Moving Tips Part 3 - Actually Moving

Okay, so you’ve packed your boxes, you’ve cleaned you new house (or apartment), and it’s time for the big day – actually moving.

You have a few options…

• Hire movers. This is the easiest, the most expensive, and I’ve never done it, so have no further comments
• Rent a moving truck – bigger trucks are more expensive. You usually pay a flat rental fee + mileage/gas. This is kind of a pain because you have to return the truck to the store, but it allows you to move more stuff in one trip so is you only real option for long distance moving
• Use your own vehicle – this requires multiple trips, which takes more time…but costs less money. This only works if you have a pick-up truck or SUV big enough to fit your stuff (of if you can borrow a car like this). This works BEST if you have help – and multiple cars to fill up at once – but it can work if you only have one vehicle, it’s just a pain
• Use your own vehicle for most of your stuff and rent a small truck for your sofa, bed, and other large items. This can be a good compromise between cost and convenience.
• Carry all of your stuff on your back – this may take about a year. And you might die.

Hint: I used my parents small SUV for my whole move, and had a friend borrow his mom’s pickup truck to my couch and bed. It was a pain. But it cost me nothing. Since I was moving a limited amount of large furniture, it was definitely worth it.

Since there are so many options I’ll make TWO lists – one with general moving tips, and one for how to move without a moving truck.

List #1 – Moving Day for Everyone

1. Bring toilet paper in your first load! Also beverages and/or cups for water. I also like to bring a few lawn chairs and set them up in the living room so that people have somewhere to sit and have lunch or take a break.
2. If possible, make sure everybody puts the correct boxes in the correct room. Your boxes should all be clearly labeled, so this won’t even be that bad – kitchen stuff should get dropped in the kitchen, clothes in the bedroom, etc. This will make unpacking way easier.
3. If it’s rainy/snowy, bring some mats or rugs to put down to avoid tracking in tons of mud. If it’s really bad, one person could take off their shoes and deliver the boxes to their appropriate rooms, while another person brings the boxes from the car/truck to the house. My boyfriend and I did this for a lot of the boxes when I moved, because it was snowy.
4. Don’t move in snow. Just…don’t.
5. Allow more time than you expect to need – it takes a stupid amount of time to move stuff. Always allow extra time to account for issues like boxes breaking open, getting stuck in traffic, and taking a break for lunch.
6. Pack an overnight bag with basic toiletries, sheets, and a set of clothes and make sure you know where it is – you can put it in a weird spot, like in the bathroom, if necessary. This way, no matter how not-unpacked you might be, you’ll be OK the next day.
7. Be gentle when you unload. Not only do you want to avoid damaging your stuff, but you also want to avoid damaging your new walls. The last thing you want is to move into a new house and then discover all the extra patching and painting you need to do (especially if you just painted your new home!)
8. Take breakables last. Even if you hire movers, I would feel uncomfortable letting them handle fragile decorations and pictures. Take these yourself, and take them last, to prevent breakage. Additionally, store them gently in a box or carton somewhere safe, like a basement or corner of a bedroom. Although you probably don’t want to decorate until you’ve unpacked fully – and made a final determination on where your furniture will go – if you can hang up pictures immediately, you should. If you buy a house, there should be hooks and nails all over, so just take advantage of those (if you aren’t planning to patch/paint right away). My pictures are still hung up in odd places.
9. Thank your helpers – whether it’s family, friends, or coworkers who are helping you move…buy them pizza and beer (or something else) for lunch, and thank them profusely. Moving kills a weekend day, and it’s awesome of them to give up a weekend day (rare and to be treasured) to help you lug boxes and furniture around.

List #2 – Moving Without a Moving Truck

This method is also helpful if you are moving slowly, over the course of a few weeks – you may rent a small truck for your large items, but want to move a lot of the stuff in your own vehicle as you go back and forth between residences doing the necessary cleaning and maintenance prior to move-in.

