A Checklist From a Professional Residential Moving Company Utah

Declutter (Three to Four Months, or Sooner If You Can)

Moving means it is time to streamline your stuff or “Marie Kondo” your home. Whether you are trying to get your home to look perfect for showings or simply trying to reduce your inventory for move day, preparing for a move is an excellent opportunity to simplify and reorganize.

The earlier you start this process, the better. Try tackling one or two rooms per week. That should allow you to make steady progress without feeling overwhelmed.

If you hire residential movers, you will pay by the hour for some of their services. Weight and truck size may also factor into your costs. All of those elements are driven by how much stuff you have to move. The less your movers have to pack and load, the less you spend. The fewer boxes you need, the lower your costs.

If you are moving yourself, you must do all the back-breaking labor of packing, carrying, loading, and unloading every item you own. Fewer items mean fewer trips out to the truck and fewer back and knee pains.

Spare your back, at least somewhat, by downsizing the model train collection that has been collecting dust in your attic for years. Do you really need seven pairs of black shoes? Now’s the time to pick your favorites and send the others on to a new life.

Give extra consideration to heavy or bulky items. That treadmill that no one has tread upon for the last year? Be honest: it’s more of a clothes hanger than an exercise device at this point. Sell or donate it and save yourself the expense of moving it. You’ll see the most benefit to your move budget from ditching large or heavy items. If your time is limited, your shoe collection might get a pass while you focus on bigger things.

Consider your new home. If you will be downsizing, moving the guest bed you won’t have a place for doesn’t make sense. It makes your move more expensive and creates a problem for you to solve when you get to your new home. If the new apartment has no outdoor space, sell your grill and patio set. The money will be helpful when you discover you want an area rug for your new home.

Hiring Residential Movers (At Least Three Months if Possible)

For many people, relieving stress, time pressures, or physical discomfort is at the top of their moving priority list. If that’s true for you, there’s no single step you can take that will make as much progress in all three of those categories as hiring professional movers. Residential moving professionals know what box size works best for your Fiestaware collection and how to protect your fancy, interactive exercise bike so you can safely return to the saddle in your new home.

You can start scheduling move services as soon as you know when and where you are moving. We’d recommend beginning your research on residential movers immediately, aiming to have someone booked for your preferred dates at least three months out.

There’s great information about moving services on Yelp, Google, and other service-review sites. Don’t just look at a moving company’s numerical rating. Read reviews and see what aspects stood out to their customers or what their complaints were. Red flags might include companies arriving late, rude or incompetent staff, no-shows, and unresolved property damage.

Seek out local residential moving companies. The massive national chains don’t have the personal level of service that you’ll get from a dedicated local operation. Even if your move is long-distance, you can still work with an independent moving company. Many moving services will work with you on moves to or from their location. Even if your move originates in Ohio, you can work with residential movers in Utah if your final destination is Salt Lake City.

Honest movers will offer a free evaluation of your home. They may even be able to do this over Zoom or video conferencing. This quote helps you create a budget and lets you get a sense of the company you are considering. Are they on time for the assessment? Is the person they send professional, clean, and knowledgeable?

Don’t hesitate to ask questions. An honest, trustworthy moving company will welcome your inquiries. How they communicate and how willing they are to spend as much time as you need to understand their processes shows you how they conduct business.

Are there any items in your home they won’t pack? Is there any charge for special items? Most companies charge more for heavy or oversized pieces like pianos or pool tables. Unscrupulous movers will leave these items out of the quote and then spring them on you on move-day. When you have to be out of the house tomorrow, and there’s already a truck parked in front of your house, those providers know you have little choice but to say yes. Be sure to point out oversized or unusual items during the pre-move survey. Ensure the moving company includes them in the quoted price.

Look for movers that offer a la carte services so you can pay only for what you need. Packing, loading, driving, unloading–if there are parts of the move you want to tackle yourself, you shouldn’t have to pay for them. Go ahead; march to the beat of your drum. Design the move that works for you and work with professional residential movers who will accommodate your plan.

