Tips for Planning for Local Moving in Deerfield Beach

Almost everyone needs to move eventually. Whether you’re moving to a larger home to accommodate your growing family, or you’re an empty nester ready to downsize and reduce your expenses, there are plenty of good reasons to consider moving locally in Deerfield Beach. These useful tips from professional local movers can help you keep your move as unstressful and easy as possible for yourself and your family. Even short-distance local moving can get out of hand if you’re not fully prepared before moving day.

Plan Your Move Ahead of Time

We can’t stress this enough: you need to start planning your move well ahead of time. This includes packing your belongings, hiring a moving company, and other things you’ll need to take care of before you move into your new home. Local moving is much easier to handle if you space everything out over a few months, rather than doing everything at once. We recommend starting about two months in advance for local residential moving, and longer for interstate moving or for moving your business.

Here’s a basic month-by-month checklist that you can use to plan your upcoming move in Deerfield Beach.

Eight Weeks Ahead

A couple of months before you move, assuming you’ve found a new place to live already, it’s a good time to start researching local movers and packing some of your less essential items.

Get rid of stuff you don’t want to keep. If you don’t use something regularly, go ahead and sell it, give it away, or donate it to a charity. High value items, like art pieces or antique furniture, can be sold through a local auction house. Other furniture, clothing that’s in particularly good condition, or retro children’s toys can be sold though Ebay or Craigslist. Anything else can be offloaded at a yard sale, or just donated to a thrift store.

Research local movers in the Deerfield Beach area. Start looking for local moving companies. It’s a good idea to ask for recommendations from people you know. It’s not uncommon for moving brokers — companies that basically “sell” your move to the highest bidders, and aren’t movers themselves — to game the search results and mislead people into thinking they’re local. If you’re not sure about a company, look them up on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s website, and check the Better Business Bureau and other impartial third party review sites.

Six Weeks Ahead

Now that your move is growing closer, it’s time to actually start packing things.

Get moving supplies. You’ll need boxes, packing tape, bubble wrap, and specialty containers like dish boxes and wardrobe boxes. You may be able to get some of these for free through Craigslist.

Stop buying perishables, and use up what you have. Moving a freezer full of ice cream at the last minute is not a fun experience. Start using up the frozen foods and refrigerated foods that you already have, and don’t buy anything frozen that you don’t expect to use within a month.

Four Weeks Ahead

Choose a moving company. Get non-binding estimates, which are almost always free of charge, from more than one moving company, and then make a decision based on pricing and the company’s availability. You’ll need to make arrangements about a month in advance, because movers’ schedules are usually booked. After getting an estimate in writing, which should be itemized, the movers will also give you other mandatory materials like informational brochures and arbitration program information.

Start packing, if you haven’t already. If you haven’t started packing within the last couple of weeks, now is the time to start. You can pack things you don’t use first, like old books, fine china, and out of season clothing. The things you really need can be packed last.

File a change of address with the post office. You can do this in person or online. You may also want to notify your bank, your employer, and others who need to know about your new address.

The Day of Your Move

Meet the movers and verify everything. Make sure the truck that shows up is actually from the company you hired, and that the USDOT number matches the number on the paperwork the company gave you with your estimate.

Take inventory of what you have. To make sure nothing goes missing, take a final personal inventory of what you’re having moved. You will also sign an inventory list and bill of lading provided by the local movers. Keep a copy of this for your records.

Local Movers in Deerfield Beach

Looking for a great local moving company in Deerfield Beach? At Orange Movers, we provide both local and interstate moving services in Deerfield Beach and the greater Miami area. To schedule an estimate, call us any time.