Moving Day Tips: An Amateur's Perspective
Having just completed my first voluntary move in my life(all others being dictate by a higher authority, being either my parents or the U.S. Army), I decided to put together a list of tips for the other amateurs out there like myself to facilitate a better experience for others in the future.
1. Check the weather.
Even if the date you picked for moving is a long ways away, keep an eye on the weather, especially in the week leading up to the move. Moving on all its own sucks as it is, having to do it in inclement weather makes it that much worse. The rain is not your friend.
2. Organize your packing.
Make sure you know what is getting packed where with whatever else you have. That way you are not in utter disarray when you have to start looking for stuff that you need immediately. Tearing my room apart before work looking for my deodorant was not time well spent, and I STILL haven’t found it.
3. Overestimate your stuff.
It is essential that you make sure that you have enough containers, boxes and bags for everything you are packing, so you don’t have to resort to some impromptu packing containers to make sure that nothing left behind. Bedding should be best used for exactly that.
4. Get reliable help.
Take my advice, if the move isn’t long distance, get as much help from friends and family as you can get, so that this doesn’t get dragged out to eternity. Lots of people will make it go faster, and get it done sooner in fewer trips.
5. The less trips, the better.
If you’re doing a move into or out of a dorm, where furniture is not an issue, then a van and a car for moving might be enough. However, if there’s furniture (bed, bookcase, computer desk), appliances (mini-fridge, microwave, toaster oven, lamps) or technology (television, desktop computer, entertainment system), it might be a good idea to either rent a U-Haul trailer or truck, or bribe some friends with pickups and cargo vans for help.
6. Know the space.
Have a general map of the space your moving into, that way you can properly organize where stuff is going, where the outlets, cables, and general wire hook-ups are, and windows and lighting. That way you don’t have to keep rearranging everything to in order to plug in electronics and not block airways and windows.
I hope these tips are helpful to people, or if not at least amusing of my follies. If I have been helpful to anyone, please let me know. Hopefully next time moving won’t be such a trial for you, and me.
