How to Handle Moving in Chicago When You're Sick

Making a plan to move never involves getting sick, but it does happen. You can set dates for moving, but you can't exactly set dates for when you will get sick. If you've become sick and you need to move, there are some things you should know. If possible, postpone or cancel the move until you're feeling better. However, this isn't always possible and sometimes you have to move regardless of your health. This isn't the time to freak out. Here are some tips to help you with an emergency move when you're sick.

Hiring a Last Minute Moving Company

Maybe you planned on handling the move yourself and you already have everything, or most of everything packed up. It may be a better decision to hire a last minute moving company at this point. They will come take all of your items from your old location to your new location and all you will have to do is be there.

With a trusted emergency moving company, you won't have anything to worry about. You can get moved into your new location without overexerting yourself and making the illness worse.

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Keep the Fluids Flowing

Even though you won't have to do any heavy lifting after hiring a moving company last minute, you still need to be there. Make sure you're drinking plenty of water to help get the toxins out of your system and keep you hydrated. This can help you get through the process a bit easier. Other fluids, such as chicken broth, tea and juice can also help. However, avoid anything with caffeine in it as this can interrupt the sleep you desperately need.

Have Someone Stand in For You

If you're too ill to even be there when they move your things, you can have a proxy stand in. You will still need to sign the paperwork and make sure the moving company you hired will allow you to have a proxy when you're sick. However, your proxy can handle everything else necessary so that you can get your rest and you won't have to worry about the move.

Get a Hotel Room for the Day

While your proxy is handling the move, you should be resting. However, this isn't really possible if your bed is going from your old home to your new home on a truck. It's not like the movers will be able to pick the bed up with you in it and let you sleep in the back of the moving truck.

Instead of being a part of all the commotion, rent a hotel room for the day and get some sleep. Your proxy can handle everything necessary for the move and you can get the rest you need in the comfort of a hotel room until the move it over with or you're feeling better.

Moving while you’re sick isn't fun, but there are steps you can take to make it less stressful. Some moving companies in Chicago offer emergency moving services and will help you even if you don't hire them until the last minute. Hiring a professional moving company will help take the stress off of you, while you’re sick and it's the best option to make sure the move goes smoothly without making you feel worse.

Here's a photo our friends at Paws Chicago shared with us to make you feel better -

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Common Mistakes Made When Moving Furniture

Furniture is often heavy, bulky and hard to move. When you try to move yourself, it can be the hardest part of the process. Not only do you need a truck to transport it, but you also need enough manpower to get it into the truck from where it currently resides. It's much easier to hire furniture movers if you want to make sure your items are moved without damage. However, you should still be aware of some of the mistakes commonly made when moving furniture.

Mistake #1 - Assuming Professional Movers are Too Expensive

When you simply assume a professional moving company is too expensive, you never give yourself a chance to look at the entire picture. Yes, it's more costly than doing it yourself, but they are also professionals. Spending a little bit of money may save you time, headaches and other issues, such as figuring out how to move your large pieces of furniture, even if they only need to go down the street.

The easiest way to keep your furniture from becoming damaged is to hire professionals to move it for you. Don't make the mistake of writing this option off just because you assume hiring movers is too expensive. Take the time to gather all the information and get a quote from a local furniture mover before you finalize your decision.

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Mistake #2 - I Won't Get Injured When Moving Furniture

Many people seem to think they are immune to moving-related accidents. If you try to move furniture yourself, it could become rather dangerous. Professionals do it for a living and they have been trained in safety for all types of furniture. Without this training, you may end up dealing with a personal injury from moving a large item.

You want to make sure the walking path is free of any obstacles, you have the right equipment, you know the right way to lift and you wear both gloves and proper shoes. If you don't do these things, you may be putting yourself in danger when moving furniture.

Mistake #3 - Getting and Driving a Truck is No Big Deal

If you've never rented a moving truck before, it may not be a good idea to take on this task. You will likely need a truck for moving furniture, which means you have to know how to pack it and drive it. Many make the mistake of getting a truck without enough space or getting one that is too large. Too small of a truck could lead to improper packing, while too large of a truck may be difficult to drive.

Make sure you get the right size truck before you start moving. Usually a 10 to 12 foot truck works for small apartments, while a 14 to 17 foot truck will work for a one to two bedroom home or small office. If you're moving a house, you will need a 20 to 26 foot truck or multiple trucks.

