| Four Weeks before Your Move |
| Day 1: | Tour your house and decide which items should be discarded or donated to a charity. You might want to think about having a moving sale. | | Day 2: | Contact professionals you rely on like doctors and dentists. Ask if they can recommend colleagues close to your new home. Get copies of renewable prescriptions, and be sure to request copies of family members’ medical and dental records. | | Day 3: | Arrange for the transfer of school records. And don’t forget about personal insurance records. | | Day 4: | Check your homeowner’s insurance policy to see if moving is covered. You’ll want to make sure your new home is protected by transferring fire, theft and other personal property insurance. | | Day 5: | If moving from an apartment, notify landlord and request apartment deposit back. | | Day 6: | If you’re moving house plants be sure to read through How To Move House Plants, and start preparing your plants in advance for the move. | | Day 7: | Before your moving estimate, think about what household items you are willing to pack yourself, and which ones you would like our movers to pack. |
|
| Three Weeks before Your Move |
| Day 1: | Consider your meal plans so that you use up most of your food items before the move. | | Day 2: | Check up on and deal with any tax assessments. | | Day 3: | Make arrangements to have your major appliances serviced before you move them. If yours is a company-paid move, check with your move coordinator first in case they’ve made arrangements already. | | Day 4: | We are NOT permitted to move any aerosols, flammables, ammunition or propane tanks. Try to use them up, give them away or dispose of them in the proper way before you move. | | Day 5: | If you have pets, be sure to read through How To Move Your Pets. And don’t forget to pick up your pet’s records from your veterinarian. | | Day 6: | Notify your local post office of your upcoming move, and pick up change-of-address forms. Remember to send your new address to publishers of any magazines you subscribe to. By the way, you should be aware that you must fill out a change-of-address form for each person receiving mail at your address. |
|
| Two Weeks before Your Move |
| Day 1: | Make reservations for travel to your destination. | | Day 2: | Prepare the Customer Responsibility/High Value Inventory Form to give to the driver. | | Day 3: | Return library books and anything else you might have borrowed. Also, collect items that you have lent to friends and associates; pick up items at your dry cleaner; and don’t forget about any items in layaway, cold storage or in your safety deposit box. | | Day 4: | Arrange for termination of services like utilities, landscaping and delivery services. | | Day 5: | Protect your belongings by properly disposing of flammables such as gasoline, fireworks, matches, cleaning fluids and bottled gas, or aerosols, acids, caustic drain cleaners and like materials. | | Day 6: | Make arrangements for the connection of utilities in your new location. Prepare a floor plan of your new home, and don’t worry—you don’t have to be a draftsman, just a free-form sketch will do—to indicate where your furniture will be going. This really helps to make moving in much easier. | | Day 7: | Sorry, but we’re not permitted to remove TV antennas or satellite dishes. So be sure to make arrangements for this, and for disconnection of your cable/satellite TV service. |
|
| One Week before Your Move |
| Day 1: | Transfer bank accounts and, if appropriate, ask your local credit bureau to transfer your records to your new city. Reconfirm any travel reservations you may have made. | | Day 2: | Unless prior arrangements have been made with our office for payment via credit card, plan to have cash, a certified check, bank check or traveler’s check ready to pay our driver before your possessions are unloaded. | | Day 3: | If you plan to drive to your destination, gather together maps, games, snacks, flashlights and other items you might need in the car. And don’t forget medicines and important papers to take on the trip. | | Day 4: | Contact your local phone company’s business office. They can help with phone service in your new home, and schedule disconnection at your current location. | | Day 5: | Drain water from all garden hoses. Start packing suitcases. | | Day 6: | Drain gasoline and oil from any small gasoline-powered equipment you plan to have moved. | | Day 7: | Anything you’ve arranged for our movers to pack up for you should be left in place. It’s actually easier and safer if we can, for example, pack china and glassware right from the cabinet they’re kept in. |
|
| One Day before Your Move |
| Put non-combustible cleaning supplies, toiletries and coffee makers in special boxes to be loaded last. That way, they’ll be the first items unloaded at your destination. Finish packing all suitcases. Defrost and clean your refrigerator and/or freezer. If you’ve got a waterbed, now’s the time to drain it and prepare it for the move. Be sure to take your local phone book: That way, you have a resource for checking addresses and/or phone numbers for businesses and friends. |
|
| Moving Day |
| Remember to give the driver your signed Customer Responsibility/High Value Inventory Form. (This form must be signed—even if no items are listed.) Make sure you arrange to be present throughout the day to answer questions and to sign the bill of lading. Confirm your delivery date, your new address and a phone number where you can be reached. If you’re leaving anything for the new owners be sure to place it in a conspicuous place. Make one more final check of every single room and every storage area. Check that all windows and doors are locked, that all keys have been transferred and that all lights have been shut off. |
|
| Moving-in Day |
| Plan to be at your new home at least one day before the van arrives. This way, you can make sure all utilities have been connected and confirm that the way you had envisioned placing major furnishings in your new home is still the way you want them to be! |
|
