How to best be helpful to your professional movers

You’ve hired a moving crew with a great reputation and a great deal of experience in moving household goods. Now it’s time for your upcoming move and you want to be sure everything goes as well for you as it has for other moves. What can you do on your part to help ensure the move is a great one?

While your movers will be doing the heavy lifting and the stuff that isn’t so fun, you can do some things in preparation for the move to make sure they can do their job more efficiently. Start emptying out dresser drawers and getting some labels ready, along with these other tips, so that you can be extra helpful to your movers while they do their best to take care of you too.

Get beverages for the crew

One easy place to start is to have cold beverages ready for the team on moving day. Your movers are going to work hard and they are going to work up a sweat. Offering refreshments to your crew and anyone else you have helping you out will show appreciation for the hard work and keep everyone feeling good for the duration of the project. Having snacks like fruit and granola bars is also a great way to keep everyone fueled for the hard work taking place.

Make labels for the right rooms

If you are the one doing the packing, make sure to have everything packed and ready to go for moving day. Have a space set aside for anything you don’t want them to touch, such as an extra bedroom that they won’t go in.

If you have a packing crew, make sure to start making labels ahead of time for things like “kitchen,” “dishes,” “kid’s toys,” so that you can slap those on the boxes quickly and efficiently. If you are packing yourself, make sure everything is labeled with the items and rooms they go in before the movers arrive.

Empty desks and drawers

The movers aren’t going to move your dresser, desks, and armoires with stuff full in the drawers. Instead, you should empty them out ahead of time to ensure the furniture can be moved and nothing is damaged. Emptying any cabinets, desks, and other furniture and packing them into boxes with everything else will allow your movers to focus on the piece of furniture and the best protection for it without extra weight inside.

Disconnect electronics and appliances

One thing you may not have thought to do is to disconnect anything plugged into the wall. This means that you’ll want to unplug lamps, TVs, DVD players, hairdryers, air fresheners, and more. Have everything unplugged and wiped free of dust so that it’s easy and fast for the movers. Otherwise, you may be paying for extra time while your movers attempt to figure out how to detangle them.

Take everything off the walls

Your walls are full of art, photographs, shelves, mirrors, and more. This is the time to start taking everything down. Your movers can appropriately pack these fragile items in the right boxes, but having them down off the wall ahead of time will make it much more efficient. Anything on the wall can be taken down and set on the floor below where it was hanging including paintings, mirrors, clocks, and pictures. Then put all of the hanging hardware and nails in a bag for your new home.

Pack valuable items in your car

Another tip to help your movers is to put anything small, fragile, or very important in your own car. While it’s not required, your professional movers will appreciate not being responsible for your family heirlooms, jewelry, or small electronics. Then you can keep some of these extremely valuable items with you the whole day.

The most important thing to do to help your professional movers is to let them do what they do best. Taking steps to make the day smoother ahead of time will be appreciated, but trusting them to handle your goods with care is the best thing you can do.

How to properly label your moving boxes

When it's time to move, you want to make sure your move is a success. Part of a good move is organization, which includes labeling your moving boxes. There are ways to label your boxes that will make it much easier when you arrive at your new place.

Before you get out the markers and start writing all over your boxes, it's important to have a plan. Here are some tips to help you properly label your moving boxes.

Top 5 Tips for Labeling Your Moving Boxes

1. Get All the Right Supplies

The first thing you need to do is gather your supplies. You want reliable markers that are permanent, waterproof, and come in multiple colors. You might also want to get actual labels for the boxes, but this is optional. It's possible to write directly on the boxes you are moving.

2. Use a Color-Coded System

The reason you want multiple colors for your markers is so you can use a color-coded system. Of course, if you're just moving a studio apartment, this might not be necessary. However, when you have multiple areas in your home, assigning a color for each area can make unpacking easier.

For example, you might assign the color red for your kitchen boxes. This means when you arrive at your new home, every box with red writing can go directly to the kitchen and you don't even have to read the writing. Using a color-coded system will likely save you time when it comes to unpacking.

3. Don't Wait to Label

Make sure you label your moving boxes as you are packing. It's too easy to forget what you packed and once you seal the box with tape, you don't want to open it back up. As you pack up things, just label each box with the proper color and you will be in better shape.

4. Label in Multiple Places

If you are using packing labels, you can place them on the top of each box and on two sides of the box. When you're writing directly on the box, you might have to write in specific areas, but you always want to place your labels in multiple places. This will make it easier to see the label when boxes are stacked.

5. Write Out the Items in Important Boxes

While you don't need to write out every single item in the box, it's good to include general categories, such as silverware, cooking utensils, frying pans, etc. You should also make sure you are specific when it's very important items or items you might need very soon after you move.

It's common for people to take their time unpacking in a new place. If you label your moving boxes properly, you will be able to find the most important items fast, even if you're not all the way unpacked yet.

Use these tips to properly label your moving boxes for your next local move in Chicago.

How do moving companies safely move furniture in the rain?

Have you ever wondered what happens when you plan for a moving day, with everything that is involved in it (here’s a moving day checklist!), just to find out it’s going to be raining that day? It’s not like you can move the date when you’ve already made the arrangements with the schools, the office, your utility companies, and your moving crew.

The fact is that sometimes rainy days happen and the show must go on. That is why it’s important to be prepared ahead of time that in the event of rain, moving companies know how to safely move your furniture regardless. Take a look at what you can count on from the moving company when it comes to inclement weather.

Pack extra well

The good news is that you can move on a rainy moving day but you will have to be prepared for some additional steps in the process. You’ll need to not only ensure that all items are sealed in their containers, but you’ll have to be carefully prep both the home you are leaving and the home you are moving into in order to avoid accidents. The first step is to make sure everything is packed extra well.

For wood furniture, you can use heavy furniture blankets to protect it from getting wet. If you have large artwork, you’ll want to wrap it in plenty of plastic wrapping to avoid moisture getting to it. If you have bulky items that aren’t going into a container, make sure you cover them in a large trash bag to avoid rain getting to them.

Your local moving company should have everything from plastic covers to mattress pads for you to rent for the process. Everything going into cardboard boxes should be sealed well with packing tape and checked for any possible openings where rain could get access. You may want to avoid having anything outside of containers in order to avoid any possibility of the items getting rained on.

Prepping the moving space

The home you are moving out of was probably going to need some protection to avoid any issues on moving day, such as coverings on the edges where the walls meet in order to avoid damage or a room where the pets can stay in order to stay out of the way of the movers. When it comes to a rainy moving day, you’ll have to also consider how to avoid slip and falls, as well as tracking in mud and water.

The first step would be to line your entryway and porch with towels to help with tracking in water or mud since everyone would step on that before entering the house. Next, make sure everyone is in all-weather shoes or boots to avoid slips while carrying boxes. Lastly, have the movers show you that the moving truck has no leaks so that if small leaks are causing water dripping through, you can duct tape them to ensure your belongings will not be affected.

Your new home will need some attention to. Make sure to lay down rugs or towels in front of the front door to avoid tracking in anything that might cause a slip. Your utilities should be set up in advance which means that you’ll be able to warm up or cool off the space during the moving process.

They’ll work in an assembly line

Lastly, your moving team will likely work in an assembly line on a rainy day to help things get done a bit faster during this rainy day, as well as to help protect your floors. One person will stand on the inside and another will stay on the outside, avoiding any shoes tracking in through the house. This can also work well for moving into the new house so that moisture and mud can stay outside the home.