Moving Out of State? Do This First

Many Americans are on the move, exacerbated by the aftermath of the pandemic and for many different reasons. Hundreds of thousands have left states like New York and California for states like Texas and Florida from 2020-2021. Whether you’re moving for lower taxes, housing, a new job opportunity, family or other reasons, moving can be quite a hassle if you’re unprepared.

If you’re one of the hundreds of thousands of Americans leaving your state for (hopefully) greener pastures in another, do this first:

Plan Well in Advance

Moving to another state can be a big challenge. You’ve got to consider a lot, such as obtaining residency, paying taxes, finding schools for your children, finding nearby services, transferring your business license, and perhaps a whole lot more.

There’s no doubt about it: moving out of state takes a lot of forward planning. Depending on how much stuff you need to move, the whole process of packing and moving can potentially add more stress and headaches. That’s why it really helps to do all of your planning first, then choose a move-in date, which could depend on the start of your lease or a few days/weeks prior to starting your new job, for example.

Pack All of Your Belongings

Hopefully, you’ve already planned everything ahead of time rather than just wing it for a big move. Once you’ve put in your notice for the end of your rental or foreclosed the sale of your current property, you can start getting to work packing all of your belongings for the move.

Depending on how much you need to move, the job could take a day to a week or longer. For more complex packing, you will need to have plenty of boxes, packing tape, and some extra muscle on hand to move bulky items around.It’s a good idea to work with reliable long distance movers who can help you get organized from start to finish.

One task that anyone can do (mind you, it might not be fun!) is to organize everything, room by room, into three piles: keep, toss, or ‘maybe.’ All the ‘keep’ items are things you plan to take with you, all the ‘toss’ items are junk you no longer need, and the ‘maybe’ should be decided on over the coming days before you move.

Clear Out Your Property

Before you move, you’ll need to deal with all of the sorted items in your property. Whether you’re moving everything yourself or if you’ve retained a moving company, all of the ‘keep’ items (your valuable belongings) will need to be loaded for transport.

All of the ‘toss’ items, as well as any items put in the ‘maybe’ pile that you’ve decided are no longer needed must be disposed of. The more you toss, the lighter the load, which means less gasoline, less labor, and a cheaper move. Obviously, you don’t want to be tossing away anything by accident, so maybe give it a second look to make sure everything important is with you.

How do you plan to get rid of all your unwanted junk? You could load it all up in a trailer and take it to the dump yourself, but you’ve got to sort all of that junk, pay dumping fees, and spend the better part of your day at a stinky landfill – not fun. Instead, your first instinct might be to call a junk hauler near you.

Local, independent junk haulers can get the job done at affordable prices, but they aren’t always easy to find online since most are ‘ma and pa’ small businesses. One solution is to use JunkGator to get in touch with reputable, independent junk removal businesses operating in your area.

The benefit of hiring a local junk hauler is that they’ll give you a stress-free property cleanout, hauling away all unwanted junk that you no longer need. No need to sort out recyclables from items that can be donated from other types of waste – they’ll do all of the heavy lifting for you and dispose of it in the most efficient manner.

Hit the Road, Jack

Once you’ve loaded up all of your belongings in a moving truck or your personal vehicle and your junk has all been hauled away, you’re good to go! Whether you’re driving 20 miles away or you’re going cross-country through America’s scenic landscapes, you can travel with the peace of mind knowing that you haven’t left anything important behind.

Author bio: Al Lijee is a tech entrepreneur and the founder of JunkGator, an online platform that connects Americans with independent, local junk haulers all across the United States.