There’s such a long list of things to remember when we’re uprooting ourselves, whether alone or with a family, and preparing to start life in another property, possibly in an entirely different part of the country. It’s no wonder we can sometimes struggle to cover all our bases. Before we know it, a moving mistake has been set in motion and the consequences could be felt either straight away or, even worse, at the 11th hour when it’s too late to avert disaster. Unless we move with the help of an experienced, reputable company, moving can be one of the most stressful of adult chores. The more aspects of your move you’re able to delegate to professionals, the less likely it is that such a fate will befall you. Many of us, however, opt to choose a middle course, handling some aspects of the move ourselves while using our chosen moving company for others. Being forewarned about some of the more common moving mistakes can be a Godsend further down the line. Let’s take a closer look at five of the most frequent ones.
- No Decluttering
- Bad Packing
- Not Booking Your Removal Well in Advance
- Forgetting to Measure up
- Bad IT Migration
- Avoiding Moving Mistakes With Aussie
No Decluttering
How often does the perfect opportunity to declutter come along? Few situations lend themselves to decluttering quite like a house-move. Given that you’re going to have to empty out every last cupboard and every last inch of storage space, you might as well take the chance to work out what you want to keep and what can be sold, donated, given away or disposed of. The alternative – and this becomes even likelier if you haven’t given yourself enough time – is to gather up all the clutter and tat and take it with you. And it might be another decade or more before you move again.
Bad Packing
There’s nothing wrong, per se, with the decision to do your own packing, thereby bringing down the overall cost of your move. But unless you do it well, it’s false economising and will cost you more in the long run, in terms of breakages and man hours, than if you’d simply gone ahead and used your removal company’s packing service. Packing up an entire flat or house needs to be done in a thorough and orderly fashion; perhaps in our very first move, whether that was in our late teens or early 20s, we got away with shoving everything into bin liners two hours before departure. But that was when we had far fewer possessions and responsibilities. Taking that approach today would be an unmitigated disaster. So it’s best to pack without cutting any corners; starting the process in good time, so that it’s not done in a panicked rush; making sure we order tough, durable boxes in a variety of sizes, including wardrobe boxes; acquiring enough bubble wrap and paper for our breakable items; marking boxes clearly so that the unpacking process isn’t unnecessarily prolonged. Or, better still, using a packing service that’s staffed by diligent, experienced, conscientious packers. And if you do go for that last option, remember to take everything you don’t want packed up out of the house on the day the packers come.
Not Booking Your Removal Well in Advance
There’s a greater risk of committing this cardinal error if you’re planning on moving during the most popular period, usually summer. And it’s even more likely if you’ve chosen a specific weekend that’s traditionally in demand, such as a holiday weekend or a school half-term. Scrambling around trying to find a removals company too close to moving day leaves you vulnerable to several undesirable outcomes – you could end up in the hands of a shady, fly-by-night removals company that breaks your possessions and does a poor job all round, while possibly overcharging you. Or you could find it simply impossible to book any company whatsoever, and you’ll then be in the position of having to be your own mover. While some people have become very adept at doing their own removals, it’s different when you haven’t chosen that path but have simply been forced onto it thanks to your own disorganisation. Moving isn’t for the faint-hearted – and if you’ve never done it before and have a large, complex move (e.g. from one four-bedroomed house to another), you might have to throw yourself at the mercy of friends and family, calling in favours wherever you can, just to assemble something approaching a workable moving team.
Forgetting to Measure up
Sometimes, we have to undertake a move without sufficient opportunities to go around our new place with a tape measure. But usually, there’s ample time – and sometimes the information is available already and we don’t have to do it ourselves. So arriving at moving day, only to find out that half a dozen of your items can’t go through an important doorway in the new place, should be wholly avoidable. Leaving it to chance, however, can not only slow down your move quite drastically but also make it more expensive. You might find out that the only way to install that beloved sofa is to arrange a full window removal and replacement. Measuring up has multiple benefits besides averting disaster; it also lets you plan your furniture and appliance placement well in advance, making the moving-in process even more orderly and streamlined.
Bad IT Migration
A quirk of the post-1990s move is that we now take ever-increasing amounts of tech with us, including our vital internet set-up and an array of devices that depend on it. Handled badly, this can result in us arriving in our new homes with a baffling quantity of leads and wires, with no idea where they’re meant to go. You can get around this problem in a variety of ways – using packing tape to keep leads attached to their respective devices, or taking photographs of the back of every device before its leads are removed, making the re-installing process much easier at the other end. Good IT migration also means making sure, in advance, that you’ll be able to get online quickly in your new property, whether that’s with your original provider or a new one.
Avoiding Moving Mistakes With Aussie
Mistake-free removals and storage are easy to find in London once you know about Aussie. Our reputation is built around a problem-solving, can-do attitude. We have a Man & Van service for smaller moves (e.g. one-bedroom flat and smaller) and a Removals department for larger set-ups. Our safe, clean storage facility offers self storage, containerised storage and innovative, cost-busting AusBox storage. We also provide office moves, international moves and an array of services for people in the property industry.