07/10/2017
What do I do to prepare before the move?
When you are preparing for the movers to get to your home, you need to prepare the appearance, the categorizing, and the organizing of the materials.
Cleaning and Clearing the House
Helping Movers-You should be cleaning and clearing the house. Anything that can interrupt the movement of the move can only cost you money and potentially risk the health of our movers.
Cleaning – First, you should clean the house. This is good practice for when you are leaving a house or apartment because the next owner won’t have to go through the process and it’s a good first impression for the home in general. Additionally, cleaning up the house can make it easier to move because you will both. Cleaning the air of dust and loose particles that can affect performance.
Clearing – Next you will want to clear the area as much as possible. if you have kids or a dog, you know how difficult it can be to see the floor at times if there are a lot of toys or loose items on the floor. Clearing the air will make it much easier to move throughout the house and run the risk of possibly hurting your legs during the move.
Sectioning off your Valuables
Next, you will want to section off your valuables. There are two types of sectioning you want to do.
Ease-of-Moving – When you organize an area and make it easier for the movers to pick up your belongings, you are making it much faster for them to move. The moving industry translates time into money, and if you can make it easy for them to make a full day a half day, it can save you money on your move in the long run. Additionally, it will make it much more organized for the next section.
Personal Responsibility – More importantly, it ensures that personal responsibility is solely on your shoulders. When there are questionable items that need to be personally es**rted, you remove the risk of us affecting it by taking control of it. While we are professionals and can safely transport your belongings with ease, it is often best if you take personal responsibility for the majority of your belongings.
Tagging and Mapping
Finally, a great way to make the moving process even faster is to tag and map your belongings once you’ve sectioned them off.
Tagging – Tags are incredibly important, especially if they are color coded. If you can tag your belongings to know exactly what room they started in and where they are going, it can make the moving process and transition into the new home much easier than if you didn’t. We recommend either duct tape, post-it notes, or different colored strings or even just extensive sharpies.
Mapping – Finally, you want to map out where everything belongs. Chances are you know where you’re moving to before we get there. If you want to make the moving process simple and easy, make a map and color-code where everything is going to go. The more clear and concise you can make it, the faster the movers will get to es**rting your belongings from one place to the other.
The Day of the Move
Once the day of the move happens, it’s important to make a game plan and stick with it.
Go ahead or Follow Through?
If you’ve followed all of our plans up until this point, you now have a unique choice. Will you go ahead of them or follow from behind them and guide them to the location?
Go Ahead – Arguably the most popular option is going ahead and clearing the new home out as much as possible. It will make it much easier for you to prepare for the unloading process.
Follow Through – If you like hanging out with your movers, many of our clients will follow through and pick up lunch with the movers. This happens a lot with predetermined all-day moves and is a kind gesture that will often make a move much more personal as opposed to trying to crunch the numbers.
Coordinating the move
Often there will be a moving manager there, or the movers will know what they’re doing. But if you are the micromanaging type we highly recommend reading this section to know how to manage the move properly.
Managing – When you are managing, remember that you are managing the movers who work for the owner. They are there to help you as fast as possible and respectfully move your belongings. There is no need to shout or belittle people who are helping you move your stuff to a new location; please remember that we are all working together.
Clarity – Additionally, when you are giving feedback and help for us to move, be as clear as possible. If you find yourself pointing and saying ‘over there’ a lot, it is often doing a disservice because the movers are trained to keep their neck straight. So if you’re going to be specific, do so before they begin moving the objects, or you risk injuring the movers.
Pizza – We always suggest the same thing. Order some pizza, it works for everyone and keeps everyone up and happy.
How much should I tip?
Tipping Standards are different with movers than if you go to a restaurant. We’ve seen most people do it either based on the percentage or just chuck cash at the movers and don’t think about it too much.
Percentage – If you are doing a percentage, we recommend around 10% of the total value of the move, which is still a good amount of money even though the number seems low.
Cash Value – But the most often way we’ve seen movers get tipped is just a flat $20 or $100 bill depending on how much is being moved. If you are a single person who just needs help getting all of the boxes out, 20 to 40 bucks will do it no problem. But if you just had two movers es**rt your baby grand piano from Miami to Boca Raton, it’s usually expected that they receive a $100 tip.
Thanks for reading!
