A Pet's Best Moving Buddy is its Owner

It may seem a little negative to say, but I have been asked many times about pets and whether or not it is a good idea to get a moving company to take care of that task. The answer to the question is simply 'No'. There are good reasons for this, all of which any pet owner, I'm sure, would completely agree with.

I'm not a pet owner myself but I grew up around enough dogs and cats to know that the key to understanding any pet is in accepting it too has emotions and so can be made to feel scared, unwanted and lost. These are all feelings that can depress your pet and with that can come illness or distress. So, it's only logical that the last place you should put your pet is in the back of a dark moving truck, surrounded by the rest of your possessions.

The health of your pet is hugely important and we at Sage know that the responsibilities connected with transporting a pet are serious. Depending on the distance of the move, and therefore the time it takes to complete the journey, a pet would have to be fed and watered and looked after. That is why it is best to keep the pet with its owner.

The best advice that I can give is to bring your pet with you when you travel to your new home. If your pet is small, like a terrier or a cat, then you can place it in a carry-cage and secure it to the back seat of your car. If your pet is larger, then a trailer can be hired to make the journey. If you have a longer distance to travel, where you'll have to travel by plane, for example, then you should consult the regulations of the airline you are travelling with.

What is important is that your pet makes the transition as smoothly and as healthily as possible. So, keep him or her close and keep a close eye too. That's the best way to move a pet.

Making the College Move Easier

Alright, so this is a bit early but for most of you the prospect of moving to your college campus (or moving your son or daughter to one) is already on your mind. Admittedly, it has been a while since I was at college but I remember the headache my mother suffered in trying to get everything packed for my college move, and that my father had in trying to squeeze everything into our family car. I realize now how using a moving company would have made things so much easier, especially with the type of specialized services that are available now.

Of course, this is around 15 years ago, when my sister was listening to the Spice Girls and I was eager for the freedom of living away from home! Back then, practically everyone moved by family car. As for myself, well, my father, mother and little sister all travelled to Chicago (where my college was) with me, and made a weekend of it.

The trouble is that there was very little room in the car for any passengers and most of the things that I wanted to bring had to be left behind because of the lack of space in the car, not in my dorm room.

Today, there are a number of affordable options available to anyone making that move to college, thanks to the expansion of services being offered by reputable moving companies. Firstly, you can hire movers to transport all of your possessions; and secondly, you can hire a trailer from a moving company and move yourself.

The first option involves a truck but one of smaller capacity that usual to suit your needs, since it isn't a full house move that is being done. It is still worth making checklists since it is the same process as a home move and you'll still want to check that everything is packed, loaded and reaches its destination undamaged.

The second option allows you to move with your family, just as I did so long ago but without the cramped conditions. Trailers should be able to accommodate a full college load, unless you want to bring your bed and bedroom furniture too! In that case, you should choose option one!

Just remember, moving all of the comforts of your home bedroom to college may not be possible if your dorm room is too small, so be sure to check the space that is available to you. Still, your college move doesn't need to be as uncomfortable as it was for me!

Busting the Long-distance Moving Myth

Some believe that moving long-distance is a headache that almost isn't worth having. Why? Because of claims that it's hard to find a good moving company to do it, you pay top dollar and there are always delays. Well, that's not necessarily true so I thought I'd take the opportunity provided by this blog to set the record straight.

Firstly, not being able to find a good moving company comes down to the fact that the search wasn't very detailed. Some movers don't have the resources and shouldn't have been considered at all while others (like Sage) are well equipt to provide a reliable service.

Secondly, saying you 'pay top dollar' gives a false impression. Increased distance lengthens time taken, which increases work hours - it's very logical. Increased work hours means increased cost but only reasonably so. In the modern moving industry, with the concerted effort being made by responsible companies, everything is accountable and above board.

Lastly, there is some logic to the claim that there are delays but the idea that your possessions arrive days later than agreed is false. That myth is fueled by the fact that long-distance moves that take two or more days usually involve two different crews - one to reach a half-way depot, and the other to finish the delivery. This can sometimes require the overnight or 24-hour storage of your things.

If you are moving from Maryland to Texas, for example, a move which involves more than 2,000 miles of road, crew members are unlikely to want to make the complete journey, so they deliver to a mid-point depot and return to Maryland. The next day, a new crew loads up and delivers your possessions to your new home in Dallas.

Usually, these are logistical aspects that you never need to worry about if you hire a moving consultant to look after everything (as my colleague 'Nomad' pointed out below). These are practical and cost effective solutions to logistical problems that need not cost you a fortune.

So, the myth that long-distance moves involve a lot of unnecessary trouble is an urban legend. Just speak to your moving company and they will clear any doubts you might have. We'd certainly be happy to!

So, Where Do You Start?

It's not an unusual question to be asked; in fact, it's completely understandable. If you have a home or even an apartment, there is always some concern over where you start in preparing for the move to your new home. There is, after all, a lot to get done - organizing every item that you have, wrapping them, packing them and then getting them onto the moving truck.

