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I have seen this article over the weekend and found it to be very practical and decided that on this blog it will be a great stage to share with others. So read for yourself... :)
1. Pack an overnight bag containing all the essentials. You might be too tired to start unpacking so some extra clothes and toiletries will be great. 2. Pack the items you will need first in a clear plastic bin. 3. Wrap your breakables such as dishes, glasses, etc. in clothing to save on bubble wrap and non printed newspaper. 4. For extra padding, pack your glasses and stemware in clean socks. 5. In addition to labeling what's in your boxes, add what room they'll be going into, as well. Unpacking by rooms seems more manageable and label boxes on their sides too. 6. If you can, show up to your new home before the move and pre-clean the bathroom and kitchen. 7. Place an extra cotton pad or ball into your powder cosmetics to keep them from breaking. Great tip for traveling in general. 8. Cover the openings of your toiletries with saran wrap, then put the tops back on. 9. If you choose to pack breakables yourself, then pack plates vertically, like records. They'll be less likely to break. 10. Keep drawers intact as well as jewelry displays by covering / wrapping them with Press'n Seal. 11. Keep sandwich bags handy for holding any small parts of things you have to take apart, like curtain rods or mounted flat-screen TV's as well as other furniture hardware. 12. Buy a roll of stretch wrap that will serve like Press'n Seal but for larger size items or on packed / padded furniture. 13. Beer boxes are the best for books because they have handles on the sides. 14. Take a photo of how your electronics are connected so you can remember how and where all the wires go. 15. Cut down on boxes by making all your baskets, laundry bins, hampers and suitcases work for you. 16. The fastest way to pack a closet - cover it up from the bottom with a large plastic bag. 17. Vacuum Seal your out-of-season clothing, so they take less space and can go directly into storage at your new place. 18. Along with food and beverages, give your friends who help you organize for your move first dibs on anything you originally planned to sell or donate. 19. Do your best to be ready and packed at least with all the non breakables prior to the arrival of the moving company. Some things are just better to be packed by yourself. 20. Enlist a color-coding system. Pick specific color for each room and place that color sticker at the new home specific room for easy placing by the movers. 21. It doesn't hurt to number your boxes. You will control all your inventory and know what's inside each box by having a list and not writing any descriptions on the boxes. 22. Hire the right mover. V-View is your little big helper here!! 23. It is recommended to obtain insurance coverage especially on larger scale moves. Please note however that the moving company will want to professionally pack the goods. 24. Book your relocation weeks in advance. Especially during the busiest season, you're not the only person trying to get out of their home at the end of the month. 25. When hiring movers, be sure to read the fine print and find out if they have any weird rules such as moving only boxed items, etc. 26. If you're renting, take photos of your cleaned-out old home and your new home before moving in. It will help you protect your security deposit in the future move out. 27. Fill the nail holes in your previous home with a bar of soap. 28. If you're relocating Interstate or Internationally, always think where it will be more convenient to be without your goods and plan the goods shipment timing accordingly. 29. Change your address at least two weeks prior to moving. Remember your bank statements, credit cards, magazine subscriptions, etc. and not only the utility bills. 30. If you own items that you want to get rid of but are too valuable to just give away, start selling on eBay, Craigslist and others at least 6 weeks before moving. 31. Arrange for a charity organization to come pick up the items you don't want at least a week or two before moving. 32. Make your last grocery trip two weeks prior to moving. 33. For same-city moves. hire a sitter for the children and pets. 34. Remember to defrost your refrigerator at least a day before moving and wipe up any liquid. Information partially obtained from BuzzFeed. Folks, if you got to this line, I trust you obtained some nice tips. As we all know, prior to getting to tip no. 1 and preparing for the move itself, it is so so important to choose the right mover, the right relocation company for you. Avoiding surprises as mentioned above with some of the tips, starts by receiving a good, detailed and very clear survey. Once a solid survey is at your hands, it will be a great tool for your to shop and negotiate the best price for you, have fair and reasonable comparisons done and avoid disappointment and extra stress. V-View surveyors are here for you, are the ones to enlighten your path from the early stages of thinking about moving and help you keep the lights on throughout the relocation process. Good Luck!! :-)
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We are often asked what V-View actually is. Well, V-View is a service that provides relocation surveys (moving estimates) to clients planning to move, locally within the same area, or to another state or country.
These relocation surveys are done via a video meeting between one of our surveyors and the client. This method allows the client to go through the surveying process one time, via video meeting, rather than with multiple surveyors from different relocation companies visiting their home. The client will use their smartphone or tablet camera to show our surveyor the items inside their home. The surveyor on the other side of the video meeting will document what is being shown to them, into a detailed and clear survey report. We offer a neutral and accurate observation of client's home, no matter the size, and present it to the client in the clearest and simplest way possible, which will help them easily understand the resulting information. By understanding the basics of an estimate - volume and weight of the items they want to move, it will help the client negotiate and receive the best relocation quote for them, from a variety of relocation companies whom they will contact. Why bother yourself meeting with a few to many surveyors, showing them the same items again and again and then trying to figure out each survey and surveyor, who as salesmen have one interest and one interest only - "booking the job." Be in control of your relocation budget and save money. Compare relocation quotes as true "apples to apples" and choose the right quote for you. By preparing yourself ahead of time and working smartly, you will find yourself saving significant amounts of money by indeed choosing the right company and the right binding quotation. In many cases, an educated consumer may save from a few hundreds of dollars on a local relocation to a thousand dollars and much more on interstate and international relocations. You can find additional information on our FAQ's page. We see ourselves as true pioneers in providing 3rd party neutral relocation surveys and especially by doing it virtually. We do understand it is a subject that might inquire some more questions or clarifications from clients. We encourage each and everyone who has any questions to contact us directly at info@v-view.net  From deciding on your relocation to another street, neighborhood, town, county or state, to the time that you and your family are all settled in at your new home, is a very long and at times stressful process. From finding a job, listing a house on the market for sale, to getting familiar with the new driving area and schools and so much more, your hands are full and so is your head!
