Some Top Suggestions for your Residential Move
Making a move easier for children and the elderly
Moving is truly a life-changing moment for both children and the elderly, which is why adults should proceed with special care in these situations.
Discuss the move with your kids
To make this move manageable for your kids, there will need to be some steps taken on your part.
Explain to them gently why this move is mandatory
Hear their side of the story
Tell them all the great aspects that will come with this move
Don’t try to force a reaction to happen and allow them to adjust on their own
Allow your older kids to take a part in the move
Show them photographs of the potential homes
When you narrow down your list of homes you want to move into, bring the kids along for a tour
From the carpets to the closets, let them see what their room will look like
Invite over your family and friends
Throw a small party at your home to say one last goodbye to all those you will miss from your community
Involve them in the packing stage
Give any old clothes or toys to charity, or else get rid of them completely
Save some items to occupy your kids on the car ride
Put together an ‘Open Me First’ box filled with items that will be needed first at the new house
Say goodbye to your community properly
Visit all of your town’s best locations one last time
Show older family members just what this move has to offer them
Don’t forget about the elderly members of your family. They will need some guidance through this move, too.
Get them involved in the home selection
Show them pictures of the homes you’re considering moving into and hear what their feelings are on it
Let them know exactly where in the new home all their stuff will be moved into
Let them have time to adjust to the news before actually moving
Sometimes change is hard to accept, so let the news settle in first before taking action
Give them time to reminisce on each item while packing
Some items hold a lot of memories, while others don’t, so give them plenty of time to sort through what they want to pack up and discard.
Recreate their old room
By making their new room like identical to the one they’re leaving behind, the move will become much easier for them to accept
Keep the important items in arm’s reach
Not every item has to go with the movers, so let whatever products they feel are most important stay by their side.
With simple tips like this, moving will be a much easier transition for children and older individuals.
Quick Tips: What not to pack
Most of our quick tips have had to do with what to pack for your move. Over the course of the last few months, we’ve received word from several people who’ve packed items in their load, that they would have been a lot happier if they hadn’t packed those items. So what do we need or want to leave off the truck on moving day? Here are some ideas about what not to pack.
A move kit is a box that you should pack into your car, suitcase (on a plane) or place into whatever mode of transportation is getting you to your new home. This should not be loaded into your moving van. Your move kit contains essential items in the event the moving truck doesn’t get to your new home exactly on the day it was scheduled to arrive. This happens more often than you might think. Logistics (making sure that things and trucks get to where they need to be on time) is a tricky business and it’s easy for a logistics manager to under budget time. The real problem isn’t so much with the logistics manager, he knows pretty closely how long it should take to get the moving van from one place to another, and your load may not be the only one on the truck. What they can’t see is the future. The unforeseen things that happen while on the road such as weather, traffic jams and other occurrences that may slow down your load in reaching your new home. So make sure you pack your move kit and that it moves with you.
In addition to essential items you might need while waiting for your household goods, things like towels, soap, detergent, shampoo and etc. you might want to take stock of any medications you’ve been prescribed. Make sure you have enough packed to extend well beyond the delivery date of your household goods. Moving is a stressful event in your life, the last thing you want to do is add to the stress by worrying about whether or not you’ll survive the trip because you didn’t bring more than a three day supply of your heart medicine!
The papers you get from your mover are incredibly important. Not only do they contain the contract between you and your moving company (the bill of lading), they also contain paperwork that tells you what recourse you have if something goes wrong (see: Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move at the government’s consumer website) and how to go about handling the situation. It’s an all too common mistake that consumers pack their paperwork and it goes off with the truck after loading. Instead, make sure it gets packed with your move kit and stays with you until the move is complete. This way, if something does go wrong, you should be able to figure out why and who to contact.
The last item that should be pointed out is a common misunderstanding as to how the system work. Often time’s people assume that their sales person is their point of contact throughout the entire move. While this may be true for some moving companies and will vary by company and branch, this isn’t true all the time. Keep in mind that the salesperson’s job is to bring in new business. They want nothing more than to bring in your business and hand it off to the next person in the chain so that they can get back to bringing in new business. We won’t debate here whether this is the right or wrong way to handle your customers, every business owner has a differing view on this point. What this means to you, is that you should make sure you take the time to find out from your salesperson if they will be your contact throughout your move, or if there is another, better person to contact if things aren’t going as planned.
Keeping these key points in mind will help improve the chances of the success of your move, take the stress level down a notch while you’re waiting on your goods to arrive.
Denver, CO.