But there’s still one more important step to take before you can truly say your move is completed: you need to unpack! While having a few pieces of furniture is enough to sit down and relax, your home won’t truly be your own as long as there’s a pile of packed boxes everywhere you look.

At first glance, unpacking can look like an endless task, especially if you’ve made a big move and there are half a dozen rooms or more to work through. It’s important to remember that the unpacking process doesn’t have to be completed quickly, though; think of it instead as a large number of smaller jobs, some of which should be done right away, and others that can wait for a later day.

The first boxes to unpack are those that contain items that are essential to the daily routines of you and your family. For instance, you’ll want to quickly unpack mattresses and blankets so that everyone will have a place to sleep on your first night in the new home. Note that this doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll have a complete bed to sleep in on that first night; if your beds need assembly and there just isn’t the time or space necessary to complete this right after a long and tiring move, just having a comfortable mattress and some pillows can be enough to give you a good night’s sleep.

Another critical area to unpack early on is your bathroom. Again, you don’t need every single item in your bathroom right away, but toiletries and essentials like toothbrushes and soaps should be among the very first items out of the boxes.

One often overlooked area is the kitchen. Unpacking just a few basic items so that a few staples can be cooked is a great idea, and the kitchen table might be one of the first areas you clear out. Having a place where everyone can sit together and eat or talk will help make the whole process go a lot more smoothly – even if you just order a pizza for dinner on that first night.

Once the essentials are unpacked, you can have fun choosing how to unpack the rest of your belongings over the next few days. You’ll have the freedom to lay out your new home in the manner you prefer and at your own pace, without any pressure to unpack the important items that you took care of on the first day.

How can having fewer things to pack actually cause more problems? It can become an issue if you wish to use a professional moving service. Most moving companies charge customers based on the distance you are moving, the weight of your items, and the types of services you request. More importantly, these companies almost always have a minimum weight requirement, which can be a major headache if you have minimal belongings to move. Either you won’t be able to get service from these moving companies, of you’ll have to pay for the minimum weight they offer even if your items weigh much less.

This is where so-called “small movers” can come in handy. These companies exist to fill the gap between self-moving a few boxes in your own car and the more comprehensive large-scale services offered by traditional movers. Small movers will generally price your move based on the calculated weight of your items, giving you one simple, flat quote for everything you need shipped to your new home. While this rate is generally higher per pound than a traditional mover, this is easily made up for during small moves by the lack of a minimum weight.

Small movers generally have no trouble shipping items either short distances or internationally. There are numerous small movers who operate in Alberta, particularly in the Calgary area, as well as several national and international companies that can help you move between provinces and to (or from) the United States.

There are other uses for small movers, too. If you have a few unusual items that you’d like shipped separately (such as antiques or fragile valuables), you may have better luck shipping with a small mover than a general moving company. They can also be used to get the “moving service” treatment on what would normally be a standard shipping order; again, this can be a great alternative if you are shipping something valuable to a new location. Often, small movers offer some level of insurance on your items as part of their normal service, which can give you a little added piece of mind about your important items arriving safely at their destination.

1. Forgetting to Measure Doorways: This one is very easy to forget, yet extraordinarily frustrating if it affects you when you reach your new home. Make sure to figure out the measurements for all of the openings into your new home before you start packing. There’s nothing worse than taking a sofa to a new apartment or house and then finding out that there’s absolutely no way to get it into your living room. Taking measurements and figuring out what will fit into your new home will allow you to decide whether to pack or sell some of your larger items.
2. Not Accepting Free Stuff: Let’s face it – packing supplies can quickly get expensive. But why spend hundreds of dollars on boxes, crates, packing peanuts or special foam? You probably have a fair number of boxes in your current home, and your neighbors, friends, and family undoubtedly have plenty more they’ll be happy to throw your way. And there’s no reason to pay for specialty packing supplies when newspaper will usually work just fine for insulating and protecting your fragile goods.
3. Taking Your Movers for Granted: Your move is a busy and stressful experience, so it’s easy to overlook the people who are helping you get to your new home. Make sure to provide refreshments for your movers, regardless of whether it’s your family helping you or a professional moving service. If it’s the latter, make sure to give them a tip at the end, too. The nicer you treat your movers, the nicer they’ll treat your belongings!
4. Picking the Wrong Boxes for the Wrong Items: Here’s a quick tip that’s invaluable to keeping boxes safely packed. The heavier the item, the smaller the box you should try to put it in. It is fine to pack lots of light items in a large box, but even a single heavy item could cause a bigger box to split open (or make it extremely difficult to carry).
5. Being Careless with Paperwork: You should always keep a copy of your contract with your movers handy. This contract, known in Canada (and the United States) as the bill of lading, will outline what is expected of the movers and the cost of all services they’ll be providing. Having this around will prevent any unexpected disputes from arising during the move.