1. Always fill your car. Going over to get the keys? Bring a car full of stuff. Going to clean? Bring a car full of stuff.
2. By ‘fill your car’, I mean fill your car. You can fit an insane amount of stuff in a car, even if a little car like my Buick Century. Stuff the trunk, pile large items (like end tables, file cabinets, big boxes, or chairs) in the backseat, then put small things on the floor of the backseat (lamps, small boxes, totes, large pots, etc). And don’t forget the front seat if there are no passengers!  
3. Take advantage of soft items. After your car looks full, you can also usually stuff pillows, blankets, jackets, and dresses on top of all of your stuff or in cracks. Just make sure that any linen you put in your car has a garment bag or other plastic covering to protect it from dirt, and remove these items first when you unload your car to avoid damaging stuff.
4. Always measure large items. You don’t want to finagle your armchair around the corner, through the door, and down the stairs of your apartment complex only to discover that it doesn’t fit in your car, and now you need to drag it back into your apartment. Measuring will only take a few seconds – just keep a small tape measure in your pocket, and it’ll be the easiest step ever.
5. Caravan multiple cars. If you have people to help you, you should all drive separately, at least for the first few trips. With this method of moving, the drive-time is awful, and a huge waste of time, so minimizing that is always a good idea – even if some of the cars are small. Once you run out of small stuff, then you (obviously) only use the larger vehicles. If you get enough of your friends to help, this method of moving can actually be very easy!
6. Put down old blankets to protect furniture – and to protect your vehicle! You can drape cloth over table tops and furniture corners to prevent scratching, and you can also lay tarps or thick blankets over tailgates to prevent your stuff from damaging the car. Be extra careful if you are borrowing someone’s car.

Moving is a giant pain…but once you ACTUALLY move your stuff, the fun part (unpacking!) can begin. 😊

Moving Tips Part 2 - Prepping Your New Home for the Move

As I go through the process of moving from my first solo-apartment to my first (solo) house, I am covering some tips for people who are, well, moving! On Monday I talked about packing, and today I’m going to talk about prepping your new home or apartment for your move. Sometimes, due to timing of lease or the distance of your move, it’s not possible to prep the new place…but if it is possible, it’s absolutely something you should do.

We’ll make a list. I like lists. Actually we’ll make a couple of lists.

First, you’re going to want to walk through the new house/apartment while it is empty and catalogue anything that is wrong with it. If you are moving into an apartment, this is critical because you will be asked to turn in a checklist where you list the existing damages. If you’re moving into a house, you should do this during the inspection, and again during the final walkthrough. You can use this information to ask for money off the house price, make sure nothing changes between the inspection and final walk through, and to make a To Fix List for yourself.

Things to Look For:

1. Open all of the windows to make sure the open correctly. Look for rips in the screens as well. You also may want to check for broken seals and drafts – those things will jack up your heating bill in the winter.
   
2. If possible, run the furnace and/or AC. You can mess with the thermostat to make these things turn on during the off-season.
   
3. Run all faucets and flush all toilets. Look for water that doesn’t drain correctly and faucets that don’t run well or drip.
4. Run all appliances (if they are included with the apartment/house). Stove, laundry machines, dishwasher, garbage disposal, oven, fridge (don’t forget any automatic ice makers or electronic garage doors!)
   
5. Examine shower grout and caulk. Shower tile should be properly grouted and a bead of caulk should run between the tub and shower walls, and around the edges of the shower. These sealants prevent moisture from getting into the wall and causing mold. If it’s a house, you can easily (and inexpensively) fix this, and you’ll want to do so right away. If it’s an apartment, you can ask them to fix this.
6. Examine all heat vents. Look for broken stuff.
7. Look for water damage. Namely, check ceilings and basements. You want to make sure that your place doesn’t leak. If you’re in a lower story apartment, still check – I had a leak on the first floor because the complex never cleaned the gutters. In a house, you’ll want to make sure the ground slopes down from the house; if it doesn’t, you can re-grate the yard to prevent possible leaks.
8. Check gutters. This is only relevant in a house, but make sure these aren’t broken. You’ll want to clean them when you move in, so don’t worry about that, but make sure all the pieces are there.
9. Check locks – make sure locks and keys work. Sometimes they don’t.
10. Look for bug or rodent problems – look for bed bugs, roaches, and mouse turds. This is important in a house or apartment -  the last thing you want is to move n somewhere with an infestation problem…and even clean places can have these issues. For apartments, check online reviews to investigate this thoroughly, as well as peering into dark crevices and looking for droppings. In a house, you can looks at the peoples’ bed for the bedbugs (they won’t be there during the inspection, so this won’t seem that weird).
11. Examine the exterior for cracks and holes – you can’t get money off your house because of this (unless it’s terrible, but then you might not want to buy that house), but you will want to seal those cracks to keep pests, cold air, and water away.