Mistake #4 - My Friends can Help with the Furniture

A huge mistake you could easily make is assuming your friends can help you with moving heavy furniture. It's a costly error in judgment as they may not show up or they may not have any idea how to help you. Without the right help, you could get injured or they could get injured.

The worst thing that can happen is you assume they will help you, but they don't show up. Sometimes, your friends can't get the time off of work or they come up with an excuse because nobody really likes to help with a move. When you hire professionals, this isn't an issue. They will show up on time, ready to work for you.

Moving furniture isn't an easy thing to do. You need the right equipment, a truck and enough manpower to move it from one place to another. Instead of risking it, hire a professional to help you move the larger items, if not everything you own.

Tips for Preparing Your Employees for an Office Move

When you move an office, it takes more than just packing up a few boxes and transporting them to a new location. It's a huge change for everybody involved. Employees go through the change just as much as the business and the owner. It may change the commute time, the space they have to work with and may cause some employees to fall behind on work during the move. As the owner of the business, it's up to you to prepare your employees and keep them comfortable during the move.

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Where Should You Start?

Whenever you need to move your office, you want to start with scheduling everything the move involves. From packing to transporting to unpacking, you want to schedule everything about the move to ensure everybody is on the same page with your office move. Make sure to pay close attention to any shipments needing to be forwarded and any new services you need to set up, such as internet, phones, utilities, etc.

By creating a schedule of events for the move, it's easy to assign tasks and take some of the stress out of the situation. Employees will know what to expect and when it will be happens, so there will be no surprises.

Your Communication Plan

After you get a schedule put together, you need to create a plan for communications. This should include communicating with employees, movers, suppliers, clients, etc. The best way to start your communication plan is to let everybody know what is going on. Hold a meeting, sent of a memo or do whatever else you need to do in order to communication the need for the move to your employees and anybody else involved.

The point of the communication plan is to eliminate situations, such as an employee coming to work and finding out the microwave has been packed and sent to the new location. This could cause them not to be able to heat up their lunch and could be a huge stress. Keeping everybody on the same page will eliminate these types of situations.

Show Excitement for the Move

As the business owner, you should show plenty of excitement about the move. Whether you're moving into a larger space or a better location, it should be a positive, exciting thing. This will go a long way to set the mood with your employees. When you show excitement, they are more likely to get on board and become excited, too.

Hire a Professional Moving Company

Nobody enjoys packing, moving and unpacking. If you expect your employees to be in charge of the move, they may not be very happy about it. This could add additional pressure and stress to their workday. Instead, hire a professional to pack, move and unpack all your things. This will help things go smoothly and it's one less thing employees have to worry about.

It's very stressful to move from one office location to another. Some stresses cannot be avoided, but they can be minimized. Use these tips to help keep your employees happy and stress-free while moving.

6 Easy Meals for Students During a Move

Moving is a hassle and even when you hire movers, all of the things going along with moving take up time. As a student, you may just want to grab fast food, but when you’re moving, that may also require a trip outside of your apartment. Student moving isn’t always so easy and hunger sets in right in the middle of packing or preparing something else. Of course, if you have movers come and pack for you, this becomes much easier. However, if you’re packing everything for the movers, you may need some quick and easy meals to make. Here are six great meal choices students can easily throw together and have ready when they get hungry during a move.

Chili

Chili is an easy meal to make in one spot on the stovetop or in a crockpot. The best thing is you can choose whichever recipe you want, throw all the ingredients in the crockpot and just let it cook. Then, it's ready for you whenever you're ready for it.

Stews and Soups

Of course, stews and soups fit with the same type of cooking process as chili. You can simply create the recipe in your crockpot or a pot on the stove and you can just let it cook all day. In fact, the longer you let a soup cook, the better the flavor usually is and you can even keep the leftovers for another day.

Grill Meals

If you have a charcoal grill, gas grill or even an electric skillet, pack it up last. This will allow you to create meals on the grill without much issue. You can easily grill up meats or vegetables and make a great meal without having to worry about using pots or pans, which you may already have packed up.

Stir Fry

The best part about cooking a stir fry when you're moving is the fact that you can use just about any ingredient in your fridge. If you have fresh or frozen vegetables, throw them in with a sauce and some type of meat and you're all set. It's best served over rice, which can be cooked very fast in the microwave making this a very healthy and fast meal for moving.

