When you are planning a big move of your entire household, it’s important to ask the important questions before your plans are set in stone. Especially when working with a moving company. Every moving company has laws they must obey and their own unique process for handling packing and moving of certain items. Not all items can be moved safely simply by padding and tucking them into boxes and trundling across the country in a truck. Some of your items may be delicate, highly valuable, or even impossible to move in the truck.
So before you finalize your plans, ask these ten questions of your moving company about moving your unique, large, and high-value items.
- Which Items Do You Advise that I Move in My Car?
There are some smaller things that every moving company will tell you are better to pack up and carry in your car instead of packing them into the moving truck. These items may be of great personal importance during the move, like an overnight bag, or things that are much safer traveling with you than in the moving truck, like jewelry and house plants.
Most likely you will be given a list that looks something like this:
- Overnight Bag
- Medications
- Pets
- Small Valuables and Money
- Small House Plants
- Are There Any Items that Absolutely Cannot Go Onto a Moving Truck?
There are some items that are banned from traveling in moving trucks (or across state lines) by law, and some things that moving companies absolutely do not allow by policy because they are impractical or actively dangerous to transport. Naturally, pets cannot go in the moving truck and perishable food items are often prohibited for obvious. The law may prohibit certain types of plants from crossing state boundaries and all moving companies prohibit flammable or explosive items in the trucks. Many moving companies also won’t take a fish tank, even emptied and padded, based on policy.
- Pets
- Perishable Food
- Flammable Items and Explosives
- Plants
- Fish Tanks
- Certain House Plants
- Can You Pack My Fragile Items?
For many moving families, you are confident in your ability to throw clothes, books, linens, and most personal items into boxes that will travel safely. But if you are worried about precious items or highly breakable items like your dishes and stemware, some moving companies are willing to pack these for you as a sub-set of their packing services. You can arrange to have your entire home packed including fragile items, or save your fragile items out for the professionals to pack while you tackle all the easy-to-pack items like clothes and small appliances.
- Can You Disassemble and Reassemble My Furniture?
If you have large bulky furniture that may need to be disassembled to be removed from the home and safely moved from place to place, your moving service may be willing to handle the entire disassembly and reassembly process for you. Having your furniture moved professionally is often the ideal way to make sure that you don’t accidentally break your own furniture or lose essential parts along the way, and that your furniture will be all set up on the first day of arrival before your moving team leaves you in the new home to unpack.
This is particularly important for specialty items that need to be disassembled and safely crated before they can be moved. Movers can arrange for crating services if you have delicate instruments, artwork, or machinery.
- Can You Give Me Pointers and Supplies to Pack Valuables on My Own?
Alternately, many moving services are more than willing to meet you in the middle by selling all the right boxes, dish-grids, packing paper, and bubble-wrap. With the right supplies in hand, you can take charge of packing the fragile and special items in your home by yourself so you know
exactly how well they are padded and where they are located in each box. Your moving team will even provide you with helpful tips and a quick demonstration of how to pack your fragile items carefully so that you know how to use the special packing supplies to its greatest benefit. Of course, to get the special demonstration, you’ll need to ask because not everyone wants this easter-egg service.
- I Have a Piano and Acoustic Instruments, Can You Move Them Safely?
Pianos and similarly delicate items are in a class of their own when it comes to moving. Many moving companies won’t move them, and those that do need extra warning as it takes specialized service and careful preparation to safely move a piano. If you have a piano of any size, other large acoustic instruments, then you will need to ask your moving service about their policies and how much time they need to prepare.
- Which of My Items Need Extra Time and Protection to Pack?
Beyond instruments, there are also some specific items that may need similar extra time and services to crate them safely. Possibly in addition to climate-controlled transport to keep them safe and in good condition. Artwork, in particular, often needs special care, protection, and a cool environment to move. Antique furniture can also fall into this category, as can fish tanks which must be emptied, filled with padding, and crated.
- Artwork
- Bulky and Antique Furniture
- Pianos and Instruments
- Empty Fish Tanks
- Should I Increase My Insurance on High-Value Items?
Accidents can happen even with the most careful and professional movers, which is why it’s important to have insurance on your most high-valued items that are being moved. Artwork, pianos, medical equipment, and similarly priced possessions should be insured to cover the cost of any damage that does occur. Your movers may advise you to temporarily increase the insurance policy you already have on these items to make sure they are covered just in case of damage in transit.
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Contact us today to ask these key questions of Big Deahl’s Movers, we are ready with all the answers you need. Let us handle all your moving concerns from packing up the dishes safely to securing the transport of your most important personal items. With professional preparation, protection, and transportation, you can move your entire household quickly without worry about whether your unique items will be safe along the way.