Depending on the circumstances of your move, the best type of temporary housing for you or your family might vary. The most critical factor in your decision is likely to be the length of time you’ll need to stay in the temporary housing.

For instance, if you’ll need a place to list for several months, you’ll probably be best suited by finding an apartment to rent in the area in which you’ll be moving. Conversely, this would be a silly choice for a situation in which you’ll only need to cover a few days before you can move into your new home; in that case, simply getting a hotel room is probably the way to go. For temporary housing that needs to last a few weeks, an extended-stay hotel room might be a good compromise.

Regardless of which of these options is best for you, there are a number of different questions you’ll want to consider before choosing your temporary housing. The following checklist should help you tie up all of the loose ends involved in the temporary housing process.

• Location: Where do you need your housing to be located? If you’ll need to commute to work during your stay in temporary housing, you’ll likely want to be near public transportation or your offices. If you have children and your temporary stay will be for a significant length of time, you’ll probably want to be near a school they can attend. Most cities will have resources that allow you to locate local schools; for instance, the Calgary Board of Education maintains a website that maps out the schools throughout the city by area and grade level.
• Budget: Make sure to look into options that you can realistically afford, but don’t sell yourself short, especially if you’ll be spending more than a few days in your temporary residence. Also, if your move is work-related, check to see if your company offers moving assistance, as that might help cover your temporary housing expenses.
• Amenities: Is there anything you’ll need to have taken care of while you’re in your temporary housing? Common needs to consider include laundry, day care services, or full kitchens that will allow you to cook meals. Keep in mind that hotels are more likely to offer “free” amenities like housekeeping and cable television, while longer-term solutions such as apartments are likely to come equipped with kitchens, but require you to pay for many other amenities.

In any of these situations, a self-storage unit can be the answer to all of your problems. There are likely to be several self-storage facilities near your current home (or in the area where you’ll be moving) that can help store your belongings until you’re ready to move them into a new house or apartment.

It can be difficult to choose between different self-storage companies, however, and many people make mistakes when packing their units. Here are a few tips that can guide you through the self-storage process:

- Get Details: When you first contact a self-storage company, make sure you know exactly what you’re getting. How large are the units? How much do they cost to rent? Will you have 24-hour access to your unit? Are there adequate safeguards against damage from water, heat and insects? Don’t choose a storage company until you feel comfortable with the answers to all of these questions.

- Pack Safely: If you’re filling a storage unit, it’s easy to just start stacking things from the floor to the ceiling until you’ve filled the entire space. This is especially common when packing more than one unit; many people will first fill a unit entirely, and then move on to the second storage space. Instead, be careful not to pack too high, where it could be difficult or dangerous to retrieve your boxes later. In addition, make sure there’s plenty of room to move around in the storage space so that you can easily get to individual boxes if you should need them.

- Label Everything: Speaking of getting to specific boxes, it’s important to label each box that you’re storing. However, simply marking each box isn’t enough; you’ll also need to ensure that all of the labels are facing outwards so that you can clearly read them.

- Check Your Locks: No matter how secure a storage yard may seem, the security is worth nothing if your individual unit can’t be properly locked. To ensure that you won’t be the victim of theft or vandalism, make sure that your locks are secure and that the storage unit closes tightly.

