Relocating is not easy. It is one wholesome experience in itself, especially if you have to plan a long-distance relocation. Well, to start with the basics, there are a multitude of reasons why people choose to move. Some do it for work, while a few others plan to move to a calmer and quieter location after retirement, and many move places when they get married. However, whatever is the reason for this long-distance move, the entire experience should be as seamless as possible.

Here, we have come up with some of the best long-distance moving tips, which could be extremely helpful for you.

Tips for planning for long-distance moving

• Start making a plan
  It isn’t easy to move almost everything, that too to thousands or hundreds of miles farther from where you currently live. It is a gigantic task and requires a lot of planning. You should try and jot down every little detail associated with the tasks that you wish to complete. We understand that it can be a bit overwhelming, so to assist you with every phase of long-distance moving, we have made a checklist. Continue reading to know more.  

• Stick to the schedule
  After you have made a plan, the next pivotal thing to do is to stick to it. Tasks such as school enrolment and utility installation are top priority tasks, so you do not want to leave them for the last moment. To ensure that you do not forget what’s supposed to be done and when it needs to be done, you can consider scheduling time on the calendar for different tasks. Also, set up reminders for priority tasks. If you religiously follow this tip, you’ll never lag on your schedule, and the entire relocation process would be stress-free. 

• Get estimates from multiple long-distance moving companies
  Given that you are planning to move long distances, you’ll have to dedicate enough time to look for the right company to help you with this move. A crucial step in the entire process is getting an in-home estimate from about 3-5 reputed moving companies. You should schedule the estimates at least a month before the day of moving. However, the earlier you can go about with it, the better it is. An important tip here is to ensure that you get the most accurate price estimate possible. It can only be done if you prepare your home adequately for this in-home price estimate.  

• Choose a reputed long-distance moving company
  Once you have studied through the different in-home price estimates, you’ll have to perform an apple-to-apple comparison. Following this comparison, you’ll be able to find yourself a trustworthy and reputable long-distance moving company. Affordability could indeed be your primary concern, but please bear in mind that the cheapest might not necessarily be the best. You wouldn’t want to land yourself in some sort of moving scam. You will be trusting these movers with your belongings and personal property, so be sure to make wise and well-informed decisions.
• Get moving insurance
  It does not matter how many valuables you own or don’t own, try to find out which of these items are covered under insurance, and which aren’t. You should consider sitting down with the insurance agent before your long-distance moving to ensure that you know what items your auto insurance and home insurance cover. In most cases, the moving companies that you select would offer you an insurance cover. However, the coverage of their policy would be limited. Hence, you could consider getting a comprehensive plan that particularly covers your most valuable and expensive things. 

• Update all the essential documents
  Switching states would automatically mean that your address would change. Hence, you’ll have to update the new address and the other details in a multitude of documents, including your driving license, papers of your car registration, and your bank documents. You’ll have to plan and do adequate research to know what has to be changed/updated. All of this is a pre-moving task. So, do not ignore this, because it wouldn’t be easy to do it once you have already moved.  

 Tips for packing for long-distance moving

A lot of you might consider yourself as packing ninjas. However, packing for your long-distance moving is a challenging process, and one of the unique experiences. Here, we have come up with some tips for long-distance packing that will help save you some money, while ensuring that whatever you want to carry from your old home to the new one reaches safely.  

• Make a list of the inventories

Your belongings might be spread across different continents or states. Hence, you need to prepare an inventory and jot down everything you own. You could either do it the traditional way, with a pen and a notebook or download an application on your phone where you could do it. By the end of it, you should have a list of all the things you have. When you do this right, you wouldn’t ever have to stress about whether everything you owned has arrived safely to your new destination. Whenever there’s a confusion, you can go back and look through the inventory list.

• Analyze where you would put everything in the new home

Before deciding to move your queen-sized bed or the gigantic study table across states/continents/countries, you will have to analyze whether there’s enough space in the new home to accommodate it. You can do this by measuring the open floor area that is available in your new apartment. If you do this right, you wouldn’t have to worry about whether your bed or study table would fit in the room.

