Moving into Your New Apartment

August 19th, 2008 by Snow Conant| Posted in Apartment Guide, Moving | 3 Comments »

Preparing your Apartment Move

During your apartment search you should also be preparing to move. You can easily save hundreds of dollars by moving yourself. Of course, this will take a certain amount of effort and is usually an undertaking that requires at least most of the day, but if you prepare and organize, you can certainly make it worth the money you have saved.

Or, if you are crunched for time, or just have a lot of stuff to move, see how much your move will cost with a free moving quote.

Recruit Help

The first step is going to be recruiting some friends and family to help you move all the stuff out of your apartment. Be sure to reward them appropriately after they help you with your apartment move.

Make sure that you have enough people to help you. Figure out the bulkiest and heaviest item in your apartment and determine how many people it will take to move it into your new apartment. This is the least amount of people that you will need.

When you schedule your move out and move in date, be sure to give your volunteers plenty of notice. You should probably try to give two weeks notice to all your volunteers. You may not have an exact date until later, but you should alert everyone and keep people informed as early on in the process as possible. It is a good idea to also have some alternates available. Make sure everyone is on the same page and is willing and able to help before move day.

Rent a Truck

Contact your local U-Haul Penske or Budget Truck rental centers and reserve the truck at least a week in advance. You can rent one of these trucks for a full or half day, depending on your needs.

Be sure that you have made proper arrangements; it is probably worse to have a truck not show up than your volunteers. You do not want a group of angry and anxious volunteers waiting for a truck and all of your belongings on the side of the road.

Packing up Your Apartment

Get yourself some boxes, which only cost about $3 and can save you a lot of time and frustration. You should try to make moving as easy as possible once you have your enlisted help at your apartment. Trying to move things one by one into and out of a truck will take a lot of time

You should start packing up all of your stuff well in advance of you actual move date. When you decide to start packing will depend on how many things you’ll be taking to your new apartment. If you wait until too late and get stuck packing things on your actual move date, you will end up costing your volunteers more time.

You should try to pack objects that are similar in the same boxes. Ideally, you will want a couple boxes that you would be able to put everything from each bedroom, kitchen, etc. and then transfer these boxes to the respective rooms your new apartment.

Newspaper makes cheap padding material and will work for the majority of items you need to move. Be sure not to load each box with too many heavy items; even small boxes can end up weighing close to 100 lbs. You won’t want to tax your volunteers too much, especially if there are a lot of stairs involved.

Helpful Tools

All physical jobs require tools to facilitate the process and moving into a new apartment is no exception. Get yourself a hand truck, which can help you move bulky items easily. Work gloves to protect your hands and tarps and covering to protect your belongings.

Move Day!

Most of the work involved with moving is preparatory; once you are organized, it is easy to move. However, a few quick reminders for move day we would be remiss if omitted.

Be sure to pack up and move the largest items first. Put these in the back of the truck. Beds, couches, tables will take up the most space while boxes can be nestled into the remaining space in your truck.

Make sure that you are your volunteers are not straining your backs or hurting yourselves lifting heavy objects, (lift with your legs not your back). Also, be sure to take breaks (perhaps take your volunteers out to lunch at mid-day).

The important part is getting all your stuff out of the truck and into the confines of your new apartment so that you can return your moving truck on time and let your friends off of the hook as soon as possible. It may take you a week or so to get everything organized, but this is usually not too stressful of an experience.