Moving to a new apartment is one of the most ordinary situations we can experience in our life. And even though we move averagely a few times before settling for good, removals are still some of the most trying situations that can happen to us. Just working out the organization of transporting all your belongings from one place to another is a very large task and with packing, unpacking and choosing the best transport provider to assist you with removal, it becomes really huge as well as quite nerve-wracking. Fortunately there are couple of things you can do to make the move as efficient as can be as well as considerably less stressful.

Packing and securing your belongings for shipment

The most important thing you have to remember while packing is that you need a coherent list of steps that you’ll have to abide by through the whole process. It is good to create an inventory of every item you want to ship. It can not only make the packing easier but also will allow you to check if all your belongings were safely transported to your new home. Removal calls for shipping a great deal of various items, among them a big amount of little items that can be easily forgettable under the pressure of time – an inventory will ensure that you will remember to make sure they all arrived to your new home safely. Another important step is tagging all the boxes as clearly as you are able to. One of the more helpful ways of labelling boxes is by category. For example all the kitchen accessories as well as appliances should be placed into cardboards tagged ‘kitchen’, all the duvets and blankets in the box labelled ‘bedroom’ etc. You’ll quickly find out how much time labelling can save once you get to the unpacking part. Remember to label both sides and the top of the box, so that you (and the transport provider) can be sure which cardboard goes where, regardless of how they will be placed inside the transporting car.

Take special care when preparing to transport fragile things. Wrap them in protective layers of textiles as well as bubble wrap and tag them in an easily visible place (together with a “This way up” label). You also need to make sure that the hauler is aware that he’ll be transporting fragile goods as well as which boxes have to be handled with care.

When it comes to furniture, it’s crucial to take everything out of them before the removal and transport all the things inside separately. Any unattached things inside cupboards and cabinets can damage your furniture during shipment. It’s also good to close all the furniture doors as well as drawers using tape to make sure they won’t open during transportation. You can use regular Scotch tape to do that. Another issue is the matter of loading the furniture into the shipping vehicle. Ahead of attempting to move your furniture from the apartment, be certain that you’ll be able to transport them via front doors, stairways and into the elevator (if your old apartment has one). If so, you can move them without dismantling (be sure to have at least 1 person to assist you!). If they cannot, disassembling them is the sole method to transport them without harm. Be cautious with dismantling – be sure to store all the nails as well as screws in one place like in a Ziploc bag as well as that you’ve secured all the parts of the furniture sufficiently. Disassembling furniture is also smart whenever you want to use the shipping car to the maximum, as dismantled furniture will be much easier to stack efficiently.  

Whenever packing smaller things, like books, tableware, cosmetics etc., cardboards will be the most obvious choice. It’s very possible that you will need more boxes than you have – but there is a few ways to get additional boxes. Firstly you may get new boxes in all home-improvement and construction stores. But as you’ll probably require quite a few cardboards, you may choose a more affordable method. Try visiting your local shops and see if they have some cardboards they don’t need any more. Shops usually possess a great amount of needless cardboards and they are usually willing to give them away. 

Another options, instead of boxes will be using bags, especially for storing textiles and little stuff. There is a much bigger chance that you have some bags already at home. As mentioned, bags will be a sufficient choice when storing clothes, magazines as well as little things, but unfortunately they have a couple of disadvantages. Bags are much less durable than boxes and prone to tearing, should you decide to use them for transporting things with edges (like books, cutlery and so on). Moreover – stacking bags on top of each other is much more difficult than stacking boxes the same way.

One of the most tricky things to transport are houseplants. It is usually best to ship them individually, but if for some reason you cannot do that, you need to be certain that the hauler knows what he will be transporting. One day before the transportation water the plants thoroughly and give them a moment. It’s important that the plants have enough water to suffer through the transportation, but also to let them absorb what they can prior to putting them in a container (you have to pour off the excess water from the saucer, so that it won’t soak through the cardboard).

Searching for the right hauler

Certainly, besides properly securing your items for the shipment, it is also crucial to select a suitable hauler. Which factors must you take into consideration when selecting the right person? Cost of the service, of course, is important, particularly on lengthy, routes between countries, however it’s just one of the factors. Whenever transporting everything you have you should in the first place consider if your cargo will be safe in the hands of the hauler. When posting your listing on a shipping marketplace, such as Clicktrans, you not only can ask possible haulers all the questions you require an answer to before making your decision about a hauler but moreover you can read reviews left by previous customers on each hauler’s profile page. Not much can be more reliable than reviews given by a person who’s already hired the hauler you are considering.  

The cost of removal

Price of removal is really difficult to estimate, as it varies considerably due to how much the cargo weights and how big it is or the route length. If your removal consist of a lot of fragile things, the cost is probable to be higher. It’s similar for international removals – routes within one country are normally more economical than shipping your load into another country.