Hello my Charmings!
Home is where the heart is, Even if you can’t remember which box you packed it in. – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
One of the hardest things you have to go through is moving houses; been there done that. There is so much to consider and to prepare prior to moving, and there’s still more to think about once you’ve moved.
I am talking about this now as, yes, we just moved! Being new in this country (New Zealand) I don’t really know what’s the proper step by step of moving. Back in Dubai, I just packed my stuff, cleaned the place, arrange a guy with a truck and moved… that simple; real estate in Dubai is brutal when it comes to giving your deposit back, so I didn’t bother with cleaning anymore. But here in Auckland is “slightly” different. I have just gone through this, and am actually still going through it — post move things to do. Let me help guide you how we did our “less” stress move (but less only as moving is not at all stress-free).
Packing
Pack ahead of time. Give yourself a minimum of 2 weeks to pack (gradually) so you won’t be physically and mentally stressed on the day of moving. Or if you have money to spare, you can hire someone to pack things for you (which we don’t have so we packed it ourselves).
Instead of buying moving boxes (which you’ll only use for the move), I went to our nearest supermarket (in my case, I went to Countdown) and asked for boxes and they gave me their banana boxes for free (note to this – you need to inform them ahead of time so they can save the boxes for you before they flatten it for recycling).
Label, label, label. So that everything is easy to locate in case you are searching for items that you have accidentally packed but still need (which in my case, I opened only a few boxes in that process). And the most important boxes to label for precaution are the fragile boxes, so the movers know to be more extra careful on those boxes; I used plastic bins for our fragile items so we know they are more secure.
Transport loose items ahead to save time. Since our new apartment was just a few blocks away from where we previously lived, we transported our loose items using our suitcases (i.e. items in the fridge, small items from our night stand, small decors that need extra care, shoes and bags, our plant babies – succulents…). If you have a car (unlike us, we walked), it’s much more easy to transport loose items (as you can easily fill your car with it).
Hiring Movers
Hire movers as soon as you know your exact date of moving. In our case, we booked our movers a month prior to our move — talking about being extra excited. I came across the movers company in an FB group (Pinoys in Auckland) as one member was asking for a recommendation and this company was recommended so I saved it. I knew it would come in handy one day – which it did. I booked Marcus Furniture Mover and was not disappointed at all. They were very accommodating and very prompt on all my queries. Their main mover is Rod (a “kabayan” filipino) who helped us with our move and gave us suggestions on what to do to save time and money. Highly recommend them.
Taking Extra Precaution (Optional)
If you think you have more valuables that need protection, call your insurance company. Since we do have an existing household content insurance we just added an extra insurance specifically for this move. If you don’t have, you can search for insurance companies and ask for a quote. Most of the time the moving company have that as an extra service. So whatever happens, any accident, your stuff is all insured for that day.
Cleaning
We made sure that our previous apartment is in a good state before handing it back. We want to get our bond back in full – as this “sometimes” affects your rental score if you are renting a new place. Bonds here in Auckland are the same as a Security deposit. It is equivalent to 4 weeks rent. The cleaning company we hired was recommended by our building manager as well so we didn’t hesitate to hire them – TEG Ltd. They have good reviews and they are very prompt to respond and will explain everything that they will do. Ionara, the owner, even gave us tips on how we can protect ourselves before moving in to our new apartment. Highly recommend them as well as they did an excellent job.
We sold most of the items that we knew were not in use for quite a while; the money made actually helped with our moving cost. We used FB market place, Trade me and Neighbourly to sell our items — I prefer Neighbourly though.
Donated items that were not sold and we thought would not sell at all, were given to Salvation Army. If you have bigger items, you can fill in the form and they will schedule the collection (which we have done a few times so we know the drill). Note on this: the website is actually slower to respond to scheduling, so what I did is call the nearest Salvation Army and schedule a pick up: easier and quicker.
We didn’t do our groceries for 2 weeks. We tried to eat our left over food, and our food stash to lessen all the things we needed to transport. Plus it saves us 2 weeks worth of grocery.
Update your Address
In our case here, we need to update our IRD (taxman), Banks, Subscriptions (and through this move we got to contemplate which needed to continue or discontinue), my School and husband’s workplace and Local Utility companies. The Exit form from our previous apartment includes a forwarding address in case any mails still need to be redirected to our new address.
Discontinue / Transfer Services
We have to discontinue our water supply as our new apartment already includes water. We informed them of our final date and requested for a final reading.
We informed our Electricity and Internet providers that we are moving on such and such a date, and that we wanted their services transferred. Some provider offers both services (electricity and internet) in one package.
Here you go. Hope that helps a lot especially for those who are planning their next house move in Auckland.
CHArmed Life 