Packing & Moving Household Goods/Minimizing Your Aggravation

Basic planning
Moving preparation and organization are the major determining factors to achieving an efficient move with a minimal amount of aggravation. Premove planning will go a long way towards making your move is trouble-free because it will help you to foresee a lot of things well ahead of moving day. Moving organization is major when it comes to minimizing your moving aggravation.

Hazards should be noted ahead of time. You should advise all of your moving people of any damaged or fragile furniture, weak or broken stairs, loose railings or of any other impediments which they may encounter on the move path at either location.

High-rise moving
If you live in a high-rise building, be sure to reserve exclusive elevator time well in advance of your move date. Make sure that another move does not coincide with yours or you'll waste a whole lot of time sharing the elevator with the other movers and in so doing, things may get mixed up. Some high-rise buildings have a loading dock designed to accommodate only one truck at a time. If your move is delayed and another mover is scheduled to use it after you, you may lose your spot to them at the loading dock and / or you may have to finish your move another day! Some building management personnel, especially in hi-rise condominiums, are stubborn and unbending on elevator time schedules.

Parking
Parking in front of your residence should be reserved for your moving truck. Do whatever you can to reserve close-by parking for your moving truck at your originating and destination addresses. You can reserve parking spaces with your car, a friend or relative's car, or saw horses. Call your local police dept. or your alderman / city councilman to get no parking signs to put out in advance to save the close-by parking spaces for the day of your move. Police will honor these and will have violators towed away for you. Remember, your moving van cannot block the street or the alley or the police might ticket it.

Also, if the movers have to walk half a block with your furniture to or from the truck, your move will become quite aggravating because it will take longer and cost you more and you will have greater risk of damages.

Don't forget it!
Don't forget your ladders, hoses, garden tools and toolboxes. Be absolutely certain that everything has been loaded on the truck before releasing the moving crew to the next location. It is not wise to leave a location early or to be absent from either location for very long since you may have important information in your mind that has not yet been communicated to the movers. If you were to leave early or arrive at the destination late, everything may not be done the way you had hoped it would be done.

Do a walk thru of your old residence after the moving truck has been loaded with all of its contents. Double check everywhere including all cabinets, drawers, closets, pantries, bins, under the stairs, attic, basement, garage, nooks and crannies, in the back yard or storage lockers. Make sure you have all of the hardware to any disassembled furniture pieces so that it can easily be located for reassembly. Look at all inside or outside places where small things like tools or hardware can be left sitting (including window sills and corners).