Find a New Place to Live (Two to Four Months)

Perhaps searching for homes is your idea of a good time. You’ve spent years looking at photos and floor plans and know exactly what you want. Or maybe you stumbled into your current home because it was available and cheap. However you feel about buying or renting a new home, it’s time to start narrowing things down. Home searching is a checklist item you can–and should–start well before your move day.

If you are preparing for a residential move, you must find a new residence. You can begin researching your new city as soon as you know where you are moving. Narrowing down potential destination cities makes a home search much more manageable. How you do that depends a great deal on personal preference, but here are some factors to consider:

• Crime Statistics
• Commute Times
• Access to Public Transportation
• Housing Costs
• Typical Lot Sizes
• Walkability
• Access to Nature
• Suburban, Rural, or Urban feel
• School Ratings
• Special School Programs Like Performing Arts or Language Immersion

If you are moving to a larger area, you want to narrow your focus. The items on this list may help you do that. You may also have other special considerations, like a child involved in a niche activity and a desire to be close to their lessons. Or you may prioritize an area without local regulations that prevent you from bringing your four dogs and three dozen chickens.

Whatever considerations are important to you, honing in on a few promising potential neighborhoods can make a home search less overwhelming. Reach out to friends near your new area and ask for their feedback. If they were moving today, what areas would they target? Are there areas they would avoid? Where do they see you fitting in? People who know you will understand how you live and what neighborhoods will best fit your lifestyle. Even if you think you know where you should land, input from trusted locals might offer valuable new perspectives.

If you are renting your current home, check your lease to see how much notice you are required to give your landlord and be sure you meet that requirement.

Home Budget

You can’t look for a new home until you know how much you can spend. One of the biggest financial challenges of moving comes with not knowing the costs of your new city. What you spend now on rent or a mortgage may not get you the home you seek. A new job means a different paycheck. If you don’t account for any changes in salary, your accounts may not balance after your first rent payment.

To help you understand how costs in your new city compare to your current home, look for an online cost-of-living calculator. These sites allow you to see how the same dollar amount in different cities compares. If $1 in your old city is equivalent to $1.25 in your new one and your salary stays the same, maybe you can splurge and look for a house with a pool. If your $1 only gets you $0.80 worth of goods and services, opting for the smaller apartment or skipping the home with the remodeled dream kitchen might make sense.

Move Budgeting (At Least Two Months)

Budgeting is an important, often-forgotten part of preparing for a residential move. Knowing how much you will spend on your move is the foundation of your financial plan for relocation.

To make your move budget, you’ll first determine how you will move. If you are paying for help with some or all of the transition, get quotes for those services and settle on a moving company.

If you plan to move yourself, be sure you account for all expense categories. Those will likely include the following:

• Fuel for a Truck
• Tape
• Boxes
• Box Cutters
• Moving Blankets
• Bubble Wrap
• Packing Paper
• Labels
• Renting or Purchasing a Dolly
• Moving Truck Rental (you may pay a daily fee, a mileage rate, and a one-way rental fee)

Also, consider temporary living arrangement costs if you will be in a hotel at your old or new location. For a long-distance move, you may have hotel costs en route and food expenses during travel.

Calculating these expenses a couple of months before your move ensures you have sufficient savings to cover everything you will need.

Cancel Services (One to Two Months)

Preparing for your new life in your new home means closing out the old life. One of the most significant bureaucratic steps of the moving process is ending all the location-specific services tied to the home you are leaving.

Cancel any local services you use. Every provider will have a different process for this. They may also have surprising deadlines or other strict timelines you need to follow. To avoid nasty surprises or paying for services long after you’ve left your home, contact all your providers two months in advance whenever possible. Ask them about the cancellation process and any deadlines.

