Five Top Tips for Packing Your Household Goods for Long-Term Storage

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Preparing your belongings for self-storage can be stressful. You want to ensure that your belongings are safe and well protected. Find out how you can ensure you’re packing your belongings for long-term storage the right way.

Clothes

Your clothes are one of your biggest investments. You’ll want to ensure they are wearable when you take them out of storage. The best ways to ensure clothes stay safe during long-term storage is:

  • Just say no to plastic
  • Hang your clothes for better care
  • Use all-natural insect repellents

According to Cheap Movers (moving services Las Vegas), many people make the mistake of storing clothes in plastic to protect them from the elements. Unfortunately, this is the opposite of what you want to do. Moisture can make its way under plastic and become trapped inside. Instead, use a breathable garment bag that was designed for storage purposes.

Hang your clothes in your garment bags (as long as the act of hanging won’t stretch them out) to decrease the likelihood of wrinkles and tearing at the seams.

Spray your clothes with essential oils that repel moths and other bugs that might chew holes in your clothes.

 

Appliances

Your appliances might seem like they’d be easy to store, yet you need to prepare them properly for long-term storage. Some of the best ways to do this include:

  • Clean your appliances with water and bleach to ensure no food makes its way inside
  • Defrost your refrigerator and freezer before cleaning to ensure it won’t attract mildew and mold
  • Store your appliances with baking soda to help absorb any moisture or smells

 

Furniture

Keep your furniture safe during its time in storage by placing items on pallets or elevating them above the ground. This allows for additional airflow around these times in the unit. Place moving blankets between your furniture and anything placed on top of its surfaces. Don’t place any liquids on top of your furniture. Keep couches and fabric-covered furniture safe by using dust covers. And of course, most of the damage done to furniture happens during the moving process to or from the actual storage unit. Here are some tips for hiring a moving company that won’t damage your belongings on the way to storage.

 

Belongings

You’ll also want to keep your belongings safe in addition to larger items and clothing. Some tips for keeping other belongings safe include:

  • Pack glass items in sturdy boxes
  • Wrap glass in bubble wrap
  • Store books in a climate-controlled storage unit
  • Use dust covers on TVs and other electronic equipment
  • Pack most boxes by category or room for easy access

 

Storing Items

You want to ensure you can find your belongings when you need to use them in the future. Many people choose to group items by category or room. This is a great plan, but you should also consider when you’ll need to use certain items as well. Some of the best packing tips include:

Group Items By Use

This means you should box up items that you’ll need to use first. Dishes, cups, and cookware should end up in the front of your unit for easy access when you’re unpacking. You’ll also probably want to access your mattress sooner rather than later too.

Heavy Items on the Bottom

Always place heavy items on the bottom. You don’t want the heavier items to collapse the more delicate items beneath them.

Major Differences Between Living in Los Angeles and New York

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East Coast versus West Coast is often a debate that many celebrities and commoners entertain. New York is the “City that Never Sleeps,” and Los Angeles is “the City of Angels.” Both cities are fantastic and have very ethnically diverse locals. If you’re facing the choice of whether to live in NYC or LA, here […]

The Cheaper Way to Move Appliances Across the Country

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When it’s time to move to another state across the country, there’s more to pack than just clothing and the small items that you have inside your home. You might also have to move heavy appliances! If you follow a few packing tips, then you can get all of your appliances ready to load onto a truck and across the country in one piece. The first thing that you need to do is determine what you need to keep and what you can leave behind. Some of the larger appliances might be in your new home already, so you might not need to transport them. This would save you money and time since you wouldn’t need to use additional resources to pack and ship these appliances. Hiring a professional appliance moving company might be the easy way out, but here are some tips if you want to move the appliances yourself.

1. Get The Proper Supplies to Move Heavy Appliances

No matter the size of the appliances you’re packing, you need to find boxes that are the right size, as well as other materials that will keep your appliances from breaking or getting damaged during the move. A professional moving company often has the materials that you would need and can pack your appliances if you don’t have the time. Try to find the original box for smaller appliances. Get Styrofoam and packing pellets that you can put between lids so that they don’t break. Invest in heavy-duty tape to secure boxes that are used. Packing paper and bubble wrap are items that you might need as well. They can be wrapped around larger appliances that you’re shipping as they will usually not fit inside a box.

