Securing Furniture during a Move

Securing Furniture during a Move

Furniture is what props up various human actions like sitting, lying down, holding objects at convenient heights or simply as storage devices. They are such an integral part of life that they have been classified under ‘mundane’ things. They add comfort to our lives and make relaxation possible. They make the living room habitable. One should take special care of it if one desires to enjoy them for long. Furniture can be made from many materials like wood, metal, plastic or hybrid material. Whatever type of furniture one has, one must ensure that the right kind of care is given to it during relocation. It is from the early Mesopotamian civilization and the Egyptian civilizations where movable furniture was first made. Thus it can be seen that today’s concept of light weight movable furniture has its roots in ancient days.

When moving from one place to another one should give careful thought to the methods of packing and transportation involved. One must personally oversee the packing if hired hands do the job. If one has coffee tables or tea tables with glass tops, one must make sure that the glass is carefully removed from its framed setting. It must then be wrapped in packing paper and placed in telescoping cardboard boxes. This means that one places the glass sheet in successive cardboard boxes – in other words, like a box within a box. If one does not have these materials, curtains, blankets, quilts and other large pieces of cloth can be used to securely wrap these glass table tops. The metal frames and legs can be dismantled and wrapped in packing paper or thick newspaper and then placed inside boxes. Care must be taken to label these boxes properly with the word ‘Fragile’ neatly stenciled on it. When placing them in the van or truck, care must be taken to see that no weight is placed on top of these boxes. The best way to transport glass table tops is to stand them upright.… Continue reading

Six Weeks to Your New Home

Six Weeks to Your New Home

Moving Tips to Assist You in Effective Transferring of Things to Your New Home

Having to move in a new house can be so much stressful. It is better to make your moving as enjoyable as it can be. You can achieve it by having the move planned ahead.

Six Weeks

Six week would give you enough time to do some research on the area you are about to move. Features like its accessibility to other establishments would be necessary to provide your needs when you urgently need them. You also hire a surveyor to do the job if you do not have any available time to have it done. Check the overall structure of your new house so that you can plan ahead as to where your thing would be placed once delivered. It is also the best time to have your things checked for some excess that you might find worthy for some charities or can give you additional income or extra cash by having it sold in a garage sale.

Five Weeks

Pack those things which you presumed your can live (for the nest few weeks) without. Have it labeled indicating the contents and destination in the house. Make sure to fix your transport on the moving date, checking on the movers’ confirmation that they are prepared for the date. If you are to use your own transport, ensure that your car or vehicle is finely tuned up for the transport.

Storage for an International Move.

Storage for an International Move.

The costs involved international relocation is huge and hence one must choose wisely and must plan his travel very carefully. If one is relocating due to work, one must find out from his employers how much transportation fees he is eligible to get. This can help him in his relocation. Many websites have online calculators to estimate the costs involved. Many websites also show a comparative statement of costs for different moving companies. This can give one a fair idea of what costs entail in moving.

As international transportation of goods mean a long time spent in transit, one must verify the safety procedures undertaken in shipping or flying the goods. This means there are huge chances for the house hold goods to experience a bumpy ride, whether on choppy seas, turbulent skies or simply a potholed road! When packing his goods, one must take all these factors into consideration. Use thick boxes which will withstand a little tumble, or one can purchase hard plastic boxes which are specially made for moving goods. To a certain level this prevents breakage of goods.

The crux of good packing however lies in the fact that the objects inside ought to be wrapped well. Glass ware in particular must be wrapped in bubble paper and must be nested well inside the boxes. Kitchen towels, clothes and newspaper also serve as excellent padding materials. When considering how furniture ought to be packed one must make sure that quilt padding is used. Other household articles require other means of packing and the moving company must be able to give an honest estimate of packing charges after looking at the objects around the house. However this matter will not arise if one is doing the packing himself and that would ensure good care in the hands of the owner himself.

Packing Heavy Objects

When moving from one place to another, one begins to pack every object in the house. Each object requires a unique way of packing. While methods for furniture, clothes and shoes are relatively simple and easy, electronics and other things require special attention. This is very true of heavy things too. The objects that usually fall into this category are the books, artifacts made of stone and kitchen appliances and utensils that one has in the kitchen. A class apart from all this are the other household appliances like the lawn mower, vacuum cleaner etc.

At the onset of packing, one should make sure that he has all the packing materials and supplies available at hand. The various packing materials available are cardboard boxes of various sizes (small, medium, large and jumbo sized), bubble wrap, packing paper like unprinted newsprint or even newspapers if available, packing peanuts (otherwise called packing foam), plenty of packing tape and permanent markers for labeling the boxes.

One must make a list of all the objects that have to be packed with special attention. From this list, one must begin with the heaviest object. At the onset, one must make sure he has all the required packing materials close by before he starts to pack. Once everything is ready and in place, the actual packing begins. Usually books are the heaviest among the different objects on one’s list. A single book may weigh less, but the collection as a whole is bound to be heavy. Most books fit in neatly into the small boxes and the added advantage of these boxes is their ease of portability. A large box full of books may be very heavy to carry. The best way to pack books would be to keep them vertical to the base of the box, preferably resting on their spines. This is a better arrangement compared to laying them flat. One must take care to strengthen the base of the box with additional packing tape to avoid the books falling out during transit.… Continue reading

“Moving” Stories case 1103017 : Frank B. from Wisconsin

Frank B. from Wisconsin

The company I worked for thirty years went under and I had to move out of my home. I had to sell many of my things but only kept the truly valuable relics of my former life. Among the things I still treasured was my grandfather’s piano; a beautiful black baby grand piano with ivory keys. I rarely gave up this luxury for TV or the internet, definitely not the radio. So it was a simple choice to purchase moving insurance for it before I left my home.

I insured a few other things; breakables and some furniture. I shopped for a mover I could afford and found one online who quoted much lower than the big pro movers. As my choices were limited I quickly agreed and didn’t mind reading the paperwork the mover provided. Turns out I should have.

The next day a big truck with no markings except a half torn banner still stuck on the side pulled up outside my house and three burly men came out with cardboard boxes, a roll of bubble-wrap and packing tape. One of them introduced himself as a friend of the fellow who gave me the quote. He gave me a blank sheet of paper on a clipboard and told me to list down what they were packing as they were bundling them. They stuffed my things into boxes with a practiced way and were even careful not to break anything which was a welcome sight to me. It took them a few hours but they managed to fit everything into their truck.

After they closed the ramp and locked the door the foreman, if he could be called that, took me aside and said they were not given enough instructions as to where they were supposed to deliver my things. I gave him the address and directions to get there then he said it was outside of where they could deliver and asked for some money. I asked why it was not part of the moving package to which he told me to call his friend. I went to call but he got into the cab of the truck and turned on the ignition. Fearfully I wavered to go or stay and watch the now obviously untrustworthy goons gloat how they had trapped my treasured piano.

My call was never picked up though I tried several times. I called a neighbor, a man I wasn’t close to, to help but… Continue reading