by Crystal Shimo

Created on: July 22, 2009

What to do before moving can depend on what type of place you are moving into. If you are moving into an apartment, all you have to do to prepare is to get all your stuff boxed up so that it can be moved to the apartment when you pay the deposit and first months rent. Most apartments, at least in this location, have utilities included, so when you get ready to move to the apartment, everything is already turned on.

If you are moving to an apartment or house that does not include utilities, you need to turn the utilities on before you move. If you don't do that, you risk not having utilities in either house. And the first night in the new house is generally one that you want to make a quick dinner. If the utilities aren't on, that would not be possible. Besides, if you are a renter, a lot of landlords won't let you even begin to move until you can prove that the utilities have been paid for and are turned on in the new place.

Another thing to do is to make sure and label all the boxes so that when you move them into the new place, it can get placed in the appropriate room and you don't have to search for three days for something you need before everything is unpacked. Keep at least one pair of clothing and one blanket and pillow per person that is moving so that you don't have to unpack everything the first night in the new house. When you move, the first night in the new house is usually the most exhausting because you moved the majority if not all of your furniture and boxes during that day.

Be sure and have a plan for moving your things as well. Either a plan and money saved up to rent a moving van, or plan for friends and family to come over and assist with moving things in their trucks and cars. Either way, it would take forever if you only had one or two cars to move things with, and most furniture cannot fit into cars, trucks or moving vans are needed for at least the furniture. The more friends that help out, and the bigger the vans and cars, the faster that moving will happen.

Also, make sure to have minutes on a cell phone and the cell phone fully charged. Another suggestion is to make sure you have plenty of movies on stock, especially if you have kids, and make sure you know where the box is that contains them. As you move, it takes time for the phone company, and the cable company to set up a time to move your services to a new house. It isn't so bad in some areas, but where I currently move, it takes two weeks between the time that services are shut off in your old place to the time they have someone set up services in your new place.

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