Many people are amazed at the costs of moving house. To avoid a nasty impact on your financial system, use these six ways to control the costs involved. They can lead you to change the goods you take in, the services you buy, and even the date you move.

1. Be realistic

• Don’t underestimate the size of the load, consider all your belongings, including the contents of the attic and basement and your car and boat.
• To consider all Costs include selling the house, remodeling the new house and changing services, moving services, insurance, storage, your travel, and especially your own time and energy.
• Control takes time. Get started early or be prepared to pay for help managing the move.

• The size of the load is the most important factor in the costs of packaging, loading, transportation, storage, insurance and your own efforts, even if you do it yourself.
• The amount of trash that people pay for removals often astonishes moving companies. Everybody has something. Use a critical eye to get rid of yours.
• Why carry things that you don’t use? If you haven’t used it in the last two years, you probably don’t need it. Leave that mess behind and simplify your life!
• If your major appliances are old, the new ones would save energy and money in operation. Why pay to take them with you?
• You will probably redecorate your new home. Don’t bring furniture that will be thrown away anyway when it doesn’t fit your new style.
• Don’t take your surfboard with you when you move from California to Saskatchewan. Do not take your workshop equipment home with you when you move into an apartment. Leave behind any activity gear or clothing that doesn’t fit your new lifestyle.
• A garage sale, eBay, or donations to charities are good ways to ensure that products you no longer need find good uses.

• Moving companies and moving trucks have peak times: weekends, summer school vacations, and winter vacations. At these peaks, costs are higher, moving and trucks are more difficult to come by, and time constraints can degrade the quality of work performed.
• Schedule your closing dates for flexibility in moving and to minimize temporary storage. Once I scheduled the closing of the sale and the purchase on the same date; Final legalities revealed a possible link that took days to clear and denied access to my new home, practically doubling the cost and effort of the move.
• Find out everything that needs to be done and take enough time.
• The best time for this move may be Never. When considering redecoration and real estate costs, my wife and I decided not to downsize before retirement, because we were hoping to move in upon retirement anyway.

• You can save real money on moving services by packing yourself with less expensive materials, loading and unloading the truck or container yourself, driving the load in a rented truck, or using self-storage.
• OBJECTIVE, to be realistic. Doing it yourself takes a lot of time, effort, and knowledge. There may be complications due to your inexperience, as well as unexpected costs. It requires physical work and you may not be as fit and strong as you think. Is the money savings really that great and is it worth the other costs?

• If you hire moving services, evaluate companies using word of mouth and other information, get two or three written estimates in person, make sure they cover everything to be moved, and look carefully to judge the quality of the company.
• If you rent equipment, shop around at competitive prices and make sure you know the terms and flexibility of the contract. Can you extend the time if necessary?
• When buying or looking for packaging materials, don’t skimp on protection. Obtain double-walled boxes with lids, in appropriate sizes for the contents. Use plenty of padding for fragile items and don’t stack fragile items too closely together.

• Some out-of-pocket moving expenses can probably be claimed against tax income, yew duly validated.
• Find out what is deductible and get receipts or other documentation for all those costs.

Using these six strategies, you are sure to get good value for your time and money. You will also be happier, with a well-managed move and no unpleasant surprises.