It can be easy to forget some of the services we use in our homes. Like our Netflix account, sometimes our subscription services continue operating in the background. Here’s a list of some of the services you may need to cancel:

• Internet
• Cable TV
• Trash and Recycling Pickup
• Gardening and Landscaping Service
• Pest Control
• Snow Removal
• Electricity
• Termite Service
• Food or Meal Delivery
• Gas, Heating Oil Delivery, and Propane Service
• Water and Sewage Service
• Local Gym Membership
• Children’s Lessons and Activities

Check your credit card and bank statements to ensure you have caught everything. Try to go back through a full year of statements. It will take a few extra minutes, but looking back that far ensures that you see seasonal services. If you’ve signed up to have wood delivered once per year to feed your fireplace, checking July’s expenses won’t remind you to cancel that. That could mean your home’s next inhabitant gets a big pile of wood, and you get a bill.

You will also need to reach out to your insurance provider. You can cancel your homeowner’s insurance policy if you’ve sold your house. However, you may want to retain a renter’s insurance policy. Ask your insurer or insurance agent about a policy that will continue to cover your belongings while they are in transit.

Your car insurance location will change, and with it, your rates. Premium costs for the same level of coverage can vary widely among locations. Be prepared for your expenses to shift.

As you cancel services, keep a list. First, this will prevent those moments of panic. “Uhhh… did I already call the gas company to cancel, or did I just call to get information on how to do so?”
Second, your list will do double duty, serving as a to-do list for when you get to your new home or shortly before you arrive. Seeing that you canceled your meal delivery or dog daycare in the old city will remind you to reestablish those services in your new one. Of course, if you are moving from Maine to California, you can leave the snow removal and firewood delivery off your list. But finding a spray tan salon may replace them.

Move Logistics (One to One-and-a-Half Months)

Does your HOA, apartment complex, or city regulation require a permit for a moving truck or to use the freight elevator? Check that reservation off your list before you get distracted by other things. Also, be mindful of street sweeping or other parking issues that might conflict with your move days and ability to access a moving truck. If Tuesday is a no-parking day on your street, that’s probably not the day you want to schedule your move.

Mail (One Month)

While neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays the postal courier, moving can still prevent your mail from finding its way to the correct mailbox.

You will want to address mail delivery. Sure, it seems like nothing but catalogs and coupons show up in the mailbox, but set up forwarding nonetheless. You never know when a long-lost relative might send a birthday check.

You can arrange mail forwarding at your local post office or fill out a form online. As a bonus, you may even receive discount offers and coupons for services and items you may need at your new address as part of your move. If you will have to make a dozen trips to the home improvement store anyway, saving a few dollars helps take some of the sting out of all those lost Sunday afternoons.

Consider an interim forwarding address if you will be in transit for more than a week or two. Have the post office deliver everything to a friend or family member who can keep an eye out for surprise checks–Yay!–or forgotten bills–Boo! Or use a temporary mailbox in your new location.

You’ll also want to change your address with anyone who regularly sends you mail. While you should set up mail forwarding with the postal service, the service isn’t always reliable, and the timeframe for forwarding is limited. Given that, you want to capture as many of the senders as possible and notify them directly.

Here’s a list to get you started:

• Credit Card Companies
• Investment Accounts
• Banks
• Magazines
• Subscription Services
• Insurance Carriers
• DMV
• Health Insurance Provider
• Loan Holders
• Friends and Family

For friends and family, you can post a notification on social media. Keep in mind privacy concerns and who has access to your posts. It may make sense to post that you are moving and ask anyone who needs your address to DM you. That way, you can control who sees the information.

As soon as you know you are moving, even if you don’t have details, start observing your mail delivery. Any time a piece of mail comes in from someone needing your updated information, add that information to an ongoing list. The longer you collect mail, the more recipients you’ll capture. That makes critical letters or documents less likely to be lost or delayed.

If you have a move on the horizon, follow these steps to help get you through the process in an organized way. Use this outline to create a plan and avoid those unpleasant move-day shower epiphanies about all the things you forget to do. Once you have a plan, follow it carefully. We can’t guarantee no stress, but we can guarantee less of it, and less stress means more time to focus on your new adventure ahead.