1. Bank Accounts: Here’s a problem that can cause you some serious headaches if you don’t plan ahead. About a month before you move, it’s a good idea to open a new checking account in your new city and begin depositing funds in that account. Granted, this is less of an issue if you’re making a small move, or if you use a major national bank with a branch in your new town. However, if you’re moving to a new province and you’re stuck with an account at an old local bank, accessing funds or writing checks might be challenging.
2. The Final Cleaning: It’s easy to forget about the next owner or renter of your current home, but you will have to do one, final thorough cleaning of your place before you leave. Not only is it easy to overlook this, but it’s also common to forget to keep cleaning products on hand to do a proper job. Of course, if all this sounds like a hassle considering everything else you need to do when moving, there’s an easier (if more expensive) option: arrange for a cleaning service to clean for you.
3. Returns and Pickups: Chances are that you have at least a few items that need to be returned before you move, like movie rentals or library books. Similarly, there are probably a few things you need to pick up, like dry cleaning or items you held in storage.
4. Make Arrangements for Pets: We’ve talked about this more extensively in other articles, but make sure that you plan ahead for cats, dogs, or other pets. They won’t be able to travel on the moving van, so you’ll need to find alternate arrangements for pets (such as having them travel with the family if you’ll be driving to your new home).
5. Hidden Items: Do you have any hidden valuables stored away somewhere secret in your home? If so, make sure you remember not to leave them behind! Actually, it’s best not to place these items like these on the moving van; instead, carry them with you personally, or use a safe deposit box to keep them secure.

Pets present their own difficulties when you’re trying to move to a new home. Not only can a cat, dog or other animal be a nuisance when you’re trying to pack or prepare for a move, they also have a very special set of needs when it comes to transporting them to a new house. Moving can be a scary or even dangerous process for an animal, and it’s important to do everything you can to make sure their move is as safe and comfortable as yours is. Here are a few ideas you can incorporate into your move in order to help your pet have a relatively enjoyable moving experience:

• Make sure your pet has identification. Even if you don’t normally have an identifying tag on your animal – for instance, if you have an indoor-only cat – you’ll want to put something on a collar to identify your pet and their new address before you move. Unfortunately, mistakes do happen, and if your pet should end up getting lost or running away, you’ll want to make sure anyone who might find them can easily return your pet to its new home.
• Check the applicable animal laws in your new home. If you’re moving over provincial or international borders, there’s always a chance that there are different laws in your new location when it comes to the transport or housing of animals. Even for cats and dogs, there may be a quarantine period that you’ll need to observe in some areas. With more exotic pets, it’s doubly important to do your due diligence here.
• Watch your pet’s behavior. While your pet won’t understand exactly what’s going on, they’re likely to get the impression that something major is changing – especially after you begin packing in earnest. This can lead to a very nervous or anxious animal, which may increase the chances of bad behavior or even running away. If you have a pet that’s having an especially difficult time dealing with a move, it may be best to keep them in a carrier or otherwise confined during the most hectic parts of the move.
• Transport your pet safely. Make certain that you have a comfortable and safe carrier for your cat or dog, and that you take any necessarily precautions when moving other pets. In most situations, pets should travel with the family, rather than on a moving van.
• Slowly integrate your pet into your new home. If you have an indoor pet, this will be a fairly easy process; let your cat or dog explore your home, and make sure your cat knows where the new litter box is located. For pets that go outdoors, only allow them outside under supervision for the first couple of weeks, since they may not yet understand where “home” is in their new neighborhood.

First Steps: To begin with, you’ll want to place a protective layer on the bottom of your trailer or van in order to protect your boxes from the hard floor of the storage area. Plastic sheeting is a popular choice, while cardboard can also work in a pinch. Next, begin loading up your heaviest items on the floor; your lighter items and boxes can go on top of furniture and heavy appliances.

Keep Your Belongings Secure: Your items may feel safe inside boxes, but without other support, those boxes may shift during your move, and a single sharp turn or sudden stop could send boxes flying – and put fragile items at risk. Use ropes or straps to tie things down inside your moving vehicle in order to prevent any unpleasant surprises.

Fill in the Gaps: No matter how professionally you pack your van, your boxes and furniture are unlikely to fit together perfectly like a jigsaw puzzle. You’ll need to use soft, malleable items to fill in those gaps, making your loading both more efficient and safer. Pillows, cushions and blankets all make great items to slip between your valuables to prevent them from becoming damaged during the move.

