Chief Among Them? Failing to Plan Well! 
Ah, yes: planning. No household move is smooth without it! If if it looks like we’re beating that drum loudly in our blogs and web pages, you’re right! We are! After all, when you engage us to do your move, we’ve got a vested interest in ensuring that it’s pulled off successfully. And if you’ve
hired a mover other than us? In that instance, planning becomes even more crucial! The more prepared you are up front for not only everything that should happen but also a few things that shouldn’t happen but could, the better your move will go. So, by all means, plan!
Boo-Boos That Planning Can Help You Avoid - Trying to accomplish too much yourself. Save your sanity! Unless you’re Superman or Wonder Woman you can’t do it all. Ask friends and relatives for help|assistance]29]. Let the kids pack the personal stuff in their bedrooms. Divide the inventorying and packing of various rooms between yourself and your spouse. And employ a professional moving company to do the loading, shipping, and unloading – or whatever else you don’t have the time, the know-how40], or the inclination to come to grips with personally.
- Waiting until the last minute to take care of everything. Moving is done in stages. For example, there are timelines for cutting off services (gas, electric, phone, and such) at your old address and turning them on at your new address before you move in. Special arrangements must be made and care must be taken to pack and transport big or priceless items. When the movers arrive, everything that’s got to go had better be ready to go if the move is to remain on schedule. Holdups can cost you – and not only money. Running around at the last minute is a certain way to ensure that things get lost or left behind. Or damaged.
- Not establishing a Moving Day plan for the kids and pets. Are the kids heading out with you or your spouse or staying with grandma until the move’s completed? Have plans been made relative to their school situation? Can you take Fido with you or would it be better to board him until yougotten settled in}76} your new home? You know these things must be mulled over. Don’t put off doing so!
- Not informing your moving company of changes in your schedule. Has the start date of your new job in your new city changed in a way that could affect your move date? Can’t make the time originally set aside for the home survey that determines your move estimate? Need to have the movers come a little later than planned on Move Day? Okay, sometimes changes are unpreventable. There’s no reason for them to be a hassle, though … if you alert your moving company to them well enough in advance!
- Not reading the paperwork from your mover attentively. What? You didn’t catch that additional charge for the moving company’s packing services on page two of the contract? Or the cost of packing and shipping that huge grand piano of yours? Or that your moving insurance doesn’t really cover the total valuation of your household goods? Of course, maybe none of those things were actually in the contract – and should have been. If you didn’t read it, how would you know? Surely you’ve heard the old saying that you should never sign a contract you haven’t read. Heed it! Or you’ll surely get a bill you weren’t banking on!
Follow the advice above, start planning early, and you could find that your household move has all the adventure you hoped for – and none of the headaches you feared!
