- Christchurch, New Zealand
There are few experiences as exciting or stressful as a big moving day. Settling down into a brand-new space is thrilling, but getting there is the hard part. Many people tend to make moving mistakes that bring a lot of additional costs raining down on their heads, not to mention the delays and headaches that come with them.
There are ways to avoid these pitfalls, and that’s where we come in. As the reigning authority on packing, unpacking, moving, and furniture removals in Christchurch, we’re here to shed some light on the important (and occasionally unexpected) ways to save yourself a dime on moving day.
What if we told you that, in our many years of doing furniture removals in Christchurch, this is the most important lesson we would have to impart? Most people are concerned about getting their furniture and belongings into the truck, thinking that the journey from place to place is the easiest part…
But it’s actually the most dangerous for your furniture! All that jostling in close proximity with other important pieces can wreak massive havoc on your belongings when you least expect it.
In this case, your best friends are straps and protective blankets. Straps will help to keep your furniture and boxes in place, while blankets will protect any delicate surfaces and corners from getting scratched. That’s a win in our book, and well worth the investment in these tools.
We’ve all had that one friend ask us to help them on moving day; you might have even been the friend asking, a time or two. But there’s something that holds true no matter what: moves strain friendships, and friends aren’t professionals.
Friends are fantastic for company and a bevvy or two at the end of the day, but when it comes to the actual packing and unpacking, or moving furniture and boxes, that’s a job for the pros to tackle.
Even if you’re not tempted to bring your friends along to a move, hiring professionals to take care of just one part of your move isn’t something a lot of people know they can do! You can hire specialists in everything from packing and unpacking to furniture removal. That frees up your time and headspace to tackle the parts of the move that you’re comfortable with. Not to mention, it costs a lot less than hiring full-service furniture removals in Christchurch!
When it comes to packing things up in boxes, dimensions matter. Getting a set of boxes with the exact same dimensions makes it so much easier to stack the boxes in stable piles rather than playing Tetris with different sizes.
Do what you can to minimise what you have to pack, as this can reduce the number of boxes you have to move (and thus help you avoid any piles from falling over, which can cost a lot in broken crockery).
The more time it takes to move your home from one place to another, the more it will cost you! The only way to truly reduce both the time it takes to move and the amount you have to shift is to lean into what Marie Kondo calls the life-changing magic of tidying up!
Take a look around your home, and be ruthless. What absolutely needs to come with you, and what have you lugged around for the past two moves without ever actually using? Sort through your belongings, donate what you can to charity, responsibly recycle anything that can’t be donated, and pack the rest!
Many people underestimate just how much stuff they own, which can lead to chaos if you try to do this the day of the move. So, make sure to either allocate plenty of time to tackle it yourself or hire the pros to help you get it done quickly.
If you’re a renter, one of the most costly moving mistakes you can make on the big day is not taking pictures of the place you’re moving into. There are, unfortunately, landlords who would rather blame regular wear and tear on a mistake of yours made during moving day.
Before you move anything in, take a moment and walk around the home while it’s empty, making sure to take plenty of pictures as you go. Make a note of any existing damage on the pre-inspection report and make sure everyone’s clear on pre-existing damage before the big day. This can save you the entirety of your bond when the time comes to move out again!
Finally, we tackle furniture removals in Christchurch every day, but one of the most common costly mistakes we see homeowners make is losing their small, precious items. The things that disappear into boxes or get lost under car seats are the things that bother us most, because they’re the hardest to find again.
Luckily, it’s just as easy to prevent them from getting lost. We recommend creating an essentials box to keep your vital documents, your most expensive technology, and the small things you’ll need in the first few days readily accessible! Think phones, passports, wallets, chargers, lamps, kettles, a butterknife or two; if you can’t unpack straight away, these boxes are a massive help.
At the end of the day, the most important thing to do is to plan ahead. Feeling caught off guard on moving day can induce a domino of costly mistakes, so it pays to plan what you can and cover your bases with professional help when you need it.
Whether you’re after a specialty team to shift your piano or just some extra support on the big day, the TruckAbout team has your back. Give us a call today to secure our team for everything from a quick pack to full-on furniture removals in Christchurch. A minimum charge of 2 hours applies, and we charge a $60 + GST callout fee within the CBD. Depot to Depot charges apply for anything outside the CBD
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