Sandwiches

A very easy solution to meal time when moving is sandwiches. You can use cold deli meats to make sandwiches or you can make pulled pork, sloppy joe or pulled chicken in your crockpot. If you go the route of the hot sandwich in the crockpot, it can sit in the crock pot all day on low and you can eat whenever you're ready.

Sometimes, students have sandwich presses or grill appliances that work great for making a hot sandwich. If this is the case, keep it out and you can use it to make hot sandwiches with meat, cheese, veggies and more.

Pizza

Of course, the tried and true for moving day and days leading up to moving is ordering a pizza. If you want to be a bit more adventurous and have some fun with it, you can make your own and it can even be done on the grill. Just do an internet search for "grilling pizza" and you will find all kinds of great recipes.

There are several easy and healthy things you can make during the weeks leading up to moving and even the day of the move. Crockpot meals are excellent because they can stay warm all day and your family can eat when you're hungry instead of having to stop and prepare a meal. Even if you have movers coming your way, you will need to eat. Use these meals to make your moving day food needs easier.

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(Image courtesy of the Chicago Tribune)

Tips for Packing Wine and Wine Glasses

Packing specific items correctly or incorrectly is the difference between unpacking boxes of broken glass or actually item intact, in their proper condition. One of the types of items many struggle to properly pack is wine glasses and wine bottles. Here are some expert tips you can use to properly pack your wine glasses and bottles for moving.

Cell Boxes Work Great for Wine Bottles

Wine bottles are usually shipped from distributors in what is known as a cell box. This type of box provides a divider set up to fit one wine bottle in each cell. Moving companies often sell these boxes to make it easier for you to pack specific items.

You can use cell boxes for wine bottles, liquor bottles and even your stemware. When the movers hit a bump and the box shifts, the cell divider helps protect your items from breaking.

Packing without Cell Boxes

While cell boxes are the best solution and available from your moving company, if you waited until the last minute, these may not be available. If this is the case, you can try calling your moving company and having them come take over the packing. However, if this isn't an option, you need a way to pack your wine bottles and glasses without a cell box.

Start by wrapping your wine glasses in a brown paper bag, if you don't have any tissue paper handy. Then, you need to create your own "cells" inside a box to keep the bottles and glasses from rattling. Styrofoam plates work great for creating your own cells. Just make sure you cushion the bottom of the box, as well. You can even use a sweatshirt to cushion the box, in a pinch.

Use Paper to Wrap Your Wine Glasses

Crystal wine glasses need to be wrapped in paper, but not newspaper. When you wrap them in newspaper the ink from the paper will transfer to the glass and you will have to scrub them to get them clean. They may survive the move, but end up broken from all the scrubbing.

Instead of using newspaper, choose white tissue paper for wrapping your wine glasses. You want to use a separate sheet for each glass. Start the glass at an angle on one of the corners and roll it up. Then, you can simply fold the ends and you have a well wrapped wine glass ready to be packed.

Bubble Wrap Protects Well, but Be Careful

Bubble wrap is the go-to for protecting fragile items. If you plan to use it with wine glasses, make sure you never wrap them direction in bubble wrap. It should go above the tissue paper to allow you to tape the bubble wrap to the paper and not the glass. You don't want to end up damaging your nice wine glasses when you pull tape off of them.

Temperature Sensitive Packing for Wine Bottles

If your wine bottles get too hot or too cold, you may ruin the wine. If you plan ahead, you can order special wine shipping containers through your moving company. However, if you didn't plan ahead, you will want to use a cell box for your wine and have the bottles travel with you so that you can control the temperature in your own vehicle. Let the movers handle everything else, but take your wine bottles with you, if possible.

Along with keeping the wine from getting too hot or too cold, the position of your bottles matters. Some red wines will need to be packed upside down to keep the cork wet and the sediment from settling. You should also avoid opening a bottle of wine immediately after moving. It needs at least seven days to adjust as it has been shocked.

Label "Fragile" on the Boxes

You want to make sure the movers treat your wine bottles and glasses with care. Label the outside of each box with "Fragile" stickers to ensure they understand it's necessary to treat those boxes with extra care.

Use these tips to better pack your wine bottles and glasses for moving. If you're unsure or you just want to make sure everything arrives safely, hire a professional moving company to pack your items, move them and unpack for you.

Chicago Moving Specialists