Once you buy/rent a property, you’ll want to clean it before you move any stuff into it (if you can). It will never be easier to clean the house as it will be now, when there’s no stuff in your way. Apartments generally replace carpet and do a small clean before renting an apartment out, but you still want to deep clean the kitchen and bathroom (because they don’t do that). If you’re getting a house, you will want to thoroughly remove any residual dirt, pet hair, cigarette smoke, or other gunk. The last thing you want is to deal with someone else’s dirt and germs.

Here’s a list of some Important Things to Clean.

1. Kitchen cupboards. Wipe out the cupboards with an all-purpose cleaner. Be mindful of any sticky spots, crumbs, and greasemarks – including the marks on the cupboard doors. I use a mixture of 1:1 vinegar and water. It costs almost nothing. If the cupboard are really bad, you can use a degreaser and paper towels to get the excess crumbs.
2. Closets. Same thing – wipe out with all-purpose cleaner. The degree of scrubbing depends on the dirtiness of the shelves
3. Windows & Blinds – you can wash the windows and clean out the tracks. These are often-neglected jobs in both houses and apartments, but clean windows and tracks makes a huge difference to both your view out the window and the amount of dust in your home.
4. Kitchen Appliances. These will probably be pretty dirty. Apartments don’t clean them, and a lot of people don’t clean them. If you have a self-cleaning oven, run that – warning: it will take about 4-5 hours. You can scrub of a cooktop or range with degreaser, all-purpose cleaner, or special cooktop cleaner (if you have a cooktop), depending on how bad the range is. Cooked on food can sometimes come out with baking soda and brush. The fridge can be cleaned out with all-purpose cleaner as well, or degreaser if it’s terrible.
5. Laundry Machines. Make sure the washing machine doesn’t smell – if it does, run it on the cleaning cycle, and wipe the rubber gasket with vinegar or all purpose cleaner. Vacuum the vents of your dryer (can disassemble the back of the machine) and clean out the lint trap. This will improve the efficiency of the machine and prevent fires.
6. Vents. Vacuum your heat vents and the vent fans in the bathroom(s). These are huge contributors to inefficiency and dust.
7. Carpet. In an apartment, hopefully they cleaned this professionally or replaced it. In a house, you may want to hire carpet cleaners, especially if the previous owners had pets. There are also DIY methods you can look up – I only have carpet on my stairs and in the closets, so I used Rosenthal to clean up stains. Since carpet has to dry after being cleaned, you do it before you move in. If you don’t need to clean the carpet beyond a quick vacuum, don’t worry about it before you move. You will track in dirt during the moving process anyway.
   
8. Walls. Hopefully you won’t need to do this, but check and see if the walls are super dusty or stained. You should be able to just spot clean marks and grease spots, unless the house is filthy.
9. Basement & Garage Ceilings. Vacuum these, preferably with a shop-vac. They collect spider webs and dust, and it’s an easy thing you can do to start your new residence in cleanliness
10. Upholstery. Sometimes apartments are furnished and house-sellers leave you stuff. If the upholstery is in good shape and the place seems clean, just vacuum it. If the place isn’t real clean or it has spots, you can use upholstery cleaner.
11. Bathroom Tile. Get some good grout cleaner and scrub that grout! This job sucks, but it’s worth it when your grout returns from dingy brownish-gray to white. And no, most apartments and homeowners do not do this.
12. Bathrooms In General. Bathrooms are gross and you don’t want to leave this uncleaned. Clean the toilet, shower, and sink as you normally would, but be attentive to detail. You should probably do this first so you can use the bathroom while you are working. You can also wipe out vanity cabinets.

***Notice that I didn't include floors. If they're bad, you may want to clean them - especially before you put heavy furniture in a room - but otherwise, you might as well vacuum after you track in all the dirt during your move***

These lists are, sadly, not fully comprehensive. Clean anything that is dirty and catalogue anything that is broken. But they are a good starting place!

Whew! Tired yet? Getting a place prepped for move-in is a lot of work, but it’s worth it once you’re done!

