Moving Checklist

A moving checklist can keep you from forgetting important things, like turning on the utilities in your new home. You'll want to make your own list of things to be done, but you can start with the suggestions below.

Moving checklist - One Month Before

- Make reservations with moving company.

- Notify friends and family and give them your new address.

- Submit change of address forms to post office.

- Get documents for school transfers, if you have children.

- Have a garage sale or otherwise lighten the load.

One Or Two Weeks Before

- Arrange utility shut-offs and new connections.

- Transfer banking accounts to new location.

- Return books to library, rented movies, etc.

- Transfer prescriptions to new location.

- Clean house and dispose of things that won't be moved.

- Start packing and labling boxes.

- Pack an "essentials" box for arrival, with toiletries, paper plates, etc.

- Make moving plans (make hotel reservations, get maps, etc.).

Moving Day

- Start early and remember to eat.

- Double check every room and storage area.

- Turn off lights, lock doors.

- Leave the keys with the new owner or real estate agent.

You will undoubtedly have many more items to add to your personal list. Start writing down anything you think of as soon as you know you'll be moving. Will the phone be on when you arrive at your new home? Will you have to return across the country just because you forgot about a safe-deposit box that has the family jewelry. The best way to avoid problems like these is to start early on your moving checklist.

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Moving Help 7 Strategies To Ensure You Are Organized For The Big Day

Are you in the process of moving? If the answer is yes then sit back for a couple of minutes and pay attention. What I am about to reveal to you are seven strategies to help you become supremely organized for moving day.

Perhaps you know someone who could use some help like this, well do them a favour and tell them about this article. Right, lets get right to the meat.

Strategy 1 – Choosing The Best Mover

Be organized about choosing your mover.

· Firstly, explore the different types of moving process available and choose the one that best suits your requirements. Different types of moving services include self-service, PODS, truck rental etc…

· Obtain at least three written quotes.

· Examine the quotes carefully and read the small print, do not concentrate on the cheapest, ensure you fully understand exactly what type of service you will be paying for.

· If at all possible meet a representative from each company and ask questions to gain an overall impression as to the level of professionalism of the firm.

Strategy -2 – Use A Moving Checklist

A moving checklist will help you to organise your moving tasks and the dates by which they need to be completed. You can create a simple checklist using a spreadsheet such as Excel by adding your key tasks and assigning dates and priorities. Display you moving checklist on a notice board in your home if other family members need to see it!

Strategy 3. – Call In Favours From Family And Friends

If this is your first move don’t be fooled into thinking its going to be a pushover. Furthermore, if you have very young children your time will be limited. This is a good time to call in the favours and get help when you really need it.

Strategy 4. – Hire A Skip If Necessary

It is essential to begin packing as soon as you can. The first room you should start with is the attic (especially if you have lived in your current house for a number of years). By tackling this problem early you will probably realise that you have a lot of “junk” which is only fit for the local charity shop or junkyard. Do yourself a favour, hire a skip and remove all unwanted clutter from the house prior to moving. Not only will this save you money when move, it will also give you more space in the new house.

Strategy 5 – Inform all necessary people of your change of address.

Whilst your buyers may be accommodating at the time and offer to forward on all mail to you, once you have left your old house they have no legal duty to do so. It is always worth paying a small charge to have your local post office direct all mail to your new address for three months or so following the date of your move. This is especially important given the increasing incidences of identity theft these days.

Strategy 6 – Use Boxes For Packing

Pack your belongings in sturdy cardboard boxes with plenty of wrapping. So that your movers leave your boxes in the correct rooms in your new house, use the following marking system each box:

· Name the destination room for the box e.g. dining room.

· Give a rough description of what is in the box.

· Provide you movers with a plan of your new house on moving day so they know where to put your boxes.

Strategy 7 – Be Prepared On Moving Day

On moving day make sure you are prepared with the following:

· Have both your mobile phone and digital camera fully charged and ready for use. Both may come in useful if the worse should happen and you need to make a record of any damage to your belongings.

· Make sure you have read your movers documentation thoroughly so that you understand your rights and obligations on the day of the move.

Conclusion

Even if you only adopt a few of the strategies given above, you will be well on your way to avoiding some of the common pitfalls that hundreds of people make a year when they move.

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Relocating Overseas

The global expansion of corporations and ever increasing educational opportunities has made international travel and relocating a very common phenomenon. The experience of living overseas is looked at as an opportunity for growth.

