How To Protect & Prepare Your Home For A Move
Moving houses can be stressful if you’re not organized. Not only can you lose your belongings, but you must keep your home in good condition for the homebuyers. That means being careful of dings in walls from accidentally bumping into them and protecting your stuff inside and outside the moving truck. Every task involved in the moving process requires your attention, from packing to unpacking and everything in between.
Here’s How You Can Protect And Prepare Your Home For A Move:
Vet Tenants
If you’re renting your home, always vet new tenants by running a background check and checking their references to ensure you can trust the people in your home. Also, since damages cost thousands of dollars, you want to ensure all tenants will be respectful of the house and the neighbors. If you’re selling your home, you don’t need to worry about this since you will no longer own the home.
Hire Professionals
When moving, you must ensure your items are safe and protected. Professional movers can help your belongings get from point A to point B without significant damage. They know how to secure your items in the truck and properly carry heavy items to avoid dinging walls and doors and prevent damage to your stuff. Unfortunately, not all moving companies are reliable, so you must ensure your movers are properly insured, and your broken belongings can be fixed or replaced easily.
Once you find a reliable moving company, you should book an appointment as soon as possible. The earlier you book your moving appointment, the cheaper it will be, and the more time you’ll have to plan and pack for your move.
Protect The Floor
Protecting your floor during a move is crucial. With people in and out of the house and furniture sliding across the floor, there are more opportunities for damage during a move. When you hire professionals, they can protect your floor to prevent slipping and use blankets to protect it from damage.
If you’re moving, consider covering the floor before moving your belongings, or get help for heavy furniture so you won’t have to drag it across the floor.
Dismantle Large Furniture
Moving large, heavy furniture is difficult, especially when you’re moving. In addition, large furniture increases the chances of dings on the walls and potential injury. Instead of making moving more difficult, you can dismantle your furniture to make the pieces smaller and more manageable.
For example, while your mattress is fairly easy to move and can be dragged across your floor without damaging it, your bed frame may be difficult. Bed frames are one of the most complicated things to move because you have to maneuver them just to get them out the door. Therefore, dismantling these large pieces of furniture can make the move easier and protect floors and walls from potential damage.
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Pad And Wrap Furniture
Since you won’t be able to dismantle all your furniture, you can still protect your home by padding and wrapping it. This way, if you do have to drag something across the floor, it will slide easier, and the floor will be protected. In addition, padding your furniture protects the walls, ceilings, and floors from damage.
Remove The Doors
Removing the doors can make your move much easier because you won’t have to worry about opening and closing them or knocking furniture against them. Removing the doors also makes it easier when you’re moving boxes, appliances, and large furniture. If you’re not comfortable temporarily removing your doors, you can ask the movers to do it.
Declutter
Decluttering the home allows you to purge any unwanted items to reduce how much you have to move while giving you more space to maneuver around the home when packing up a moving truck. Clean out your closets, storage spaces, cabinets, and closets to make more room before you start packing. Decluttering beforehand can also help you feel more motivated to pack since you won’t have as much work to do.
Use Cardboard
If you want to protect your floors but don’t want to pad every piece of furniture in your home, consider using cardboard instead. Cardboard can be used to create a temporary path to prevent scratches and dirt on your flooring. You can also use cardboard on walls to protect them from scuffs and scrapes on the paint.
Get Moving Insurance
You had homeowner insurance when you owned the home and renter’s insurance when renting, but you should also consider insurance when moving. Moving insurance keeps you covered if your possessions are lost or damaged during a move. If you hire professional movers, they’re responsible for your belongings. However, when moving to a different state, moving companies must offer two types of insurance that determine your reimbursement for lost or damaged items.
The types of insurance you can get include full value protection, released value protection, and separate liability coverage. With full value protection, your movers are liable for the replacement of your lost or damaged items, while with released value protection, you’ll receive minimal protection in which you receive only 60 cents per pound of an item. Therefore, if your movers break your expensive desktop, you may only receive $5 or less for it.
In addition, you may have the option of separate liability coverage in which you get insurance through a third-party provider. Your movers will still be responsible for the released value protection, but the additional policy will cover the rest of your losses, depending on your policy limits.
If you plan on moving your items yourself, you have a few insurance options that may cover your possessions, whether they’re being transported in your car or a rental truck. For example, rental truck moving coverage will protect you if there’s damage to the truck due to an accident, offer cargo protection, and different types of insurance for you and your passengers. You can typically get these insurance policies through rental truck companies to help you cover the cost of issues that can arise when moving.
Final Thoughts
Whether you’re protecting your belongings or your home during a move, you must plan ahead. Getting the right moving company and insurance is key to protecting your home and belongings. As soon as you decide to move, start planning all the tasks you have to complete before moving day to ensure you can get everything done on time.
We hope these tips on how to protect & prepare your home for a move help you. Please call or use the IASTL contact form below for any questions.
The author’s name is Megan Isola and she holds a Bachelor of Science in Hospitality and a minor in Business Marketing from Cal State University Chico. She enjoys going to concerts, trying new restaurants, and hanging out with friends.