You have just bought your new Oakland home. You are going to move locally from your Alameda home, and now you need to begin to make some plans to do so. One thing that is important to know is that local moving costs are based on time. You are charged for how much time it will take the movers to move your household items from your first to your second house, and you are charged on an hourly rate for a van and the men needed to complete that move. In essence, in local moving, time is money. The more time involved in moving you, the more money it costs!  Below are some tips to save you valuable funds:
1. Pare Down Your Items In Every Way Possible--The longer you have been in your home, the more things you have accumulated. Start considering what you really need, and what you are just holding on to because you have the space. Is it worth it to you to pay for boxing, loading and unloading these itmes at a professional moving rate? Do you want to be moving all these things on your own? If the answer is negative, start contacting charities and friends who can take them off your hands. Perhaps your neighbor can use the lawnmower that you no longer will need, or the mother next door can use some of your children's toys or clothes that they have outgrown.Â
2. Consider A Variety Of Moving Containers and Options--Packing material can be expensive. New moving boxes and packing paper can be a serious financial outlay. If you have a lot of small items to pack, consider packing them yourself, well ahead of the moving date, and check out purchasing used or recycled boxes.  You can then have all this completed packing ready and waiting at the door when the movers arrive. Also consider using materials that you can continue to use at your new home. You can pack your Christmas or other holiday items in large plastic storage containers from various home supply stores, and just continue to store them that way once you arrive at your new home. It keeps you organized, and the items are clean and dry and safe.Â
3. Measure and Plan--Before you take decide to take furniture like sofas, tables, beds and dressers with you to your new home, make sure that they will actually fit into their new location. The look that you had in your old home may not fit in your new if the pieces are crowded, or have to be laid out in another floor plan because the new rooms are sized differently.Â
4. Save Money by Organizing Your Boxes--It is important to color code your boxes. The concept is that each room in your house will be assigned a certain color by you, and then each box that comes from that room, will have a piece of colored tape and label to identify where it belongs. So, if your master bedroom is going to be coded red, all red boxes will be picked up from the master bedroom in the old home, and placed into the master bedroom in the new home.  To make things even easier, furnish the movers with a colored floor plan of your new home, so they can easily find each room in which to place the boxes. With this format, no time is wasted trying to read hastily scribbled box titles, and the movers will not have to wander around attempting to guess which room they should go to.Â
Consider these as just the basic concepts of a quick and reasonably priced way of moving. Just remember that wasted time costs money, and you will soon come up with many more ideas on your own.
Posted by Bruce Wagg on
Leave A Comment