International relocation requires many changes, additional planning and preparation. These range from the simple everyday basic necessities, such as household electrical appliances, to the professional and cultural aspects.

The first step is to contact the embassy of the new country and obtain information on visa requirements and vaccinations. A valid passport is essential, prior to filling in an application for a visa. Most embassies are located in Washington D. C. Details of all consulates are also listed in the Foreign Consuls of the United States directory, available at public libraries. Many countries require a letter of recommendation, which can be obtained from an individual’s bank manager or employer.

Once a visa is obtained, the next step is to begin the moving process. Most companies in the United States assist employees in moving from one location to another. Selection of an appropriate moving service may be made with the guidance of others who have moved or from Internet research. Attention must be paid to the services offered by each moving company and their guarantee policies.

It is a good idea to contact a relocation specialist. They offer a chance to have a smooth and trouble free relocation. They assist movers not only in finding a home, but also in taking charge of setting up the home, utilities and communications.

Relocation is the best time to have a garage sale and discard any unnecessary items collected over the years, or simply donate to charity. It is important to run through a checklist to ensure that nothing important is left behind.

Moving overseas often means a journey into the unknown. Gathering as much knowledge as possible about the new place may help make it a wonderful adventure and an invaluable experience in life.

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Less Anxiety, More Enjoyment Stresses of Moving Lessened

Personal or Family Relocation is survivable. There is life beyond moving whether it’s moving across town or relocating to a different area altogether. Proper planning and a clutch of the right tools can be the difference between a trip to the rubber room and a well organized, relatively stress free move.

Managing day to day stress in an ever increasingly fast paced society can be a major challenge for even the most judicious. Work schedules, school schedules, Doctors, Dentists, extra curricular activities, trying to find time for relaxation. There never seems to be enough time. Add to all that the immense strain of having to relocate, and those stresses can very quickly become overwhelming without proper planning.

Getting the right moving help and the right moving tools, together with the right moving plan might sound as if that would be enough, but it isn’t. Moving, or relocating requires a support team and is something that if possible, should never be attempted alone. It needs to be made into a time of caring and sharing for those on the move as well as those left behind.

Just like with any project, planning is essential, and the bigger the project, the more people need to be involved to over see, provide checks and balances and support, be it physical or emotional. Regardless of how one might view moving, it is a project, and in most lives, a major one. And just like any major corporate project, the better the support team the better the likelihood that the project will be a success.

Information even suggests that a well planned, successful move can have a very large impact on how long the over all adjustment process takes in new surroundings. The facts do not suggest that one moving method over another is superior, such as self moving verses hiring a moving company or even a professional moving planner, rather the suggestion is that the outcome is what makes the difference. The positive effects of a successful move over one filled with problems can have a lasting positive influence on job performance, social adjustment and over all quality of family life in a new location.

A successful move can set the tone for a fast easy adjustment period just as a relocation filled with problems might sour the start in a new place. So it becomes evident that planning and executing a successful move can be very important beyond just getting from point A to point B.

Moving is survivable keeping in captive thought these key points. Get the proper tools, have a good plan and have a good support team. With those things in mind, a move or relocation might even be enjoyable. In any case, less stress is highly desirable for any moving project. Moving Help Web was created to help people meet the goal of a successful move. Articles, tips and useful resources all in one place helping to make that successful move reality, a move that has the potential to bring about positive life change.

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Home Staging Your Vacant House without Moving in Truckloads of Furniture

If you moved before selling your home, you might be left with a vacant house costing you double mortgage payments. Here are some home staging tips to help you.

Home staging has proven to sell houses in less time and for more money.

According to a report by the Christian Science Monitor, March 2006, staged homes sell for 7.4 percent more and twice as fast. Many home staging services will furnish your vacant house with their furniture and charge you a monthly fee, with prices ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 per month.

These high fees may be worth the investment. However, if you don't have the extra cash, there are simple was to get the staged home advantage without spending a lot of money.

New marketing and interior design psychology ideas help you stage homes for sale to motivate buyers and generate top-dollar offers. Instead of leaving investment houses vacant, add a few props to increase your profits.

To gather interior design ideas, visit nearby model homes and take a close look at the way the interior designers dressed the homes to sell. Notice how the designers under-furnished the model homes by using just enough accessories to make a superb marketing presentation, without over doing it to make the rooms seem crowded or small.

You don't need to add as much furniture to your vacant home to encourage buyers to visualize their own furniture in the home. That's the key to your selling strategy--to make your home FEEL like the buyer's dream home.

