The Biggest Moving Mistakes (and how to avoid them)

There’s a lot more to successfully moving house than simply picking up all your belongings and transferring them from one place to another. Like any big task, relocating involves budgeting, planning and careful consideration. This might sound like a lot of work, but you’ll be actually doing yourself a favour by taking a little care while moving, and you’ll also avoid these biggest moving mishaps. With that said, let this list of biggest moving mistakes be your guide of what NOT to do on your next move.

• Packing Errors – Don’t let a little laziness or corner cutting now lead to cracked, smashed, warped or damaged belongings later. Your packing technique needs to be carefully considered. This means organising items in labelled boxes by each room, packing items in secure and strong cardboard boxes and using padding such as foam or bubble wrap for packing fragile items. Another mistake is packing items which you will need soon after the move. A good idea to is to pack a moving survival kit including clothes, toiletries, and other items you’ll need right away on your first night in the new home.

• Choosing the wrong time of year to move. Holidays can be the worst time to move since everyone else has the same idea. Christmas and Easter holidays mean the roads will be busy and the beginning of the year can be also a bad time to move as rental homes can be scarce, and many services to help you with the move including removalists and storage facilities may be closed.

• Not budgeting for the move. Every move is going to cost money even if you’re planning on doing most of the work yourself. There might be break of lease costs, transfer of phone and internet services, other utility connection costs – not to mention the costs of new supplies and items needed for the new house. Even if you’re just moving across town, don’t make the mistake of thinking that moving doesn’t cost money. It’s always a smart idea to list the costs that you will incur from moving and budget for these in advance.

• Trying to do everything yourself. When you’re picking up your entire life and still having to try and live your day to day life, including going to work, many people don’t realise the magnitude of the task ahead of them. There’s cleaning of the old house, packing, loading, unloading and unpacking – and that can be just the beginning of the errands you’ll need to run. Make sure you take some of the pressure off by organising a removalist or friends to help with the heavy lifting. Your sanity and back will thank you for it.

• Running out of Time. Many people wrongly assume that moving house can be done in a single day, or at most a weekend. Unless you’re only moving one room, vacating a whole house will take at least several days to completely remove everything from the house, pack everything up and clean it. To save you this stress, start packing early and break down the task in stages so it’s a lot more manageable.

• Taking everything with you. – Moving home is the perfect time to reassess what you need to take and what is better to part ways with. It’s a fantastic opportunity to de-clutter and save some of the effort of hauling it to the new home. You’ll able be able to acquire new pieces that match the new home instead of feeling burdened by old furniture that you’re not really that keen on anyway.

When it comes to a successful move, call More Space. We can be there as your smooth movers. With a range of storage options for all budgets, we are the self-storage specialists on the Gold Coast. Phone (07) 5598 3355 for storage solutions for all purposes.