15 Common Mistakes while House Shifting and How To Avoid Them?
House shifting is not exactly a delightful experience even in the best of times. It is an arduous activity and takes a toll on your emotional headspace, your hard-earned money, and your time.
House shifting makes you undergo a wide spectrum of emotions. You are thrilled, perplexed, gloomy, home-sick, active, and drained at the same time. You experience a lot of mood swings now and then. It is natural for you to miss out on important things leading to several house shifting mistakes.
After analysing the general scenario of the movers, I have short-listed a list of 15 probable mistakes that we can make during household shifting. So, here are 15 common mistakes that we make while house shifting and the ways to avoid them:
1. Moving sans strategy:
A successful house shifting requires preparation in advance. You should have a consolidated plan to conduct your move without any hurdles. If you don’t devise a plan for your move, you can end up in a chaotic situation.
You will not be able to locate the important things in your household when you will need them. You won’t be able to fit the house shifting within the limits of your budget. Moving sans strategy is going to make the entire house shifting an unpleasant experience.
2. Trying the DIY way:
House shifting is a multifarious and complicated process. It involves packing, loading, moving, unloading, and unpacking. You might be making a big mistake trying to execute this complex task all by yourself. Since you do not have any prior experience in packing your belongings or loading them in a proper way, you may end up damaging them.
Get professional help. Check for the best-suited packers and movers according to your budget and preferences near your area. The competent team of packers and movers will carry out your move with pace and precision.
3. Procrastinating:
Procrastination is one of the worst habits that you can ever develop in your life. Piling up things for the last minute creates unnecessary stress and results in an unfavorable outcome. Do not procrastinate regarding your house shifting or you might land up in a mess. Strategies a plan and start implementing it right away.
4. Not being able to de-clutter:
De-cluttering is an integral part of house shifting. If you do not separate the essential things from the inessentials, you will be carrying a lot of extra things that are downright useless. The size of your move will increase considerably and the cost of the move will also upsurge.
Therefore, you should de-clutter your belongings and filter out the essentials from the junk. You can sell or donate the reusable stuff. Discard the damaged items as it will serve no purpose to anyone. Cutting down the size of the move will reduce the moving charges to a great extent.
Read: Diy tips for packing up goods before moving
5. Falling prey to a fraudulent company:
Do not finalize your moving company in haste. You should verify the background of the company before signing the final contract. Consider visiting their office and checking their credentials. See if they can produce their trade license, IBA-authorisation, and company PAN card without any hesitation.
If a company cannot produce these documents, it is a potential fraud company. Do not pay any of the entire moving cost in advance through cash transactions. In case you fall prey to a fraudulent company, your life will become wretched.
6. Not packing an overnight box:
An overnight box is the first thing that you should pack as you plan for a house shifting and it is also the first box that you should unpack as you move into your new house. An overnight box should contain all the things that you will need on the first day after you shift to your new house. A dental kit, a set of fresh clothes and undergarments, a towel, a bed sheet, basic toiletries, and a dental kit are some things you should pack in your overnight box.
If you do not pack an overnight box before the day of the move, you will have to face utterly chaotic consequences. You will not be able to find out anything that you need on an immediate basis. Do not make this mistake.
7. Not getting proper packing supplies:
The quality of the packing materials plays a significant role in a successful house shifting. Many of the moving companies that are not reputed play a common trick with their customers. They use second-hand packing boxes for packing your belongings.
There is always a risk of the boxes falling apart as they get loaded and unloaded. Moreover, the old boxes can be infested with termites and that can completely ruin your belongings. Ensure the quality of the packing boxes as your packers and movers Delhi to Kolkata arrive at your place to pack your belongings on the day of the move.
8. Incorrect packing techniques:
If the packers and movers are not competent enough, they will not be able to pack your things in the right way. When choosing the packers and movers, make sure that you choose a company that employs a trained and experienced workforce.
