Tips & Tools : professional movers

Moving in the Winter

RE.com Tips & Tools — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:08:00 GMT

By Gina Cappiello www.123Movers.com

Don’t let the ice and snow of winter sabotage your next move! Stay warm, safe, and smiling during your winter move simply by following these helpful tips:

Bundle up!
It’s always great to have a few warm pieces of clothing on hand during your winter move. Have sweatshirts, socks, sweaters, blankets, coats, and boots remain in your home until you are ready to leave permanently. You never know if your heater will break the day of your move or if the wet weather will soak you to the bone.

Don’t slip
Shovel and salt walkways, steps, driveways, and anywhere movers will be walking. A slip and fall while moving is not only embarrassing, but extremely dangerous. Even with freshly shoveled walkways to guide you, walk slowly and carefully throughout your move in case you missed scraping up a slippery spot.

Stay warm
Be sure your heat will be on for moving day at your current and new home. If the heat is not yet on in your new home, bring along some space heaters to hook up before you begin moving your belongings inside. This way, you will have a toasty home to relax in after the move and won’t freeze during your first night in your new home.

Drink (and eat) up
Keep a kettle of warm water for tea or a pot of hot coffee on hand to warm your movers up with. If you want to go above and beyond for your movers, have some soups (Ramen noodles will suffice) and a loaf of crusty bakery bread ready for them to eat during a lunchtime break. They will thank you for the warm gesture during the chilly move!

EDITOR'S NOTE: Don't forget about our other seasonal moving story, Moving in the Summer.

Moving on a Budget

RE.com Tips & Tools — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 02:16:00 GMT

By Gina Cappiello, 123Movers.com

Let’s be honest: money is tight right now for everyone. We are all thinking twice before making purchases, putting every expense under a microscope, and saving like never before. But what if you have to move? It can often be a huge expense with the cost of trucks, packing, and planning. Here are some smart and clever ways to save (and make) some money during a move:

Use free materials
Think you need to buy special boxes and packing peanuts to get your beloved items from point A to point B? No way! You can pick up a variety of boxes at local supermarkets, shops, and wholesale outlets for free. Be sure to ask before taking them, though. Use that old stack of newspapers to wrap fragile dishes, glasses, and knick-knacks with. You can also utilize your suitcases, backpacks, and reusable bags to pack items. The bags are coming with you regardless, so why not put them to good use?

PYO (Pack Your Own)
Packing services can get up to the thousands depending on how many things you have to pack. Spend a few weekends before your move sifting through all of your possessions to decide what’s staying and what can go. Once you decide what is coming with you, pack it up and put the boxes aside.

Purge and profit
Now that you have decided what is necessary and unnecessary, it’s time to make some money. Sell everything you cannot take or do not want by having a moving sale or post everything with prices on free online marketplaces. Anything left over you can give away to a charity. Not only is your donation tax-deductible, but some charitable organizations will even arrange for a truck to pick up all of your unwanted items for free.

Eat up
Remember those canned goods, boxes of pasta, and non-perishables you stacked your pantry with thanks to recession-busting sales at the grocery store? It’s time to reap what you have sown! Create some delicious dishes with your pantry staples instead of buying tons of groceries that may go to waste. Not only will you save money by saving on food, but you may discover some creative meals to make on a budget.

Shop around
You don’t have to choose the first moving company you come across to take care of everything. Speak with multiple moving companies to get an idea of how they operate and how they charge. Choose a company that you feel the most comfortable and confident about. Also, be sure to ask plenty of questions so you won’t be surprised about the bill after the move.

Saving on a move doesn’t have to be hard. Just a few adjustments to your moving plan can help you save hundreds of dollars without compromising anything.

Moving to College

RE.com Tips & Tools — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:26:00 GMT

By Aldo Singer, 123Movers.com

Beginning college and moving into a dorm room can often be an exciting experience for a teenager entering adulthood, so exciting that they may forget that they’ll need everyday necessities to survive everyday life now that they’re living on their own.

