Chief Among Them? 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 employ us to do your move, we’ve got a vested interest in ensuring that it’s pulled off successfully. And if you’ve
hired a mover other than us? In that case, planning becomes absolutely mandatory! 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!
Boo-Boos That Planning Can Help You Sidestep - Taking on too much yourself. Save your sanity! 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 their own stuff in their bedrooms. Split up the inventorying and packing of various rooms between yourself and your spouse. And employ a professional moving company to take care of the loading, shipping, and unloading – or whatever else you haven’t the time, the knowledge40], or the impulse 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 discontinuing services (gas, electric, phone, and so forth) at your former 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 haul massive or priceless pieces. When the movers arrive, everything that’s got to go had best be ready to go if the move is to stay on schedule. Holdups can cost you – and not only money. Scurrying around at the last minute is a good way to ensure that things get lost or left behind. Or damaged.
- Failing to formulate a Moving Day plan for the kids and pets. Are the kids traveling with you or your spouse or staying with grandma until the move’s finished? Have plans been made relative to 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 need to be mulled over. Don’t wait to do so!
- Not not alerting your moving company to 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 first scheduled for the home survey that determines your move estimate? Need to have the movers show up a little later than planned on Move Day? Okay, sometimes changes are inevitable. There’s no reason for them to 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 see that additional charge for the moving company’s packing services on page two of the contract? Or the cost of packing and transporting that big old grand piano of yours? Or that your moving insurance doesn’t really cover the entire valuation of your household goods? Of course, maybe none of those things were actually in the contract – and should have been. If you didn’t read it, how would you know? Undoubtedly you’ve heard the old adage that you should never sign a contract you haven’t read. Heed it! Or you’ll undoubtedly get a bill you weren’t banking on!
Follow the advice above, start planning early, and you may find that your household move has all the adventure you hoped for – and none of the misery you feared!
