looking through your excess clothes, be vigilant for these three types of damages. Any articles of clothing with these damages should be put into the trash pile or a separate donation pile. There are charities out there that will take damaged clothing so that the items can be recycled to be used in other ways.

The Easterseals is one such charity. You can schedule a free pickup with their charity drivers. The items that you donate are considered as a tax write-off. The driver will leave you with a receipt to prove your donation to file with next year’s taxes.

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Is It Broken?

Broken items tend to be of little to no use to you, so these items should definitely be placed into the trash pile. There are a few exceptions to this rule, however. Sometimes, items can be reused for spare parts. If you bought a newer version of the same item, the broken version can be kept for spare parts if the newer version should malfunction.

While this is a great way to recycle and reduce the amount of trash that ends up in your local landfill, keeping every broken item you own in case you may need it doesn’t help you to declutter your home. This will only keep it cluttered. The best balance for this type of situation is to remove parts from the broken item that may be useful in the future.

The rest of the item can be tossed into the trash or sent to a recycling plant, if applicable. If your broken item wouldn’t even be useful for spare parts, toss it without hesitation. There’s no reason for you to pack more boxes than you need to.

Do You Need It?

When you move into your new home, you may find yourself with a lot less storage space. Your new home may even have amenities that your current home doesn’t have, making some of your appliances and furniture obsolete.

Go through all of your large items, especially appliances and furniture, and ask yourself if you really need these items for your new home. If you don’t, you should clean them and donate them to a local charity.

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Can It Be Recycled?

Not all of your items need to be thrown away. There are some things that cannot be donated, such as broken electronics. When it comes to these specific items, it’s recommended that you not throw them away. Electronics that end up in landfills cause soil pollution due to the chemicals held within their batteries. Do the planet a favor and recycle your broken electronics instead.

Six Precautionary Steps to Take Before Moving and Storing Your Piano

Six Precautionary Steps to Take Before Moving and Storing Your Piano

Moving a piano is a pretty massive undertaking because a piano is a pretty massive piece of furniture. A piano typically weighs from 350 to 1000 pounds or more. But a piano is more than just a big, bulky piece of furniture. It’s also a delicate instrument that requires expert, careful handling. Here are someContinue Reading Six Precautionary Steps to Take Before Moving and Storing Your Piano