Fragile Items Last: Place fragile items at the top of the truck, and take extra precautions in securing them. This will prevent them from becoming unexpectedly crushed during delivery, and make it easy to remove them first when you reach your new home.

One especially good tip we’ve seen mentioned by many moving experts involves an unexpectedly fragile item – flat screen televisions. Be sure to pack these modern televisions upright; if you place them on their sides, you may cause damage to the screens, since the interior components are too heavy for the screen to support for very long.

Add a Protective Color: As a final step before you leave, you’ll want to cover your items with a plastic sheet. This will prevent your belongings from gathering dust while they sit in storage, on the truck, or anywhere else they might have to wait between being packed and being unpacked at your new home.

The steps you take early on can make the later, more work-intensive stages of your move much easier. Getting a few key things out of the way also helps prevent any unpleasant surprises or last minute realizations that you forgot to take care of important details earlier on. The following are just a few things you might want to deal with very early in the moving process.

Moving Estimates: Make sure to ask for estimates from moving companies well in advance. This not only makes budgetting for your move much easier, but also helps ensure that you’ll be able to make an appointment with a good moving company before they get booked up for your moving date.

Pack What You Can: Packing anything several weeks before you move might seem like an incredibly disruptive process. However, if you take some time to think about it, you’ll likely come up with a large number of items that can easily be packed ahead of time. Seasonal items and clothing definitely fit into this category, for instance.

Get Rid of Things You Don’t Need: Everyone has stuff they don’t plan to bring with them when it comes time to move to their new home. There are a number of different ways to get rid of unwanted items, from holding a garage sale to giving away items to friends and charitable organizations. But regardless of the methods you choose to eliminate your unwanted stuff, it’s best to do it sooner rather than later — when your moving day approaches, you’ll have plenty of other tasks to keep you busy.

Notify Everyone Of Your Move: Of course, your close friends and relatives are going to know that you’re heading to your new home. But what about your doctors, dentists, or companies that you do business with? Make sure that anyone you interact with on a regular basis receives your new contact information.

Learn About Your New Home: Now is the perfect time to do some research on your new home. What attractions are in your new neighborhood? What activities can children take part in? Can you keep taking part in the hobbies you currently enjoy? If you’re moving to the Calgary area, one great resource is liveincalgary.com, which offers information on recreational and educational activities throughout the site.

Give Children Choices

If your new home has multiple rooms that would be appropriate for your children to turn into their bedrooms, it could be a good idea to allow your children to choose their own rooms. This will give them some control over their new home, which can replace some of the nervousness about moving with excitement about their new room.

Once your child has picked their room, you might also want to let them pick out a new decoration or two so that they can make it their own. You don’t need to let them hire their own interior decorator, but even a new poster or a lamp can add that personal touch that will make the room their own.

Explain What’s Happening

Children fret about a move in large part because they don’t understand what’s happening, what to expect at their new home, and all of the other unknowns they’ll face when they get there. One great way to ease these fears is to give your children as much information as possible about the move.

For younger kids, books on moving that speak to their age level can help a lot. One recommendation made at several websites is the classic “The Berenstain Bears’ Moving Day.” For older children, you may want to talk to them about their new school, parks or other attractions in the area, and how they can continue taking part in the same activities or sports they participated in before the move.

Moving Day

When moving day comes, the role your children play may be highly dependant on their ages. Younger children might be more likely to get into the way and get upset during the move itself, so finding a babysitter or a relative for them to stay with until the move is over and the unpacking process has begun is a smart move.

On the other hand, older children may get more comfort from being involved in the moving process. If a child can help organize boxes before the move, and help unpack afterwards, it may make them feel like they’re taking a more active role in the process, rather than feeling as though it’s something that’s being done to them.

Kids First

When you reach your new home, be sure to unpack at least some of your child’s belongings right away. If your child is stuck in a new home with nothing to do for too long, they’re likely to become bored, frustrated, and upset. A few toys or other special items can go a long way towards easing them into their new surroundings.