First and Foremost? Having No Plan! 
Ah, yes: planning. No household move is smooth without it! If if it looks like we’re beating that point to death in our blogs and web pages, you’re right! We are! After all, when you hire us to do your move, we’ve got a vested interest in making sure that it’s pulled off successfully. And if you’ve
hired a mover other than us? In that case, 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!
Errors That Planning Can Help You Avert - Tackling too much yourself. Keep your head! Unless you’re Superman or Wonder Woman you can’t get everything done all alone. Ask friends and relatives for help|assistance]29]. Let the kids pack the personal stuff in their bedrooms. Divide the inventorying and packing of various rooms between yourself and your spouse. And engage a professional moving company to take care of the loading, shipping, and unloading – or whatever else you don’t have the time, the skill40], or the desire to attend to personally.
- Waiting until the last minute to take care of everything. Moving is accomplished in stages. By way of illustration, there are timelines for cutting off services (gas, electric, phone, and the like) at your present address and turning them on at your new address before you move in. Special arrangements must be made and care must be taken to pack and ship big or priceless belongings. When the movers get to your place, everything that’s got to go ought indeed be ready to go if the move is to stay on schedule. Setbacks can cost you – and a lot more than money. Racing around at the last minute is a good way to ensure that things get lost or left behind. Or damaged.
- Not developing a Moving Day plan for the kids and pets. Are the kids leaving with you or your spouse or staying with grandma until the move’s done? Have plans been made to cover their school situation? Can you take Fido with you or would it be better to board him until yougotten settled in}76} your new home? You know these things must be taken into account. Don’t put off doing so!
- Not informing your moving company of changes in your schedule. Has the start date of your new job in your new city changed in a way that might require postponing or advancing91 your move date? Can’t make the time originally arranged for the home survey that governs your move estimate? Need to have the movers arrive a little later than planned on Move Day? Okay, sometimes changes are unpreventable. They needn’t be a problem, though … if you alert your moving company to them well enough in advance!
- Not reading the paperwork from your mover attentively. What? You didn’t catch that added charge for the moving company’s packing services on page two of the contract? Or the cost of packing and transporting that massive grand piano of yours? Or that your moving insurance doesn’t truly cover the full valuation of your belongings? Of course, maybe none of that was actually in the contract – and should have been. If you didn’t read it, how would you know? Certainly you’ve heard the old saw that you shouldn’t ever sign a contract you haven’t read. Heed it! Or you’ll certainly get a bill you weren’t expecting!
Follow the advice above, start planning early, and you may discover that your household move has all the adventure you hoped for – and none of the trauma you feared!