Apartments tend to be easier to deal with than houses, since they’re usually semi-clean and they’re a lot smaller, but don’t neglect this task in either type of property. And this will prevent you from going to put away towels and finding grease or crumbs in the linen closet, touching something gross on the stove, or having other unpleasant surprises when you’re first moved in. You can do these jobs after you move in, if you have to move right away due to an ending lease or if you’re moving several hours away…it’s just way easier to clean an empty house.

Stay tuned for Part 3 – Actually Moving Stuff.

Moving Tips Part 1 - Packing

I am officially moved into my new home! And I can attest…moving sucks.

I’ve moved A LOT in the past five years (since going to college), but this was the hardest. For one thing, my apartment entrance isn’t close to a parking lot or driveway, so things had to be carried down a super long sidewalk, past two other apartment buildings, to reach a vehicle. To make matters worse, I only had my boyfriend to help – my dad (usually the MVP of moving my stuff) just had foot surgery and was down for the count. Unlike all of my college moves, I also had ALL of my stuff – nothing was with my parents, nothing belonged to my roommates (because I don’t have any), and lots of things had been collected over the past year of living alone.

Now I will be unpacking. But, in the midst of the Crazy, I’m going to do a series on moving tips and tricks – maybe you can avoid some of the mistakes that I made, either during this move or during a previous move (there have been.. at least 12. *sigh*).

Moving Tips – The Packing Part

1. Label your boxes. Everyone will tell you this, because it’s true – and it’s also not very hard. Label the top and sides of the boxes so that the writing is easy to see from any angle. You should definitely give it a general label, so you (and your helpers) can put it directly into the correct room. That will make unpacking infinitely easier.
2. Don’t overweight your boxes. Cardboard may seem heavy duty, but when you have a big cardboard box full of textbooks, the bottom will probably split open at some point. And drop your books into the snow (because yes, I was moving in snow).
3. Don’t move in snow. If at all possible, move when the ground isn’t covered with wet, slippery, cold mush. This has nothing to do with packing, but it seems appropriate.
4. Pack slowly if you can. Packing all at once can be overwhelming, and you inevitably will be more disorganized than you will be if you pack slowly. You’ll be surprised at how much of your stuff you don’t really need for the weeks before you move –guest towels, unseasonal clothes and dresses, most of your shoes, books and movies, extra pans and cookware, blankets, many toiletries….pack your least-likely-to-use stuff first, and go from there.
5. Don’t buy moving boxes. Why on earth would you spend money on boxes, that you will be throwing away in a few months? Ask your friends and family to save their boxes from online orders for a few months before your move, and then – to get more boxes – either ask your local grocery stores and warehouses (Costco is great) to give you some of their empty boxes. A lot of stores also just dump their boxes in cardboard-specific dumpsters that you can scavenge from (it’s not as gross at is sounds – it’s just cardboard). If your work gets a lot of boxes, you can probably take those too.
6. Don’t scrimp on your packing material. Bubble wrap, packing peanuts, and even tissue paper are critical if you don’t want your stuff to break. I have broken far too many things moving, and finally learned my lesson…although on this move I broke a mixing bowl and a plate because I slipped on ice and dropped a box (again, don’t move in snow!).
7. But don’t buy packing material. Bubble wrap is stupid expensive and again, a lot of online orders will come with bubble wrap or packing peanuts that can be saved by your and your friends/family. Another great option that I use all the time is to wrap your breakables in dishcloths, towels, and clothes. These make great cushions that you already have, and need to move anyway. Just be mindful of your box labeling – you don’t want to be searching for the box with the bath towels your first night in the new house.
8. Don’t make your boxes too ginormous. Huge boxes are heavier, more likely to break, and harder to pack into your vehicle. This might be alright if you rent a moving truck, but you’ll actually be able to pack your car more efficiently with smaller boxes (that can fit in the trunk and on the floor). You can always stack boxes when carrying them, but you can’t cut giant boxes in half to make them fit
9. Don’t make your boxes too small. A box that hold JUST your plates is basically useless. Your best bet to try and have boxes of varying sizes, without any that are super small or super large.
10. Store your packed boxes neatly in the room they came from. This way, if you do suddenly need something that was packed, it’ll be easy to find it again. Plus, it’ll make maintaining your current house/apartment easier in the weeks leading up to the move. I stored a lot of boxes in my linen closet, my bedroom closet, and stacked inside of bookshelves that had the shelves removed.

Good luck! Moving Post #2 will be Prepping Your New Home for the Move