Good morning Loves. Last time we chatted it was moving day and now BF and I are officially moved in to our new apartment. Over our 15 year relationship we have moved three times and I’m happy to say this time our move was drama free. We’ve had movers get into a fight and quit during the job, we’ve had movers disappear for two hours without telling us and we’ve had movers hold our television hostage until we paid them. This time our movers came, told us they were taking a lunch break, came back and finished the job. It was great.
I have to say moving is a lot of work and no matter how much we tried to plan there are always aspects of moving that are unpredictable. If you are moving let me make your life a little easier by helping you expect the unexpected and choose a good moving company.
4 tips for a stress free move
Start packing at least two weeks in advance. I know the thought of living in boxes is unappealing, but planning your move will save you both time and money. Since BF and I only found our apartment one week before we had to move we didn’t have time to properly pack, but I wish we did. When you take your time to pack you can throw out unwanted items which means you’ll have less boxes. This saves money on movers because they work by the hour as well as the cost of boxes – if you buy them from U-Haul. We did the opposite and ravaging through our stuff to throw out unused items is making our unpacking a lot longer.
You have to tip the movers. This was the first time I’ve ever tipped movers and to be honest I didn’t know we were supposed to. One of our movers mentioned it to us during the day so we had to shell out some extra cash. Our total moving bill was $694 and we had $750 in cash so we gave them a $56 tip. I’m not sure if that’s generous, but that’s what we gave them. What do you think?
There are always unexpected costs. We based the actual cost of the movers on our last experience and it worked out well because it was exactly the same price, even though we booked a different moving company. Other than the actual movers it’s all the extra costs that add up quickly. We moved into a bigger apartment so we knew there would be extra costs but I had no idea exactly how much they would be. We spent $136 at Home Depot, $270 at Target and $148 at Wal-Mart. These were all necessary costs for functional items in our new apartment such as garbage cans and laundry supplies (because now we have our own washer and dryer), none of them were esthetic.
Decorating should be the last thing on your mind. I wish I could snap my fingers and all my boxes would be unpacked, my couch would be full of colourful pillows, all my vases would be full of beautiful fresh flowers and my paintings would be hung on the walls. But unfortunately this is not my reality. BF and I both have full time jobs so right now we are just focusing on getting our boxes cleared away. Then we’ll place everything exactly where we want it, this will also give us an idea of what other furniture we need to buy and finally we’ll decorate – but that’s a three step long term plan.
Photo from Flickr
Oh gosh. We move so freaking often it’s dizzying! I absolutely agree with all of your points! We won’t ever move again, though, without using a moving company. It was the best thing ever to wake up on the day of our move with my house still completely in tact, run out for a few errands when the movers got there and came back to our house completely packed and loaded!