The best advice that we at Sage can give you is to get started as early as possible. In fact, as soon as you know that you will be moving, you should start to compile the moving checklists that famously make the whole moving experience so much easier.

I've been asked many times about which checklist is the most important and if they are really that great. I always reply that they are all important and that if they are compiled properly, they are very effective. The thing is not to go overboard; remember they should help you not confuse you or stress you out!

One time, we were shocked to find one client with 18 checklists on a clipboard when we arrived to load up. She had individual checklists for each room (including the back yard) for both the house the family was leaving and the house they were moving into! Obviously, she was very stressed.

There should be one main checklist comprising all your possessions, but with four or five check-boxes - wrap, pack, load-up, unload, condition. You can easily segregate each room on the list so there is no need to make checklist after checklist.

However, it is a good idea to checklist even the non-packing aspects (utilities closure etc) and on a separate list. Also, try to structure things by stages. The first one should detail absolutely everything in your home, even things that you're not moving, then the second can detail what is being moved.

Which brings me back to the original question. Where do you start? Start with a cup of coffee, some good music, a pen and paper and then draw up a careful, stress-free, room-by-room plan on what needs to be done. Just don't leave it until the last moment; six or eight weeks before moving day is fine!

Don’t Compare Apples and Oranges When Picking a Mover

In this day and age, we’re all looking to save a buck whenever we can. When it comes to picking the right movers for your move though, simply getting the lowest offer you come across in not a very wise thing to do.  The moving industry is a big one and not all the companies that are regarded as moving companies offer the same services. 

Before you even begin to look for a moving company you should decide on what services you need first.  Do you want a company that will just let you rent a truck?  Do you want a full service moving company that will handle loading and unloading as well?  Do you want packing to be included in the services?  Will you require temporary storage or on road storage?  “You haul” companies offer only a driver and a truck, some not even a driver.  Full service moving companies usually offer a minimum of loading unloading and hauling, they will not be open to just renting you a truck. 

 The right company for your needs should be able to satisfy all your requirements, no less, but just as importantly no more.  If you are just moving ordinary cargo a few miles away, you don’t want to hire a specialty items moving or a long distance moving company, as they may charge more than you really need to pay.  The bottom line is that before accepting offers, make sure that the companies you are talking to offer the same things.

Taking the Storage Option

One of the things I like about working in the moving industry is the fact that we help people. At a basic level, we help our clients to move their possessions but many times we help them when they're stuck with difficult decisions.

About a year ago, one lady was stuck over moving all of her belongings from her home to a new apartment. She was an elderly lady with her family grown up and living elsewhere, and she and her husband had decided to sell their home of 35 years to move to a more manageable place. The problem was they had gathered so much stuff over those 35 years that there wasn't enough room in their apartment for it all. So, what to do?

The answer to the problem is storage and there are two avenues you can take in this regard: you can either find a self-storage facility or avail of storage services provided by your moving company.

At Sage, we see storage as a vital service for those clients who need space to leave items before finally finding a place for them or finally deciding what to do with them. In the meantime, the items are kept safe in facilities that are not only secure but air-conditioned and temperature-controlled to prevent mould and damp causing damage.

The elderly lady had boxes and boxes of memories that she wasn't ready to let go of (her children's old toys and books and other things of sentimental value). By leaving them in storage, she and her husband could concentrate on actually moving and settling in before turning their attention to other things.

She took the option to store with us and after a few months moved her things out again. She was smiling when I saw her then, so she must have been happy with how things had worked out - which was a bonus for me!

How Important is Moving Insurance?

I don't have an anecdote for you this time, unfortunately. I was just reminded of the issue of moving insurance when I was chatting with a client just last week and thought I'd bring it up with you all. He was impressed with the options available to him. He wondered if high-value possessions were common place in this industry. I told him they aren't unusual but taking out protection is wise for anything you value, even if it has just a sentimental value.

There are three main types of insurance policies available to you from a moving company, though not all movers will offer good deals. For most people, Replacement Value Coverage works best because if, for example, their TV is damaged, then they can simply get a new TV of a similar style or value. It's a clean swap.

However, if you are moving something of great value then Declared Value Coverage is ideal. Generally, there is a bit of negotiating done before an agreed figure is struck, but once it has been then the compensation sum is set. It's great for people who include a valuable piece of artwork, an expensive musical instrument or even antique furniture on the itinerary.

No-one likes to admit it but accidents can happen at any time so, as one of the country's leading moving companies, we would urge all of you to get insurance for your move.

By the way, our client took out Basic Liability Coverage, which involves agreeing a dollar-per-pound value of the total load transported. He told me he had nothing of any great value and wasn't moving very far so he was confident nothing would go wrong. Nothing did!

Simplifying your Office Move

There is hardly an office in this day and age that doesn’t depend heavily on computers and computer networks. Often those networks are mission critical, and they cannot be “down” for more than one or two hours at a time. This presents problems when an office and all the communication equipment in it, needs to be relocated. What really strikes me as strange though; is that most offices choose to call in professional movers only after all the logistics have been mapped out and all that needs to be done is to load the equipment in question and take it to where it needs to go.

