Moving News and Relocation Advice

If you are moving to a new home, try to keep these important Moving Tips about health hazards in mind. Any home, no matter how new, can have a serious health hazards for it’s new owners.

Moving Tips: Health Hazards:
1. Before you unpack, you will most likely want to do a last walk-through of your home and then break out the cleaning supplies. We have some Moving Tips for you to keep in mind while you are going through your new home cleaning.

There are serious health concerns during any move regarding dust mites and molds, and every new homeowner should be aware of Moving Tips to handle these health hazards.

Moving Tips: Home Health Hazards: Dust Mites
Dust mites are invisible to the eye and they are a very common allergen. People who have allergies to dust mites may experience symptoms such as:

Iitchy, irritated eyes, runny nose, cough
In Severe cases, shortness of breath and difficulty breathing. The onset of severe symptoms can be delayed and occur during the night many hours later.

Moving Tips: Home Health Hazards: Mold
Mold grows in warm areas where there is high humidity (generally over 70%.) Mold also grows in or on materials which have become wet and never completely dried. This is why paper and sheetrock walls or carpeting are great mold-carrying agents.
There is a variety of molds, ranging from the extremely toxic molds to the just irritating.
The toxic molds can make you very sick. Generally molds come in a variety of colors and are very visible; they may appear as spots on the covers of exposed papers, books, or even sheetrock and walls.
If molds are present, a cleaning crew should be employed to dispatch it.

Few Moving Tips are so important that they can keep you healthy, but some are! Any time that you move to a new home, you need to check the environment inside the home for serious health hazards that can affect you. If you are moving to a new home you should be aware of these health risks and take steps to avoid them.

Moving Tip: Health Hazards: External Safety Issues

Most people do not consider the health and safety risks taken on during a move. The most common moving health and safety hazards are:

1. Trips and falls due to disorganized unpacking. Boxes, furniture and moving carts take up a lot of already cramped floor space.
2. Health hazards from Manual Handling of materials. Any time that you are asked to move heavy boxes, even if it is just shifting or pulling boxed items, you run the risk of straining muscles and even jamming fingers and joints in the process.
3. Pathway Obstructions: Using the pathways in hallways for storing moving materials during your move is a huge safety risk in the event of a fire or other disaster.

Moving Tip: Health Hazards: Internal Safety Issues

The deep cleaning that is involved during a household move can release many toxic fumes that can harm employees. Special care should be taken to ventilate all areas and use cleaning agents that are eco-friendly and non-toxic.

1. Toxic Cleaning Chemicals in poorly ventilated areas can cause breathing problems and neurological damage.
2. Dust driven into the air by cleaning can cause breathing problems or worsen existing problems.
3. Mold spores can cause serious health issues. Take special care to negate any mold issues.
Once cleaning agents dust and mold are airborne they can cause real health hazards to you and your family, so take precautions.

The number one reason why people choose a Self Service Move over a Full Service Move is cost. The homeowner deciding on the Self Service Move option will need to provide all of the labor necessary for a successful move. The labor will include packing and loading all of their own items onto the trailer, and then unloading and unpacking once they have reached their final destination.

While most people choose the Self Service Move option to save money, the money saved my choosing it is often partially lost by packing items that they don’t need anymore and having them shipped. As shipping fees are based on weight, having unneeded items in your shipment adds extra weight, and increases your total final cost.

To get prepared for you Self-Service Move, start by taking an inventory of what you have.

• Move only items of use or value to you in your new home. That couch sitting in the basement might have fond memories, but if you aren’t going to have a place to put it in your new home after your Self Service Move, leave it behind.

• Be sure that all appliances and electrical equipment brought to your new home is in good working order. If you want to replace an appliance or electrical item, it is best to do it now and not pay to move the old one.

• Make sure that what you pay to ship will fit in the spaces available in your new home.

• Make sure that your inventory list is up to date. If you have decided against moving an item, take it off your list so that there won’t be confusion later on.

Long Distance moves always require a lot of decisions and considerations. The quality of the local school systems, the availability of job opportunities and the general safety of the neighborhood are all things that need to be considered when you are making a long distance move. One important consideration that if often left out in long distance moves is safety.

