Changing house is among the most common situations we can come across in our life. And despite the fact we move at least a few times in our lifetime, removals are still among the most nerve-wracking situations that can happen to us. Just figuring out the logistics of transporting all your belongings from one place to another is quite a task and with securing your belongings for transportation, unpacking and selecting the suitable company to help you with removal, it becomes really colossal as well as very stressful. Luckily there are a few ways to make the move as efficient as can be and significantly less nerve-wracking.

Packing and securing your items for shipment

One crucial tip you should remember while preparing for the removal is that you need a clear plan that you’ll have to abide by through the whole process. It is smart to create an inventory of all the things you need to transport. It can not only make the packing easier but also will allow you to make sure that all your belongings were safely transported to your new home. Removal calls for shipping a great deal of various items, including a lot of little items that can be easily misplaced under the pressure of time – an inventory will ensure that you will remember to make sure they all made it to the place of destination safely. The next important step is labelling all the cardboards as precisely as you are able to. One of the most helpful ways of labelling boxes is by category. For example all the kitchen accessories as well as devices should be placed into boxes tagged ‘kitchen’, all the duvets as well as personal items in the box labelled ‘bedroom’ and so on. You’ll quickly find out how time-saving tagging can be once you get to the unpacking part. Remember to label both sides and the top of the box, so that you (as well as the hauler) can be sure which cardboard goes where, no matter how they will be placed in the shipping car.

Take special care with fragile things. Enclose them in protective layers of fabric and bubble wrap and then tag them in an easily visible place (together with a “This way up” label). You should also make sure that the transport provider knows that he’ll be transporting delicate load and which cardboards have to be handled with care.

When you are shipping furniture, it’s important to take everything out of them prior to the removal and ship everything that was inside separately. Any unattached items inside cupboards and cabinets could damage your furniture during shipment. Additionally it is smart to secure all the furniture doors and drawers using tape to make sure they cannot open during transportation. You may use ordinary Scotch tape to do that. There is also a matter of putting the furniture into the shipping car. Before attempting to move your furniture from the house, make sure that they will fit through the front doors, stairways or into the elevator (if your old apartment has one). If so, you can transport them without dismantling (be sure to have at least one person to assist you!). If they cannot, dismantling them is the sole way to move them safely. Be cautious with dismantling – be sure to store all the pins as well as bolts in one place for example in a Ziploc bag as well as that you’ve secured all the elements of the furniture properly. Disassembling furniture is also a good idea when you want to fill the shipping car to the maximum, because dismantled furniture will take a lot less place.  

Whenever securing smaller things, such as books, tableware, decorations and much more, cardboards will be the smartest choice. It’s probable that you won’t have enough boxes to fit all your belongings – but there is a few methods to get additional boxes. For example you can acquire new cardboards in most of the home-improvement and construction stores. But since you’ll most likely need lots of boxes, you can decide upon a more budget-friendly method. Visit nearby stores and ask if they have any cardboards they no longer need. Shops tend to possess a lot of unnecessary cardboards and most of the time they are willing to share. 

Another options, instead of boxes would be using bags, especially for storing clothes as well as small stuff. There is a much bigger chance that you will find the bags at home. As stated above, bags will serve as an adequate choice when storing clothes, magazines and small things, there are some downsides, though. Bags are much less durable than boxes as well as susceptible to breaking, should you choose to use them for storing items with edges (for example books, cutlery etc.). Also – stacking bags on top of each other is much harder than stacking boxes in similar fashion.

One of the most difficult items to transport are houseplants. It’s always best to transport them by yourself, but if something prevents you from doing that, you need to be certain that the transport provider is aware of what he is going to ship. A day before the move water the plants thoroughly and give them a moment. It’s important that the plants are watered enough to endure the shipment, but it’s equally important to let them absorb what they can before placing the plants in a box (you have to pour off the excess water from the saucer, so that it won’t soak through the box).

Selecting the best hauler

Obviously, besides properly securing your cargo for the time of transportation, it is also crucial to select a suitable transport provider. What factors should you take into consideration while making your decision? Cost of the service, obviously, is important, particularly on lengthy, routes between countries, however it’s just one of the things to consider. When transporting everything you have you have to firstly think if your cargo will be properly protected when given to the transport provider. When listing your delivery on a shipping marketplace, like Clicktrans, you not only can ask possible transport providers all the questions you require an answer to before deciding upon a transport provider but moreover you can check out feedback left by previous customers on every transport provider’s profile page. Not much can be more believable than feedback left by someone who’s already used the services of the transport provider you are considering.  

The cost of removal

Price of removal is really difficult to asses, because it varies considerably due to how much the cargo weights and how big it is as well as the route length. If you plan to ship many fragile things, the cost is probable to be higher. The same goes for removals between countries – domestic routes are usually more economical than moving your load across borders.