A wise man once said “failing to plan is planning to fail“. Never has this quote rang truer than in the case of deciding what to do before professional movers arrive. Preparing your belongings for relocation, preparing your new home, then your old home… Making sure everything is in order can drive anyone crazy. Failing to take these steps will likely result in a catastrophic failure of a relocation. In other words, if you want to relocate successfully, you need to prepare properly. That’s exactly why we here at Bloomfield movers decided to write this article. To help you understand this process and help you be ready for your next move.
What to do before professional movers arrive?
However, what most people associate with preparing when talking about moving is something different than what we are going to talk about in this article. We want to accent the importance of not just doing your research when relocating, but also preparing for the movers to arrive. This might not seem like an important task, but we cannot stress this enough – getting ready for NYC movers and packers is one of the most important steps in the whole relocation process. But how do you do that? Well, read on and find out.
It’s time to declutter
If there is one key takeaway you should have from this article it is this tip. Don’t forget to declutter your belongings before the movers arrive. Purging all of the non-important stuff is very beneficial. Not only for you but for the movers as well. Firstly, decluttering will help you feel like a huge rock has been lifted from your chest, and secondly, it will help movers because they won’t be the ones who will be carrying that rock. In other words, by decluttering you are minimizing the number of items the movers have to relocate. And in turn, you are helping yourself by getting rid of all the things you will never use, and that is picking up dust. However, how do you actually declutter? Well, we are glad you asked. This brings us to our sub-point.
How to purge?
There are many ways to declutter before moving. However, the most useful tip we can give here is the following. Gather all your items in one pile. Than piece-by-piece start asking yourself if each item has its purpose? If the answer is no it’s time to say goodbye to that item. Either by throwing it in the trash, recycling it, selling it or donating it. If the answer to this question is yes, then put it in the “keep” pile. Do this for every item until you have nothing left. And voila! Now you should be left with the bare essentials that the movers need to pack.
Make sure to create an inventory list before professional movers arrive
Okay, so hopefully by now you should be staring at a not-so-big pile of belongings that you are planning on entrusting to your movers. Great! Create a list of those items. In other words, what we want you to do is to grab a pen and paper and write down all the items that you are going to give your movers, and create a separate list that you are going to relocate yourself. Try to be very detailed here. For example, in your notepad jot down the number one. Then write down the name of the item that you are entrusting to your movers. After that is done, try to individualize it. Either by writing down its unique features or by enumerating the quantity of those items (i.e. 4 action figures).
What are the benefits of creating an inventory list?
So why do this? Why jot down all the stuff that you are entrusting your movers with? What is the purpose of this exercise? Well, it’s actually more important than you think. By writing down all the important things you are not only getting an accurate representation of the belongings that you will transport. But you can also use a number of these belongings to get an exact quote from your movers, on how much the moving is going to cost. This will allow you to get a good binding estimate, which is much better than a non-binding one (if you are not sure what the dissimilarity is, make sure you check out the difference between binding and non-binding moving quotes). Lastly, it’s a proof. Evidence of items that were given to the movers, so that you know exactly when you unpack whether something is missing or not.
Bonus tip: Make sure you take pictures of the items from your inventory list
Lastly, we would like to make one final recommendation. And that is to make sure you have photographed all the items that are on your inventory list. Why? Because you will have proof that the items were intact before relocation.It’s just double insurance that guarantees that all your belongings are going to be relocated conscientiously. Which can be later used as proof for any compensation of damages. Making all of the disputes against a moving company that much easier. However, we hope it won’t come to that. It is our thinking that you did your due diligence in picking a good reliable moving company that has great reviews that won’t move your belongings in a desultory manner.
To sum up – what to do before professional movers arrive?
There are not a lot of things you need to do before professional movers arrive. The first thing is to declutter. The less you have to move the better. Secondly, make sure you create an inventory list of all the items you are entrusting your movers with. Lastly, make sure you have all of those items photographed. This way you will have a proof of the state of items on that list.
Hopefully, this article helped you in preparing for your next move making you one step closer to a stress-free move. So once your movers arrive everything is ready for transport.