Skilled labourers will handle your things the right way and your belongings will not get damaged. This is also the reason why it is not a feasible idea to conduct a DIY packing since you do not have professional knowhow of doing so.
9. Not measuring the furniture:
This is something that you should do before the day of your move. Consider measuring your furniture and the width of the doors. You have to carry the pieces of furniture through the same doors. Measuring them will give you a clear idea about which furniture can pass through the door without hassle. Otherwise, you can ask the packers and movers to dismantle your furniture and load it in the moving truck.
If you don’t measure your furniture beforehand, you will face difficulty in moving them. The packers and movers team will not be informed about the dismantling of the furniture and this whole process will become chaotic. Your belongings or the walls can also get scrapped and damaged due to your mistake.
Read: How to do safe relocation of your car
10. Not marking the boxes:
Marking the boxes is very important. As soon as the team of packers and movers finish packing each box, they write down the names of the rooms on them.
This denotes that the particular box contains commodities for that specific room. You can also assign every room with separate colours and stick labels of those colours to mark the boxes. This makes the whole house shifting process a lot more organised.
If you do not mark the boxes, there will be a lot of confusion after you shift to your new house. Since all the packing boxes look identical from the outside, you will not be able to tell apart which box contains what commodities.
11. Lifting the wrong way:
This particular point is valid if you are considering a DIY move. You don’t have any prior knowledge about packing and moving your belongings in a professional way. You will not know how to lift heavy pieces of furniture and other bulky appliances.
Lifting them in the wrong way can cause a permanent injury to your spine. Be very careful about your back and knees as you lift the heavy items to move them to your new house.
12. Wrong-sized moving vehicle
If your moving vehicle is not of the appropriate size, it can be a big problem. If the number of boxes exceeds the capacity of the moving vehicle, you will need to arrange for another means of transport to carry your belongings. It is important to be sure of the size of your move to determine the size of the moving vehicle.
13. Not conducting the pre-move survey:
As I mentioned earlier, it is important to determine the size of the move. To do so, you should conduct a pre-move survey by a reputed moving company. They send one of their representatives to your place and they check your belongings and make a list of all the prime items.
According to the survey, they calculate the size of the move and the weight of the move. The moving company sends you an in-bound cost quotation based on the survey report.
If you do not conduct a pre-move survey, you will not be able to derive the size of your move.
Moreover, your moving company will quote you the moving charges assuming the size of the move. There will be no transparency in the deal between you and the moving company. They may ask you to pay more after the completion of the house shifting saying that they were unaware of so many extra boxes.
14. Not availing of insurance:
The safety of your belongings is your primary concern. Availing of moving insurance assures the safety of your goods on the go. Moving insurance is also called in-transit insurance. During intercity house shifting, there can be some unprecedented mishaps on the way.
Your goods can get misplaced or damaged. In such cases, the moving company compensates you either by repairing the damaged products or by reimbursing the value of the product.
If you do not avail of moving insurance, there is a high risk of losing your belongings and your money as well. It is a terrible mistake not to avail of insurance during your house shifting.
15. Forgetting about utility services:
Utility services are those essential services that we need to sustain on a regular basis. Services like electricity, water, gas, internet, and DTH are some of the utility services in our modern-day lifestyle. As you shift from one house to another, you need to terminate the utility services on the day of the move.
You have to avail of the same services from different utility service providers in your new locale. Don’t forget to manage the utility services in a proactive way.
If you forget to juggle the utility services, you will land up in a messy situation. First of all, you have to pay for the services even after you have shifted from your previous house. Again, not subscribing to the new utility connections on time will give you bigger trouble of living without water, electricity, gas, etc.
Summary
House shifting is a complicated activity and we have to take care of multiple aspects at the same time. This article is to remind you of all the probable common mistakes that we make while house shifting and the effective ways to avoid them. I hope that you will feel sorted after reading this. I wish you a happy and careful house shifting!