Make sure you prepare for moving into college by stopping by your local pharmacy or department store mall and pick some of those important bathroom items like toiletries and towels. Most dorm rooms have communal bathrooms and kitchens so you will need your own things.

Chances are you won’t need to enlist the help of a moving company for this move because you probably don’t have that many things to begin with. Your car or parents’ car is probably going to be sufficient enough to get you started and able to function in your new dorm room.

College often comes along with a lot of textbooks and large amounts of hours devoted to studying; you’re not going to have time to cook which is why you’ll need a solid microwave. Don’t forget a couple pieces of silverware to go along with those ‘radio-active’ meals. Plastic forks and knives will not do you any good because you’ll have to constantly be spending money on them and are only bad for the environment in the end.

An item that many people probably wouldn’t even think about to bring with them on their journey to their dorm room is enough extension cords. You may want to relax on your bed with your laptop but don’t want to burn the laptop battery out, this is where an extension cord would be perfect.

Moving away from your parents may blind you into thinking your free to do and act however you please, but that isn’t the case in dorm rooms. You’re most likely going to have to pay a whole lot of extra money if you’re planning on living on your own. You’re probably going to have a roommate, whose feelings you’re going to have to consider while you try and do your own thing during your college life. Living in harmony with another being isn’t easy which is why you should set the ground rules early that either of you may have.

Treat your moving day in to college like a college exam that you’ll be facing and make sure you prepare for it ahead of time.

Credit and Forget It

RE.com Tips & Tools — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:03:00 GMT

By Aldo Singer, 123Movers.com

The process of moving into your new home or apartment actually begins years before that event has taken placed. You can’t rent an apartment or find yourself a home if you don’t have good credit. Establishing good credit is one of the cornerstones to a happier life because if you can afford a nice home, chances are you’ve got good credit. Getting to the good credit point of your life starts off slow but there are ways to know that you’re going in to the right direction.

When you’re starting, probably while you’re in college its best to get any credit card you can. I say that because it’s going to be hard to get any kind of credit card when you do not have any credit to go on. Some credit cards you may be able to get are a secured credit card or a prepaid credit card. These cards will help you build on your credit report slowly.

You should also have a savings and checking account in place so the creditors can keep an eye on your funds. There is no point in giving someone a credit card if they don’t have money to spend.

If you’re still having trouble getting a credit card and you’ve been constantly turned down, you should look into being added on to someone else’s credit card account. This can help you build credit as well but it also makes you liable for the other person and vice versa. If the other person on the card or the ‘account holder’ is making charges that neither of you are going to be able to pay, your both going to be held responsible for those charges. You can’t run away from those charges.

When you receive your bill with those large charges you must make a payment to keep building on your credit.

Two of the most important factors of building good credit are paying your bills on time and how much of your actual credit that you’re using. Even if you can’t pay your bill in full (which is the #1 way to build fast credit) you should pay the minimum payment at least. It shows your making an effort.

It is recommended that you use at least 1/3 of your credit availability. Spending $50 a month isn’t going to make your credit score jump very high within a short period of time.

Before you realize it, it’ll be time to move out of your parent’s house and into your new home you should have a solid credit score if you’ve followed the aforementioned tips.

One more thing, probably the most solid tip to live by as much as you can is to never spend more than you make. If you do you’ll find yourself in loads of debt, the exact opposite record of building credit.

Reducing Waste on Moving Day

RE.com Tips & Tools — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:40:00 GMT

By Aldo Singer, 123Movers.com

Protecting the environment is something that can never go out of style. At moments it’s trendy and other times people don’t think anything of it.

Moving day is an event that can contribute gigantic amounts of waste to the Earth. People are normally stressed out during this event and throw environmental concerns by the waste side (pun intended). You don’t have to. There are plenty of ways to move to a new home without contributing to the pollution of the world.