What a lot of people don’t seem to realize is that professional moving companies don’t just pack, load and haul. The byword in the moving industry is convenience, more than anything; that is what professional movers aim to deliver. Part of the convenience we offer is in helping out with whatever logistical concerns you might have with your move. Would it be easier to break your move up into a few smaller moves? Are you downsizing your office? Will you need storage space? There are a lot of options that are available to you that you probably don’t even know about. If you have a move that is unusually complicated, it is best that you let you movers in on it as early as you can, how much help they can actually give you will surprise you.

The Convenience of Relocation Consulting

There are a lot of reasons people don’t like moving, but if you don’t want to go into them one by one, the simple fact is that people don’t like to move because it is inconvenient. That is why people hire professional movers to do their moving for them. The fact that there are so many movers in business shows just how willing people are to spend money to be relieved of the inconvenience of moving. What people don’t seem to realize is that movers offer far more services than were available not too long ago, and those services are additional conveniences.

Most people for instance aren’t really aware of what relocation consulting is. I once had a customer who moved states, explain to me the horrible inconvenience he had finding suitable home in Charlotte North Carolina, after his company assigned him there. He had to sacrifice several weekends and even a few work days just scouring the area for a good house. He was shocked to learn that we could have actually helped him out in that department, and that he should have contacted us earlier. He actually called us after he had found a place at great personal expense and inconvenience.

Relocation consultants are networked with realty firms in most states. With just a few phone calls, they can find a number of options based on whatever specifications you give them. If you ever need to move states, you should ask about relocation consulting from day one. You can click here to chat with one now

Moving Pianos with Salt and Time!

It won't come as any surprise to learn that we movers tend not to like winter weather. Driving conditions are bad, traffic is extra slow and loading up is a little more challenging - especially large items of furniture.

Pianos, for example, can be difficult to move at the best of times but I remember on one occasion having particular difficulty because of the amount of snow and ice that was on the steps and pathway from the residence to the truck. We'd had a few skids when carrying boxes and we were not looking forward to moving a piano over the same ground.

Anyway, we reckoned we could lay the path and steps with cardboard to take away the risk. We were about to rip up some old boxes when our client, an old gentleman, told us to take a break and have some coffee. It was very kind of him so, how could we refuse! He served us up and then disappeared for 5 or 6 minutes, and when he returned he chatted away with us until we'd finished.

When it was time to get back at it, maybe after 20 minutes, I went for the cardboard again, but our client said "don't bother". When we stepped outside, the ice was already melting all the way down to the truck. He said, "a little time and a lot of salt, that's all you need". He had scattered salt over the ice while we drank our coffee. That gentleman saved us a lot of bother.

Yes, You Can Move Your Plants

It never really occurred to me why people don’t normally move plants. I like house and garden plants as much as the next guy, but I suppose like most people, to me plants are just things that sort of fade into the background. During the many times I have personally had to move in my life, it never occurred to me to take what plants we had along. We simply left them in the flats we were leaving and told our landlords that we had done so.

I was quite moved though when on a move I had chosen to ride “shotgun” on, I saw as rather nice elderly woman saying almost tearful goodbyes the plants she was leaving behind. I then thought to ask her why she wasn’t taking her plants along, she responded that she didn’t think they’d be allowed. I asked her if she meant they were not allowed in the apartment she was relocating to. She responded that she didn’t think movers moved plants. When I asked her why she thought that, she sort of took a while to respond, but she finally said that they were too fragile and bulky. I simply smiled and told her that for local moves, there were no issues with moving reasonably sized plants, which her's were.

If you feel any sort of attachment to any of your houseplants, or if you just think that movers simply don’t move houseplants, think again. Plants actually move better than a lot of items that are regularly moved, remember that these are living organisms capable of regenerating when they are damaged, and they are adapted to life exposed to the elements. Your plants are tougher and easier to move than you think.

Check Out Your Moving Company!

Last month, I moved for the second time in three years and I wasn't looking forward to it. My previous experience was something of a disaster and the thought of having to deal with a moving company again for my move from Germantown MD to Manassas VA made my skin crawl.

Back in September 2006, I had to move apartment suddenly because of work. It was all a rush so I took the first quote that sounded like a deal. I should have known better though! My friends advised me to use the American Moving & Storage Association (AMSA) and Better Business Bureau (BBB) if I had any doubts, since they both detailed the good and bad moving businesses out there. My mistake was that I never even checked either site out so the company that I'd hired ended up being less reliable than I'd expected!

Of course, they didn't arrive on the agreed moving day and gave a list of excuses when I called them. Eventually, a friend hired a trailer from another company and we moved everything in a few runs (thanks Jess!) but the experience has stung since.

This time though, I did things right. I didn't need to check AMSA or the BBB because I used Sage Moving & Storage - a company I know are thoroughly professional from start to finish - but I did make sure that everything was organized in plenty of time before the move.

Still, if there is one piece of advice I can give you, it is this: check out moving companies on the AMSA and the BBB sites before ever hiring one. You'll weed out the bad options quickly and find the truly good ones. Trust me, I'm speaking from experience here!