Tips to Help You Save Money on Your Move

Whether you’re moving across the country or across the town, moving comes at an expense. There are many different things to help reduce the cost of your move. It’s best to have an idea of a budget to get yourself started. Selling your un-used and un-wanted items, still in good quality, gives you a chance to add more money into your budget as well.

• Compare prices with different companies. Every company is trying to compete with others. Negotiating your price for something lower may be something they will consider doing for you.

• Packing yourself. Sometimes you will find free boxes in stores, or even from friends and family. It also wouldn’t hurt to ask them if they had any materials that they didn’t use anymore.

• Purchase moving insurance. It might not happen, but accidents can occur, and your valuables won’t be fully covered by the moving companies’ insurance. A lot of time they are based off weight so overall your items won’t be covered like you may think.

Packing Books for Moving

Sometimes people don’t realize how much is needed to pack and move books. You have to do things carefully and without causing damage, or potential damage, to your collection. Before packing your books, you should go through them and make a pile for any that you don’t want anymore. This will ultimately leave you having to pack less books. But only if you want to.

After you’ve sorted your books, you should place them in a strong and sturdy box either upright, with the open sides facing the box, or flat along the sides of the box. If you have very fragile books, you should wrap them in packing paper or even newspaper. You should watch out for putting too many books in one box. They are light when you have one or two but putting a lot together will bear a heavy weight, things could start breaking and could potentially fall over in a moving truck or van. When placing them in the box you should fill the empty space with newspaper or even packing peanuts, so they won’t be shifting around in the box during transport. If you wanted to you could also carry your books in a suitcase.

As easy as it may seem, there are many factors that you need to think about before preparing to pack your precious books. The more careful you are with them, the less of an outcome of damaged books you will have.

Making Your Move Eco-Friendly

When moving, a lot of people don’t think about doing things in an eco-friendly way for the environment. There are a lot of supplies needed to do a move. To help keep things more eco-friendly you could re-use items, purchase eco-friendly material, and even give away items. Even the smallest effort makes a big impact on the environment.

Instead of getting brand new cardboard boxes, you can get reused ones. If you order from any online store, you can use the cardboard that your item came in with. You can even find used cardboard boxes for free at the store. If you have plastic boxes, you can use those as well. Newspaper is great for wrapping up individual fragile, and delicate items. There are also eco-friendly bubble wraps and packing peanuts that you can purchase for your move. It’s good to make use of the materials you already have.

Anything you do not intend to use in the future should be thrown / recycled, given, or sold away. You can hold a garage sale, take things to charity, and even ask your friends and family if they want anything. Of course, you will only be giving away items that are still in good condition. Moving can’t be 100% eco-friendly but anything helps to reduce carbon emission.