Moving into a new apartment? If you don’t plan ahead and make specific arrangements, moving day can become a nightmare. With a little planning and preparation, you can make moving day run smoothly for both you and your movers.
Make moving day easier with these 15 moving tips:
- If you’re hiring movers, set a moving date at least two weeks beforehand. Remember to be flexible, though, if you plan to move on a weekend or during the summer as these are busy times for movers.
- Before you hire a moving company, ask friends, coworkers, and neighbors for recommendations to ensure you hire a reliable company.
- Remove any clutter from your current apartment or home before the movers arrive.
- Unless you’re paying your movers to pack your belongings, too, pack items you won’t use at least one week before moving day.
- Make lists of contents and separate boxes according to which room they’ll go in in your new apartment so your movers can place them in the correct room. Sequentially number boxes so that if anything is missing you’ll know what was in the box.
- Be present on moving day in case the movers have any questions.
Label boxes with large, clear handwriting or labels to help the movers recognize what goes where in your new apartment.
- Label and separate items that are heavy or fragile and be sure to tell the movers to be extra careful.
- Ask your new landlord about parking and unloading regulations before moving day to ensure you and your movers have adequate space to park and unload. If your old or new building has elevators, find out if they have to be reserved in advance.
- Prepare a floor plan so your movers will know which boxes and pieces of furniture go to which room.
- Have drinks and snacks available for your movers at both your old and new apartment.
- Have soap, paper towels, and toilet tissue easily accessible at both your old and new apartment.
- Do a final walk-through of your old apartment and your new apartment before the movers leave to ensure everything is in the correct place and is not broken. Once you are satisfied, sign off on any final paperwork.
- If it’s in your budget, hire a cleaning crew to clean your old apartment after your belongings are out.
- Tip your movers, especially if they did a good job.
I find your idea about labeling boxes very useful and will definitely have to do that when I move into my first apartment next month. I’m not the most organized person in the world, and so I think that labeling will help lessen the amount of chaos that could happen in the moving process. To help with the organization process, I think that I will try and color code the boxes that I use as well.
Whats the standard tip amount for movers?
Hi Felipe,
If you have a typical first apartment move, using two guys with a van to move a few pieces of larger furniture and bunch of boxes of books and stuff, $20 per mover would be reasonable. If you have a lot more stuff and maybe moving to a high floor in walk-up building, then it should be more.