• Prioritize the things you want to keep

Once you start packing, you have to simultaneously begin to prioritize the things that you would want with you. You should begin with packing items that you’ll probably need in the first week itself. So, this would include your bedding, towels, pans, dishes, and pots. You also need to pack toiletries, personal essentials, and clothes separately. Keep all of these open-first things handy. Once you do this, you’ll be sorted with what to open first when the moving-truck reaches your new place.  

• Try to downsize

Just because you own 100 things does not mean you have to carry all the 100 things to your new place. Hence, before you start packing, you should try to get rid of the clutter. Remove every unwanted item that you do not intend to use. This also includes the clothes that you have not worn even once for the past one year. You also need to sell kitchen appliances that you don’t use, books you have read and won’t need again, or any furniture that you wouldn’t need in the new home. Trust us when we say this: if you follow this tip well, you could save yourself several 100s of dollars. It would also make the process of loading and off-loading easier.  

• Organize while you pack
  If you wish to make unpacking easier, you have to be careful while packing. Don’t just go on throwing everything in your house into the packing boxes. You should consider packing them by room or area. For instance, if you are packing a desk, along with it, add everything that goes in the desk in a single box. It would be a good idea to assign your box numbers. This should correspond with the numbers in the inventory list. It could be a great time-saving strategy when you have to unpack in your new home.
• When you pack, remember the box has to travel miles in a truck

Many-a-times, people forget this tip, which we believe is incredibly important. When you are heading for long-distance moving, you’ll certainly require some extra packing effort. So, when you pack fragile items, you should wrap them carefully in old shirts and bubble wraps. It’s safe to put all of these fragile items in one place. This will help you ensure that they are all organized. Moreover, you can particularly instruct the agent from the long-distance moving company to be extra careful with the boxes with fragile items.    

• Put down your name on all the boxes

The thing with long-distance moving is that your items will travel in a truck along with the boxes of other individuals or families. So, to ensure that your belongings do not get mixed with that of other people’s or are unloaded at a wrong address, you should write down your name clearly on every box. If you are particularly peculiar about some boxes, you can also include your contact number to ensure that even if the box gets delivered at a wrong address, it somehow gets returned to you.

• Try to save money wherever possible

If you do not have a job at the moment and are looking for one, you need to spend money consciously during this entire moving process. To help you save big money, you should try and do things all by yourself. So, now you’d have to do everything from organizing to cleaning and packing. But since you have time in hand, you could start early, or you could even call your friends or cousins to help you. It may be time-consuming but could save you hundreds of dollars.   

• Hire professional packers

Of course, these moving hacks could save you a lot of time, but packing the entire house is not easy. It can easily take you a month or two. In case you work long shifts, or are moving on short notice, or want to spend your last few months or weeks with your friends or family instead of being occupied with packing, you could hire a reputed professional packer. A professional packer could be a blessing in disguise when you are moving long distances. They’ll come with a team of professionals, who’d carefully bubble-wrap the items and pack them just as you instruct. To save some more time, you could hire someone for cleaning or organizing your house before moving. Please know that this tip could be pricey, but if your budget allows, go for it.     

Tips for the day of long-distance moving

Now, you are prepared and packed with all the necessary belongings. So, let’s move to the actual day of making a move. Be it moving by a flight or road-tripping, a few tips could help you safely get all your belongings to the new home.

• Move only in the off-season
  Usually, people plan their long-distance moving in the summer season. So, naturally, the entire process would be more expensive at this time, especially when it comes to hiring a moving truck. Hence, if it is possible, try to plan your move in the off-season. This is a strategic move and could account for massive savings. If you can’t postpone it, you could consider moving mid-month, or any day except for the weekend. This could also help you save some dollars.

• Choose the best way to move you and your vehicle
  For moving inside America, you could consider driving in your car to the new destination. However, if you are moving countries or continents, you’ll have to take care of shipping your vehicle to the new residence. Herein, you’ll need to do adequate research and then plan well in time to ensure that you do not reach a new destination without having a vehicle to move around.
• Plan things around the expected delivery window
  At times, your delivery window could be approximately two weeks from the day you reach your new residence. Thus, you have to prepare yourself to adjust for this duration without the things that are packed in the truck. Hence, to avoid unnecessary stress, you can carry the box that you are to open first. This will ensure that you don’t move and then search for the essentials in a new city.