Most of the waste products that come as result of moving day are paper products or cardboard materials. This doesn’t have to be the case though. There are many options lying around your soon-to-be old home.

It all starts with the packing process and dealing with moving boxes. Whether or not you’re moving yourself or using a moving company, do not let movers push tons of moving boxes on you. Chances are you probably won’t need to use all of them to begin with. Do your best to find old boxes. You will have a good chance to find several boxes that will just be disposed of at your local grocery store. If you can’t find enough old boxes to use during moving day, try and locate boxes composed of recycled materials. Don’t forget that you can recycle the boxes as well once you’ve completed your move entirely.

Another alternative to boxes that you might like to consider during your move are your own suitcases and bags. Why not load some of your clothes and other fabric materials in accessories meant to hold them? Makes sense right.

If you’re worried about the old boxes not being strong enough, try contacting your local movers and see if they have any storage crates available. These items are durable and last a very long time and can be recycled once you’ve completed your use of them.

If you’re an avid newspaper reader, then you’ve got plenty of wrapping paper for fragile items, like your glass cups. Some other packing materials that can help prevent more waste from your move is bubble wrap. You can place the bubble wrap around a lot of sensitive equipment like your TV or computer.

You’ll probably notice while you’re going through all your belongings that you don’t need all your clothes that you have or all those DVD’s you’ve compiled. A nice friendly affair that will make you some money and meet some new people would be a garage sale. You can sell your possessions at a low price and reduce your overall stash that you’ll be moving.

These ‘green’ moving tips will also help you save some greenbacks. It’s a win-win for everyone involved, you and the world.

Customizing Your Move with Professional Movers

RE.com Tips & Tools — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 18:00:00 GMT

Have the movers do it all, or tackle some of the chores yourself to save some cash.

Amid all the excitement of buying a new home lays a decidedly less glamorous chore: moving there. It’s kind of like getting ready for a stroll down the red carpet at a Hollywood premiere and having to drive yourself there in a 15-year-old sedan. You can make it easier on yourself by hiring professional movers. But you’ll still have some details to work out, including what level of moving services you want. To some extent, that will be determined by how much you want to pay. When you hire professional movers, the base price usually includes just loading, transportation and unloading. You’ll have to pay extra to have the movers pack your possessions. The charge for the full packing and unpacking service generally is based on the weight of the load, according to the industry’s professional organization, the American Moving and Storage Association, and includes the cost of all but specialty cartons for things like mirrors and marble tabletops.

You can get custom packing services from professional movers if you pack some of the items yourself and unpack yourself, according to the industry group. In that case, the charge is based on the number of boxes or cartons used. Even if you pack yourself, you’ll have to pay for boxes if you aren’t able to scrounge enough from the office and the grocery store. Consider at least buying wardrobe boxes – mini-closets with a metal bar where you can hang clothes on hangers – and dishpacks for breakable kitchen items like plates and glasses. You’ll also need to decide whether to buy additional protection in the event your goods are damaged by the professional movers. Under the basic protection included in the cost of your move, the movers are liable for only 60 cents per pound if something is damaged. In other words, you could end up with only $60 for your broken, 100-pound couch. Full replacement-value coverage costs more, but could be a good investment.

One advantage to hiring professional movers is they can store your goods if you need to move out of one house without moving immediately into another. The charge for storage is based on the weight of the load and how long your goods are in storage. Another option to consider is something called self-service moving. You pack all your goods, load and unload the truck, but a professional driver transports it. The price is based on the number of miles traveled and how much space your load takes up on the truck. (Long-distance full-service moves are based on weight.) As you might guess, the price is less than for a full-service move.

You can hire professional movers for long-distance or local moves, but remember that pricing is different for short-haul local moves. In that case, you might be charged by the hour rather than by weight. Either way, hiring professional movers can at least make you feel like you’re arriving at the fancy Hollywood premier in a limo instead of an old sedan.