15 Things Everyone Forgets When Moving to a New Apartment

We’ve already reviewed lots of tips that should help you move, and one of them is an excellent moving checklist. Now it’s time to focus on the things that we all keep forgetting while moving to the new place. We gathered the info among those who recently had to move and compiled a list that should help you make your moving experience quick and painless.

1. Create a Moving Checklist And Inventory

These two things are usually considered the most obvious and a bit old-fashioned, but still, everyone I know keeps saying time after time that their moving process would be much better with the inventory list and checklist.

The idea is simple: create a checklist with the most important things that you should take with you and all the activities that you should perform during your move. That’s the point where you should note that you’ve got to start planning your moving process in advance. The earlier you start – the bigger and more complete list you get.

Inventory list is something different, yet also very important to have with you. Writing down all the items you pack is a crucial thing if you want to make sure that nothing is lost during the transportation.

Also, sometimes inventory lists can be compiled digitally. For example, nowadays you can just download the app to your phone and list all your items along with the photos, so you could have the initial items condition documented.

2. Label All Your Boxes

Using boxes is the best idea since presuming that you can simply use a few bags or just the bubble wrap is the worst way to move.

Once you packed all your goods into the box and listed everything in your inventory, you have to label your boxes correctly.

First of all, label the dishes and other valuable items with the ‘fragile’ label. Also, it can be a great idea to label the boxes with the names of the rooms where these items are from, so you could separate the kitchen goods from bathroom items.

3. Have Enough Boxes

It may sound funny to you, but make sure that you have enough packaging material for all your items.

All the boxes can be usually bought in the supply stores or in the post offices nearby. They’re usually sold as flat cardboard piece that you’ll have to assemble yourself, so it won’t be a problem for you to bring a big pile of boxes to your home beforehand

Remember –  the more the merrier. That should be your rule of thumb in this case.

4. Compare Moving Companies

Choosing a good moving company is crucial, especially when you have lots of valuable things. Actually, we’ve got our very special checklist for those who want to know how to move with valuable items.

Not all moving companies are good and you should choose one that fits your budget and expectations wisely. Review the feedback about each company on the internet, check with your friends and see if they have a company to recommend. Here are the most popular review websites to dig:

1. Google My Business
2. Facebook
3. Yelp
4. Manta

Do your research, so you could sleep tight quite worrying about your items’ condition after the move.

5. Take Your Pet For a Check-Up

When you move to a new place, your pet can start to act weird. There are plenty of possible reasons for that: stress, bad reaction to some smells in the house or simply the fact that it’s your pet’s first move and it’s wasn’t ready for such a stress.

In order to be sure that it’s just the adaptation period, not some illness, you should perform a regular check up with a vet doctor.

6. Find Storage For Your Clutter

Some of your items or pieces of furniture may not fit into your new place.

In this case, the smart thing to do is to find a storage unit where you’ll be able to store these items for a few days or a week. There are lots of companies that offer such services. This will save you the trouble of having zero free space during the unpacking process.

7. Collect All Your Important Documents

We strongly believe that all your documents should always be considered as valuable items. That’s why we insist on collecting all the documents in advance and store them in a separate box or even carrying them in a case.

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By the way, when we talk about the documents, there is nothing more convenient than storing your documents online. When it comes to the rental agreements and contracts, you can e-sign the lease and store it right in your profile on Rentberry.

It will ensure the security of your documents. They will never get lost wherever you move.

8. Update Your Address Everywhere

Make sure you update the address everywhere, so all your friends could reach you, all your bills could come in time and all your deliveries from the post office could be received.

9. Change The Locks

Trust me, you’ll never know how many duplicate keys are out there for this particular place. Especially if this landlord rents it out for more than 5 years or so.

So the best way for you to feel secure is to change the locks in the new place. Also, some US states obligate the landlord to change the locks in the apartment prior to renting out a place to the new tenant.

In order to know all the tenant’s rights, make sure you follow our blog since we continue to release articles about state laws that you should know as a tenant.

10. Prepare The Trash Bags

Your new place may be clean, but when you move your stuff and start to unpack it, you’ll notice how many packaging materials there will be left once you finished.

In order to clean up, you’ll need to throw out lots of boxes, bubble wrap pieces, etc.

Having a pack of trash bags will help you to clean everything up fast.

11. Research The Parking Information

If you have a car, you need to know for sure where is your parking spot and whether you’ll have it at all.

Make sure you talk to your landlord about it and figure out where you should park a car, so you wouldn’t have any misunderstandings with the neighbors.

12. Prepare Your First Night Box

Usually, when you move to a new place, you don’t have enough time to unpack everything. That’s where the ‘first night box’ comes to the rescue.

You should prepare everything you’ll need during your first night at the new place and pack it into the separate box. These are usually such things as:

• Towels
• Toothbrush and toothpaste
• Food for your first meals (try to keep it simple)
• Charging cables
• Router
• Laptop
• Lightbulbs
• Toilet paper
• Bedding
• A few toys for the kids
• Several changes of clothes

13. Set up All The Services Beforehand

It may feel like a big trouble when you move into the new place and there is no internet service available or you don’t have a cable TV set up.

Call the companies in advance and set up all the services you’ll need at the new place. In the majority of cases, you can simply keep your subscriptions and accounts, just change the address and you’re good to go.

14. Avoid Moving on Friday

Moving on Friday is not the best idea.

If something happens during the moving process with your items or valuable goods you won’t be able to put up a claim till Monday.

Also, you should understand that Friday is always a very busy day in terms of traffic.

15. Make a Final Walkthrough Inspection

Taking a look at your place prior to moving out is the best way to ensure that you’ve taken all the things you had to.

Check all the drawers, tables, shelves and cabinets. Sometimes we keep things somewhere in the farthest drawer and then become sad about losing them during the moving process.

Final inspection is a must.