2. Equipment To Move Appliances

Large appliances aren’t easy to move without some assistance. A furniture blanket can be placed underneath large appliances to make it easier to move them. It’s also a good idea to get a dolly to assist with moving larger pieces. Make sure there are straps around the appliances that are moved from the home and onto the truck. When the appliances are on the truck, secure them in place with moving straps so that they don’t move around. Strong ropes can be used if you don’t have straps. You might want to ask a few people to help you move the appliances so that you don’t strain your back or legs.

3. How to Move Appliances Without Damaging Surfaces

When you’re moving appliances and getting it out of one home and into another, you need to take the proper precautions so as not to damage the floors or walls. Cardboard under the appliances is an option as well as wrapping the appliances in moving plastic. Consider putting cushions on the walls when you get the appliances out of and into each home.

If you live in a building or condo with strict regulations, make sure the movers take extra special care to not damage the unit when they are maneuvering the appliances. Often the dings and damage is not realized until the apartment manager does a walk-through and then may decide to withhold part of your deposit. At this point in time, it may be too late to talk with the apartment moving service about particular issues. Watch your movers closely while they are handling the heavy appliances.

When appliances are transported across the country, it’s best to use a moving truck or a truck that is enclosed so that the weather isn’t an issue. If you’re shipping using a postal service, you need to make sure the proper fees are paid and that there is tracking information so that you know where your belongings are in the country and when they arrive at the new home.

Our Movers’ Top 7 Tips for a Successful New York City Apartment Move

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New York is an interesting, chaotic and wonderful place, but it can be a huge hassle to move from apartment to apartment. This guide from the best apartment movers New York lays out some good pointers to help you retain your sanity and get settled in comfortably and without spending a fortune.

1. Timing and planning is key

Although weekends are the most convenient time to undertake a move, NYC leases usually start on the first of the month. A good rule of thumb for most is to try to move either a few days before or a few days after the lease starts. Coordinating here with both landlords –- the one in your old building and your new one — can save you a bundle of trouble. Most landlords will hand over the keys to your new apartment a few days before, which also makes it much easier to move as the process can be spread over a few days.

Alternatively — although it is far less convenient — save some real money by moving on “off” times, for instance during the week or in the middle of the month. Weekends and the top and bottom of the month are when movers are in highest demand.

 

2. Take stock

A move is a good opportunity to take a reckoning of your possessions. While you can sell, donate or throw away some of your things –- especially stuff that you never use or don’t realistically plan on using –- this will also allow you to figure out how many boxes you’ll need. Figuring out how many boxes you’ll be moving can help a mover estimate the expected costs of moving. Click this link for a free tool to help you calculate how many boxes you’ll need.

Pro tip: Don’t pack clothes in boxes –- instead, fold them into garbage bags. Also, when sourcing free boxes from stores avoid boxes that contained any food as the smell can easily permeate your stuff.

Sell items that you can do without on Craigslist or eBay, or put up fliers in your building. Just a couple benefits of downsizing are that your move will be less costly and easier.

3. Get connected and stay cool in the summer

Be sure to find out who the cable/Internet provider is in your new building so you can have them get your Wi-Fi and cable going as soon as possible. Also, save yourself from unnecessary suffering when moving in summer by installing A/C before moving day.

4. Consider hiring workers

If you’re transferring any heavy or fragile objects, you should consider hiring professional movers. Risking hurting your back isn’t worth it. Try to budget at least $400 for a smaller move.

Useful info to provide movers includes:

  • Number of rooms;
  • Amount of bigger items;
  • How many boxes;
  • Number of floors in old and new building;
  • If a freight elevator is available.

5.  Gather vital packing supplies

These include:

  • Boxes of varying size — liquor stores and dry goods stores are great sources for these;
  • Trash bags;
  • Large markers for labeling;
  • Cleaning supplies;
  • Box cutters;
  • Packing tape.

6. Have some cash on hand for tipping your workers

While five percent per worker is standard, consider giving a bit more if the service was great.

7. Ask friends for help and smooth things out with beer and pizza

One useful task for a friend is to stand on truck-watch to head off any double-parking tickets. If the fridge is set up, get the beer chilling as soon as possible so everyone can enjoy a cold one -– if that’s your thing — at the end of a hard, but successful, moving day.

How Much You Need to Save Before Moving Out & Into Your Own Apartment

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You’re finally ready to venture out by moving into your own apartment. This can be an exciting and worrisome time because of the costs associated with moving into your own apartment for the first time. There are many expenses to consider when moving out of your family’s home or forgoing roommates. Here are the factors […]