If you have managed to acquire a family, pets and properly “grow” furniture and household appliances at the move will have to spend a lot of effort. A few tricks will help you move quickly, without loss and unnecessary stress, all that you have worked hard for.
Sorting Out Your Stuff
Carve out a day or at least an evening to quietly assess the number of things you have and which of them should be taken with them first. It may help to make a list in a notebook.
Decide for yourself which of the things are most important, you use them all the time and can’t imagine your life without them. Typically, these include: seasonal clothing, hygiene products, electronics and appliances.
Draw a plan on paper of where you are moving to, so you can quickly orient yourself on the spot and place the items you brought in the right rooms. This will save you from having to spend time sorting out and searching for things later.
Flowers
If you are shipping several potted plants in one box, make dividers of cardboard between them (this will prevent the pots from bumping into each other). Do note that houseplants can be very unhealthy in the cold.
Put them in a warm caravan or van in winter. If you are transporting flowers in a passenger car, it is better to keep them on hand. It is much easier and more reliable to contact a specialized moving company, you should always cooperate with professionals, and you can find such professionals here https://livecleantoday.com/services/moving-services-spokane.
Experienced employees of the company will save your money and keep your peace of mind, and it is very important when moving!
Don’t forget about food
Make sure you don’t have to move your grocery supplies around. Try to make more frequent meals out of the groats, beans, and pasta on the shelves. Open jams and honey for tea. Have a farewell party, empty the bar, and at the same time and cans of pickled mushrooms. Give away what’s left, good friends and neighbors, and there are few people around with whom you have a warm relationship.
Before transportation the fridge must be defrosted and completely free of any food. Transport your fridge only in an upright position (otherwise there will be an additional load on the compressor and the refrigerator will quickly fail). Fasten your refrigerator with soft straps so that the doors do not open during transportation.
Pianos and other musical instruments
Be warned: If you decide to move the piano yourself, you will regret it more than once. It is better to spare the instrument and your nerves – leave the work to professionals! They should put the piano as carefully as possible into an equipped van and secure the instrument inside. When it is delivered to your new apartment, be sure to call a tuner.
Whatever the instrument – string, wind, percussion, keyboard, reed, electric music – it should be transported in a case. In winter, wrap the case in a warm blanket to protect the instrument from the cold.
Animals
Transporting a dog is easier than a cat: dogs easily follow their owners, but a cat can experience real stress from the packing and fuss, and as a result, it will not let itself be put into the carrier. Wait until all the stuff and furniture is taken away, give the cat a sedative, put it comfortably in a special bag, and take a cab to the new apartment. On your lap, away from the hustle and bustle, the animal will be much calmer.
Fish can’t tolerate temperature changes, so transport them in a warm car. Pour water from the aquarium into a tank with a tight-fitting lid. Be sure to pour some of this water into the container where the fish will be during the move: a different environment for them is destructive.
Books
A stack of magazines and books weighs a lot, so make sure the boxes are not overloaded (otherwise the bottom will fall out or the walls will tear). Books can also be stacked on a sheet of heavy plywood and tied with a wide rope. Just don’t overdo it, or you’ll damage the covers.
Chandeliers, vases, figurines and other fragile items
A great option for packing them is a box of polypropylene foam. Before packing your chandelier, be sure to remove all the lamps and wrap them in bubble wrap. Don’t forget to unscrew the bulbs and wrap them with a thick layer of packing paper. Put all the screws, fasteners and wires in a bag and put them in the same box with the chandelier.
Wrap each fragile item in air bubble wrap, no less than two layers. Put everything in a cardboard box and make dividers of cardboard, so the items don’t hit each other. And fill the empty space of the box with crumpled paper.
Children are the hardest to deal with when they move
What happens during a house move? A familiar world collapses. The discomfort and chaos is difficult to bear, even for adults. Never mind children. What’s more, they don’t quite understand the danger of the consequences of playing with the movers, running around, getting underfoot, climbing into the closet, or getting on the table.
It is difficult to keep track of them, but adults need to be as attentive as possible to prevent in time the negative consequences of children’s antics, to protect them from danger.
It is best to send children to relatives in advance. But if you haven’t done so, keep a close eye on them.
A list of things and a signature of boxes
To make it easier to move and not lose anything, pack things from one room into boxes that are marked with the same color. This will make it easier to find things in the new place.
It is best to label each box with an inventory indicating exactly what is in it, and make the inventory itself on a sheet of colored paper. Attach the sheet, completely taping the surface. This is labor-intensive work, but well worth the time. And if you assign a number to each box, it’s much easier to count whether everything is unloaded. Templates are easy to find on the Internet. Download them, print them out, and attach them to the boxes. Done, now you don’t have to turn everything upside down looking for a little something.
