If you’re about to embark on a big move, especially a long-distance one, you’re probably a combination of both excited and nervous. On the one hand, any move begins a new adventure and has the potential to add meaningful, thrilling new life experiences. While choosing the right long distance movers for your family can be stressful at first, it will remove so much stress from you later in the process. On the other, though, there can be many moving parts involved, and you may not know where to begin—even more so with the move not being local.
The good news is, these handy tips will guide you through best practices to make sure you can see as smooth a relocation process as possible.
Stay Ahead of the Game
Stated by a Dallas long distance mover, one of the best things you can do for yourself is to make a plan and start the process early. You are more likely to feel the stress of a move if you wait until the last minute, as things can pop up that you wouldn’t necessarily expect, and you will more easily handle them if you give yourself plenty of extra time.
To avoid feeling overwhelmed, make sure the things you look into in advance include moving company procedures, moving costs, and contact information, as well as any documents you will need in order to make your residence in your new state (or even country) official. Don’t get held up by technicalities that could have been avoided if they were planned beforehand.
Make a Checklist to Keep Organized and Efficient
You will not only want to settle on a budget and timeline—trust us, you will thank yourself later—but have a list of the supplies and action items you will need, too. This will help ensure you don’t forget anything and don’t panic when it’s showtime. Things you will want to put on there are:
- Making sure you’ve scheduled essential utilities to turn on in time for your arrival at your new home
- Booking any hotel stays you might need along the way
- Making yourself familiar with local laws, regulations, and weather conditions (for instance, if moving to Arlington, TX, expect the weather to be quite warm, as even in the winter it won’t typically get below freezing. Whereas if you’re moving from that area to New England, you’ll definitely want that snow jacket you were debating throwing away)
- Getting all your items into boxes that are labeled by category or future room they’ll live in to help you save the headache later
- Selling any furniture you no longer need or didn’t want to bother transporting
- Packing breakable objects carefully with proper protective packaging to keep them from getting damaged in transit
- Having all items you will need every day (medications, ID, valuables, etc.) on you in easily accessible places—rather than being thrown into random boxes with your regular belongings
When Moving Day Comes Along
Don’t forget about any aspect of your physical or mental health when setting out on your journey. You’ll want to eat a good breakfast the morning-of and get enough sleep the night before. Be sure to say your goodbyes to any friends or family in the area and snap a few pictures of your old home if you want something to remember it by. Then, onward and upward!
Remember, the idea behind this guide is to keep your stress levels down by leading you to prepare in the best way. Deep breaths, follow the advice herein, and look forward to the future (and the fact that moving expenses can sometimes be tax-deductible when going long-distance—something else you’ll want to look into, as a nice little bonus).
This type of move is an accomplishment you can feel good about when all is said and done, as it can indeed involve quite a bit of legwork—but will be rewarding once moving day is behind you and you’re snuggling into your new home.
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