It’s a common sentiment that moving is one of the most stressful experiences in a person’s life. Even if you’re just relocating to another apartment down the street, a moving checklist can be a huge help in organizing your thoughts. It can ensure sure you don’t forget to do one of the many tasks you’ll need to take care of, including a lot of little things that are easy to overlook during this overwhelming time. Perhaps you’re still looking to find an apartment, or have already signed a lease but have about a month to go before moving in. It may seem like there’s little you can do in advance to prepare for the big move, but in fact there are several nifty tasks you can add to your moving checklist to get the process rolling smoothly early on.
For starters, visit your local post office or go online to USPS.com and fill out an official change-of-address form up to a month in advance. You can actually schedule the future date on which your mail will start directing to the new address. Also make sure friends and family, your bank, magazine subscriptions, past employer (for W2 forms) and other mail services are aware of the upcoming change, so you are sure to not miss anything important. You can also begin to look around your current home and start getting rid of unwanted items by selling, donating, recycling or tossing them. It helps to have this crossed off your moving checklist well before the hectic day arrives, so you don’t end up packing and moving anything unnecessarily.
You might also start making a list of the larger items that you may need help (from professional users or truck-owning friends) moving, such as your bed, kitchen table, sofa and other furniture or appliances. If you are planning to hire movers to help out, this is also a good time to research different companies and compare estimates. Once you decide, go ahead and book them for the apartment moving day as soon as it is finalized with your new complex management. Planning to rent a truck or borrow a friend’s? Solidify those plans as well to avoid a last-minute scramble.
Next week, we’ll move on to cover the next tasks you’ll tackle on the moving checklist. When you prepare in advance and handle every consideration, moving to a new apartment doesn’t have to be as stressful or messy as it seems! For those of you still in the phase of finding apartments for rent, give our useful search tools a try. We list thousands of properties nationwide, with plenty to choose from in cool cities including Dallas apartments, Phoenix apartments, Austin apartments, and Seattle apartments.