Use a few props to dress up your vacant house. This helps you sell quickly for more money in many ways:

• Props chosen with your target buyer in mind help reinforce the desired emotions.
• Props add perspective with visual depth -- vacant rooms look flat.
• Props, especially fabric cover round tables, soften the hollow, echo sound.
• Props help to keep property in the mind of buyers who view many houses in a row.
• Props create focal points for buyers to imagine their own furnishings in the home and get them thinking about living in the space.

Learn how to take advantage of interior design psychology home staging. Find out how to profile your target buyer and use interior design details proven to turn houses into buyers' dream homes.

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Moving Tips To Keep You Sane During Relocation

Moving is rarely a positive experience. Although a new job, house, and city may be a much needed change, actually packing all of your property and making the move is far from enjoyable. However, there are certain moving tips you may utilize to make the process a little easier on you and your family.

Many of us are not naturally organized people. We may be perfectly happy with a mass of chaos on our desks and about our houses. However, the moving process will be considerably smoother if you commit to some sort of order and do not procrastinate.

On that note, the first tip in having a smooth relocation is to proceed in an orderly manner and have some sort of schedule set forth. If you plan to move on the last day of the month, the process should begin well before the first day of the same month or even as much as three to six months if you plan to sell your house. However, for this purpose, we will assume you have already sold your house and made new housing arrangements.

The most logical and most overlooked moving tip is to not wait until the last minute to pack your house! Begin the process well in advance by sorting through your belongings and decide what you need to get rid of. There is no point in packing things you do not want or need. Set these things aside to have a garage sale, give to charity, or throw away if applicable. Once you have an idea of what is left, begin boxing up these items weeks in advance. Keep out only necessities and pack the things you will not need. Another good idea to keep in mind while packing is to keep items together that will go in the same rooms or locations in your new house. This may seem like common sense, but oftentimes, people are in such a rush to get everything in a box that it is all thrown together. This makes for a disaster when it comes time to unpack.

You may also want to consider using plastic bins to pack instead of traditional cardboard boxes; they are considerably more sturdy, last forever, and actually are not that much more expensive than cardboard boxes (if you have to buy the boxes). However, if you choose to use cardboard boxes, try collecting them well in advance if you want to avoid purchasing them – they are somewhat expensive and will more than likely end up in the trash.

Another common sense moving tip – fill out your change of address form three to four weeks before you move instead of three weeks after you move. This does not only apply to the post office change of address forms, but also be sure to change the addresses on all of your bills as well; especially credit card bills as they can be used fraudulently.

And finally, the most useful tip of all – have a television and plenty of cartoons available to keep any children occupied when you are moving. If you did not hire a moving service and are lugging boxes yourself, having them occupied is worth the world. Moving is difficult enough without a child dragging on your leg.

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Ease the burden with a hand truck

A hand truck is a device that will assist users in carrying heavy objects. A typical hand truck consists of a metal body frame with 2-4 wheels, a holding plate, and handle bars. Hand trucks come in a variety of shapes, sizes and wheels.

Here are some ways that a hand truck will serve helpful for you:

At home or at work
Whether you are moving into your new home or relocating work offices, moving items like file cabinets, refrigerators or televisions can all be transported using a proportional hand truck. The amount of people transporting objects will also significantly decrease with the aid of a hand truck.

For the traveler
If you are traveling alone, it might be impossible to lug around your heavy luggage. Luckily, most luggages feature wheels and handles for the traveler’s convenience. Special hand trucks can convert to four wheels to lodge more luggage for the traveler. Airports offer carts at a price, but investing in a traveling hand truck for your luggage will eventually save you time and money.

For the student
Carrying textbooks is one thing. Hauling them around campus from one far class to the other is another thing. For the serious student, carrying your supplies that include your numerous, heavy textbooks is a complicated task. Some backpacks feature a hand truck option should the load be too heavy on the shoulders. The versatile ‘rolling’ backpack is accommodated with a built-in hand truck frame with a pull-out handle on top and wheels at the bottom. This feature gives the user an option to roll his/her belongings or maintain it as a normal backpack.

At Tool America, we will deliver to you a Convertible Industrial Aluminum Hand Truck that will carry up to a 600 pound capacity. Free from rust or corrosion, our extendable hand truck comes in an all aluminum body, sturdy and reliable to hold your heavy household objects.

For every mobile journey that you are bound to take, don’t stress about the weight on your shoulders; use a hand truck!

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