Relocation is only a piece in this puzzle, occasionally minor but mostly a fair and significant part. We know it and give ourselves a mission to do the most possible to ease the stress in this step, in order to basically give you a Peace of Mind. Having a survey completed prior to a move is extremely important and we are very serious about it! Having it done accurately is key, and having it done as a neutral service can be priceless or at least a money saver. Ease on yourself by receiving one neutral, accurate and professional survey, done virtually by a surveyor of ours, and that's it. After, just provide the survey to a variety of companies and have them send you a relocation proposal (a binding one) based on the survey report you sent them. This is much simpler, time saving and an "apples to apples" type of comparison, which will help you choose the best option for you and keep you as much as possible at a Peace of Mind :) Earlier in the week, a friend told me about a situation he had witnessed with a colleague of his, which truly bothered me and I decided I have to share it in here, obviously.
That individual was relocating abroad to Europe, specifically the UK if I recall correctly. Living in a suburb of Philly, he found himself contacting several International Relocation companies from the NY metro region, about 100 miles from his residence. Due to distance, and possibly busy schedules, on both sides, no formal survey was conducted at his residence. Rather than having a physical survey, he had a phone call and submitted a list via e-mail which he was told would be enough. Later, when communicating with other companies, he advised information based on what was discussed previously with the first company. After receiving several quotes, he chose the company he felt most comfortable with, not even the cheapest one. Packing day arrived, which then became two days, just for the final packed and picked up shipment to reach just over 45% more than the initial survey - the phone call and e-mail that he sent the company. Well folks, this is not a surprising scenario, at least not to me and to my colleagues at V-View. If you are reading this article, then I am sure you will not be going through scenarios like this, and you won’t have to deal with huge amounts of extra money paid for a shipment, just because of the initial lack of communication and true understanding of a client's real shipment size. Having a survey done on time can indeed be crucial for the success of a move and for keeping yourself within a planned budget. During times when we are all so busy, having a virtual survey (which is a neutral and accurate consultation and guide) completed, is truly priceless in terms of avoiding aggravation later on. It is also your safest way to keep within your budget. At times when we are all very hectic, simply receiving one neutral virtual survey will also release you from numerous meetings in which you would be showing surveyors the same home contents again and again. This will allow you to widely shop for quotes from more relocation companies without the need for more physical surveys. I have been involved in the Relocation Industry for many years: Local, Interstate and especially in the International Relocation Market. I have mainly handled relocation projects in the household goods and personal effects field.
In many cases, especially while working on remote projects, there was a need for surveying homes with the assistance of other relocation companies - other relocation surveyors. Sometimes, the connection to other relocation companies around the country or world would be great and extremely accommodating. However, many times I had been faced with expensive surcharges for remote relocation companies to provide services for me, along with giving a relocation survey to a potential client. In some cases, there was simply no cooperation. These cases were very frustrating to me personally, as well as to the innocent clients who had done nothing wrong, except of residing in a remote location. Absolutely not fair! A couple of years ago, truly by chance, I had been introduced to a friend in my community who at the time launched his company, which is a pioneer in the web conference industry, and he developed a new technology that has become a leader in the market. It didn't take much time after that for the idea to ‘click,’ and it was to start providing remote surveys to clients basically everywhere - across the street or across the globe. Video conferences or online meetings would exactly be the solution to clients who want to get a true view of their home by a professional surveyor, but are either too far away from the surveyor or have other problems getting a relocation survey completed. Waiting for the capabilities of technology to match up perfectly to the idea took some time, but now we are at the point that mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, are completely ready to do the job! There is no need for neither notebook nor netbook computers to accomplish this job anymore. A smartphone or tablet will more then suffice. As a veteran in the Relocation Industry, I was exposed to harsh competition from many surrounding companies along with incorrect or confusing information given to innocent clients, who believed what they were being told. As an observer from the Industry, I was given chills after hearing some of the misleading information clients had been recommended. The process of obtaining a relocation company and receiving true and legitimate facts about the relocation and shipment being handled has become very tiring and at many times very frustrating. Having this idea drove me to develop what has become a 3rd Party and Neutral way of conducting Relocation Surveys - and all of this Virtually! First of all, the goal is to help the client obtain real information from a non-relocation company perspective and personal interest. The second goal is to get rid of the need for multiple physical relocation surveys from a number of companies, and to try and find the best deal possible along with the company that makes the most sense. Now with V-View, clients can receive a Relocation Survey completed Virtually, and at the client’s convenience. The client will then receive a detailed report of the survey, and this report will be submitted to a number of relocation companies in order to obtain an accurate rate quotation which is less energy consuming and super efficient! |
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