Tips for a First Time Home-mover

Whether you’re moving out of your parents home to rent a place on your own, or you’re moving in with your partner, or maybe even to a new place with your kids, there’s a first time for everything and moving house can be quite stressful if you don’t know where to begin

Platinum Removals wants you to have an easy time at things so we’ve got a short list of tips for you right here to help get things a little bit organized for the big event!

1) Take Stock!
Chances are that if you’re moving for the very first time, you don’t have a lot of things that you can bring over to your new home. The fridge and the pots and crockery and furniture may all need to stay at the old house and that means that there’s a lot of shopping that needs to be done so that your new home will be all ready to be lived in! Take a look and see what you and your other housemates or family members who will be staying with you have in their possession and work upwards from there!

2) Make do with what you have
If you’re okay with hand-me-downs, you can start asking around if friends and family have spare appliances that they are willing to pass to you in the interim while you shop around and slowly build up the items in your home. It’s a good opportunity to scout around and find the right fit for furniture and appliances without having to suffer the inconvenience of not having a piece of equipment available for use.

3) Put a little bit of money aside
This could literally be your first time supporting yourself and your family without the help of others and on top of all the shopping that we mentioned you have to do, you’re going to have to take on the utilities and other costs of maintenance that comes with owning or renting your own place. Of course we hope that things run smoothly when you move in, but it’s always prudent to have a little bit extra stashed away just in case something does happen - like you need to replace some pipes or get a microwave urgently for whatever reason.

4) Start getting Organised!
There was never a better time to get a head start on being orderly and neat then when you have a blank slate to work with! Now that you have the opportunity to get things arranged just the way you want in a place that you can call your own, take every chance to be a bit obsessive about what goes where! Creating a system for yourself in your new home will definitely set the precedent for any future clean up operations at home.

5) Take a well deserved break and Be thankful!
After getting everything settled and moved around, you’ve finally got things in place and there’s a bit of time for you to take a breather. We suggest that you take it. You’ve finally got your own place and if you need something to be thankful for - this is it! It’s a beginning of a whole new life for you and you should take a moment to remember this time when you set out on your own and to congratulate yourself for successfully moving out!

Some Handy Packing tips for the imminent Move

In all the years of people migrating from one place to another, gathering one’s belongings and shifting these precious items from one place to the next, there has never been a set standard for how things should be done. What we’ve found is that there is never a right way to do things, but we often receive inquiries for the best way to go about packing.

We’d like to think that there’s a bit of common sense in packing and we’d just like to highlight some pointers for you if you’re clueless about where to start!

When you’re ready to start putting things aside, our very first piece of advice to you would be to start packing from room by room, starting with the one that you least use the most. Chances are that this will be your storage room, followed by the guest room and then the living room and finally moving towards the bedrooms and kitchen.

Get a variety of sizes of boxes for packing too! Having the right sized box is really important because they can be flimsy! Aim to get double-reinforced boxes when you can so that there is less of a possibility that a box may burst. Check with your moving and removals company what sizes they have and get enough for yourself and your family.

Do try to pack boxes to the brim and have them sealed well to ensure that dust and dirt doesn’t get it. But heavy items, like books and documents should be kept to the smaller boxes so that they do not exceed the capacity of the box. Lighter items like clothing and other linen and cloth items (bedsheets, pillows and comforters) can go into the bigger boxes. And while you may think you may be able to get away with a lot of heavy items in a big box, being conservative in your packing makes it easier for the moving and removals company to carry your packed boxes around and get them loaded up the truck!

When you start out trying to pack, we’d just like to put it out there that it is really important for you to set aside some items that you’ll need up until moving day itself! You don’t want to finish packing to realise that you need something and worse still, that you’ve packed it already and that you’ll now have to go hunting for the item if you need it urgently - if there’s anything worse than packing, it’s unnecessary unpacking!

That being said, do also stand by an “overnight pack” for when you’ve reached your new home. Chances are that by the time the moving and removals company has gotten all your things safely transported, you’re not really going to want to be unpacking just yet. Take a quick breather and relax a bit. And just in case things get delayed, or you’ve chosen one of the later slots for moving, you won’t have to rummage around for your toothbrushes and pajamas and bedsheets so that you can get a bit of a rest before starting on those boxes fresh the next day!

Things to do for a Smooth Move

So everything has been set up, and all that’s left is the move itself! Use our handy moving checklist below to double check if you’ve left anything out to the last minute.

HAVE YOU...

Notified everyone of your new address?
Now we’re not really talking about EVERYBODY like your family and friends. Surely your neighbours will find out when the big trucks come in on moving day itself too, but what about the utilities, credit card and other companies that normally only communicate with us by post? It’s really important to make sure that your mail gets forwarded to your new location as well so that the companies that you’ve left out can be informed in due time too! These include the insurance companies and any other membership subscriptions that you may have. You can arrange a redirection service with your post office or arrange with the new owners when you can come by to pick up any leftover mail that is still being sent to the old address.

Set aside boxes for loading?
In the chaos of moving day, sometimes boxes from different rooms get messed up and confused with boxes from other parts of the house. You may want to colour coordinate some boxes so that their origins are easily recognizeable when they reach your new apartment or house and this will help you to sort things out when you’re about to start unpacking. You can also choose to number them, to make sure that no box gets left behind either! Keep a list of what you have too and that will definitely make the job easier!

Aside from that, do think about gathering the house keys and door keys in one place as well so that everything will be ready for handover when you leave.

Double confirmed details with you moving and removals company?
Most moving and removals companies should be pretty on the ball when it comes to getting their job done, but it doesn’t hurt for a bit of a confirmation the day before moving day just to ensure that everything has been settled. This includes making sure that pick up times have been finalised and that addresses are clearly noted. You may want to ask about the route that the moving company is intending to take and whether you will be following their truck or their truck will be following you. And at the same time to ensure that the necessary equipment like tools for disassembling furniture and dollies and protective padding is all taken care of.

Packed for your first night in your new home?
Once everything is ready for the move, you’ll want to make sure that you have some things left out and in an easily accessible place for the first few moments when you reach your new apartment or home. In the hustle and bustle of the move, you may even be too tired to start unpacking straight away and a good idea is to have some essentials like bathing toiletries and a spare change of clothes packed in an overnight bag. You may also want to think about what you might do for dinner on the first night that you’ve moved in too!