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On The Move
by Christine Vick
 You’re changing jobs. The apartment that seemed spacious three years ago is now feeling cramped. You’d like to live closer to your aging parents. There are many reasons for needing a new home, but they all mean one thing: you’re moving. Whether you’ll be hauling your own boxes or hiring pros, you have a lot of work ahead of you. Here’s what to avoid, what to plan for, and how to deal with tight budgets and prevent unexpected situations.
1. UH-OH THE COMMON PITFALLS AND MISCONCEPTIONS
“I Have Time” — “People come crashing into moving day completely unprepared,” says moving specialist Linda Rothschild. ““They think, ‘I’ll just take everything I own and deal with it in my new location.’ They don’t realize how much time and effort coordinating a move takes.”
 “My Company Is Giving Me a Great Relocation Package” — Don’t get lulled into a false sense of security because the move is fully paid for and a relocation firm is managing all the details. If you’re planning to have the movers pack everything that needs packing, think again, warns professional organizer Jody Adams. Movers pack room by room—meaning that whatever is in the master bedroom on moving day gets placed into boxes labeled “master bedroom.” So if your vacuum cleaner happened to be in the room, it’ll end up in a master bedroom box, whether you expect it to or not. Similarly, the entire contents of your kitchen “junk drawer” will be dumped into a box, unsorted. “A little preplanning goes a long way on the other end,” says Adams. “It’s worth taking time to sort and organize well before packing begins.”
“We Don’t Have That Much Stuff” — It’s easy to underestimate what you own and how long culling through the attic and basement will take. Ideally, the sorting process should start months ahead of the actual move, and it’s a great time to take stock of what you actually need and use. “I help people figure out what they’re keeping and why,” says Rothschild.
Christine Vick
Christine Vick is a Senior Editor at Organize.
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