5 Things To Do BEFORE You Move

1. Movers

Decide if you want to use movers or do it yourself. Moving is a big expense but definitely can be worth it if you can afford to do so. For our move, my husband is allotted $5,000 worth of moving expenses through his job. That sounds like a lot, right? Well, even with all of the minimizing we’ve done, that barely even covers the cost of just moving our stuff from Council Bluffs, to Hasting, no packing included. The movers will also not move live plants. It costs $300 to move our TV without the original box. There were so many more weird and very expensive little things that go into using movers, so do your research and decide what’s best for you!

2. Minimize

While you pack or before, make sure you try to minimize your stuff! Sounds like an obvious thing to do, but when it gets really close to moving time, you’re not going to have the desire and/or the time, to go through drawers and closets and decide what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of or donate, so make sure to do this with plenty of time. This way you can make sure you’re only bringing stuff you truly want and need, and not all of the excess stuff you’re just moving to move! Plus if you’re using movers, hopefully, it’ll bring your cost down as well!

Max and I have been minimizing already and when we decided we were moving to a house with half the square footage, we used this as the perfect opportunity to get rid of everything we don’t love and need. Even stuff we still would need like our kitchen table! But we didn’t want to take anything into the new house we weren’t in love with!

3. Utilities

Set up your new utilities and make sure you set a date for your old ones to be removed from your name! This is something I usually forget! This time I already have turn on dates set, as well as dates for our old ones to be taken out of our name! It’s such an easy thing to call and get done, and it truly makes ya feel ahead of the game! That way, when you have twenty other things on your mind closer to the move date, you won’t have to worry about this! Don’t forget the wifi too! No one wants the first night spent staring at the ceiling!

4. Forwarding Address

Go online and get your forwarding address set up! According to the USPS website, sometimes requests can take up to two weeks to be processed! So make sure you do it early so you don’t miss any mail or bills coming your way after you move! It costs $1.10 to verify your identity but then it’s free to forward your mail for an entire year, If you want it longer, you can always purchase an extension of 6 months, 12 months, or 18 months!

5. Boxes, boxes, boxes

I really suggest buying boxes from a moving company and getting more than you think you’ll need! You’ll end up probably using them! It is so nice to have good-sized boxes, especially those that can be closed and stacked easily! We’ve always skimped on this in years before but we have them now and I regret waiting this long to do it! We got ours from Two Men and a Truck here in Omaha. We got the package for a one-bedroom house for $90! That was 10 large, 10 medium, and 10 small boxes. We had a few other boxes Max had gotten from work but I wish there were all the moving company boxes because they’re just so much easier to deal with and pack!