When you are considering a long distance move, keep home and personal safety in mind as you are looking at neighborhoods and homes. The following are safety considerations to keep in mind when you are looking for a new home:

• Attached Garages: When looking for a long distance move location candidate, homes with attached garages offer a secure entry point from the car to the home. You will not be entering and exiting your car in the open of your driveway, but instead from the safety of your garage. Ensure that there is an automatic garage door opener.
• Security Systems: Homes with installed and monitored Security Systems should be a key potential for your long distance move. Homes with security systems are over 14 times less likely to be burglarized. Criminals will bypass a home with a security system whenever possible.
• Neighborhood Watch and Crime Statistics: Your potential long distance move site should have a low crime rate, and preferably a Neighborhood Watch group. Good neighbors make safe neighborhoods.
• Open and Lit: Quiet alleys and dark cul-de-sacs are beautiful, but also targets for burglars and criminals who are looking for targets where they will be not be seen. Consider well lighted streets for safety.

Organizing an Office Move is sort of like being the ringmaster of a three ring circus but without the benefit of a rehearsal. The company doesn’t stop running just because there is an office move taking place, so not only are your employees still working, they are working on the move, with equipment and files constantly shifting all around them. This temporary maelstrom is how and why many things get left behind during office moves.

Employees undergoing an office move are trying to pack their desks and work equipment while still attempting to finish their assigned tasks and workloads. As a result, there are often a lot of items forgotten about or left behind that become crucial issues after the office move.

Here’s a simple checklist to help ensure that nothing is left behind during your office move:

• Is the desk empty?
• Are the supply cabinets cleared?
• Are the file cabinets cleared? The drawers locked?
• Are the wall items taken down?
• Are all breakable items properly packed?
• Are the computers and other machines disconnected?
• Are the network cables safely packed?
• Are the “Do Not Move” tags placed on the appropriate items?
• Liquids drained from equipment?
• Are the desk pads and chair pads labeled?
• Do you have a set of spare keys available for file cabinets and storage?

An office relocation takes months and sometimes years to plan. The biggest mistake that companies make during the last day of an office move is forgetting about the little things. Having this type of checklist handed out can avoid some last minute forgetfulness.

Getting your staff to cooperate for an office move can be tough. The fact is, an office move will require teamwork and planning so all of your staff should be onboard with the tasks that they will have to handle personally.

Your staff should understand that an office move is about more than just packing up their desk at the end of the day and showing up at a new location the next Monday. Every employee is going to have to have to take on some responsibilities for the office move.

Each employee should understand that they are responsible for the personal aspects of their office move. Personal aspects not only include pictures, plants and affects, but also the tasks of packing file folders directly related to their job responsibilities. The staff should all know that they are expected to resume their jobs tasks and functions almost immediately up return from the office relocation.

Individual staff responsibilities during an office move should include:

• Organize office files for packing and transportation.
• Clean-up of storage and common areas.
• Clean-up of computer disk/network space.
• Personal belongings. Your staff should be told to take any items of value or “breakables” home before the move. Items that they want in the new office can be brought back after the move.

Employees will usually be asked to pack these items in large professional moving boxes that are provided, along with labels to appropriately tag each box. The labels will mark which office location the box came from, and which desk/cubicle location the boxes need to be relocated to.

Office moves require a lot of team work, so make sure your team knows what work is required of them.

When a commercial move requires selective equipment and expertise, you have to know that you can count on a moving broker to have the right connections to get the right moving company for your job.

Your moving broker should work with companies that are specifically chosen to be able to move and pack heavy machinery or even sensitive equipment. They should have experience in commercial moves that range anywhere from industrial and commercial equipment, such as presses and lathes, to sensitive semiconductor and medical equipment.

Your moving broker should work with a moving company that can be ready and able to haul anything from one piece of large machinery to an entire inventory of equipment from factory relocations.

Your moving broker should have the company contacts that have the equipment, experience and personnel capable of handling all of your equipment moves and installation needs. The moving crew should be trained to deal with moving large, specialized equipment and machinery in a wide variety of manufacturing environments.

From mills and lathes, hydraulic presses and complete manufacturing or packaging lines, a quality moving broker will have the contacts that you need to get your manufacturing or construction business relocated and up and running in a professional and knowledgeable atmosphere.

If your company has sensitive material needs, your moving broker should have those businesses working them also. These moving companies will be able to sensitive equipment in clean-room environments such as semiconductor, medical device and nanotechnology equipment. Their personnel should be trained and experienced with clean-room services and protocols.

When you need specialized services, your moving broker is your best resource.

Self-Service Office moves are not unusual for small business owners; many people consider Self-Service moves something that only homeowners undertaking residential moves look into, but that is not always the case.

The same money-saving options that make Self-Service moves so appealing to homeowners also apply to small business owners. While corporate moves often require up to a year of planning and entire teams devoted to a smooth transition, smaller office moves can be highly successful with just team of one or two people, if they are planned accordingly.

If you are looking to move your small business, a Self-service office move might be a great option for you to keep your budget intact while you move to better grow your business.

A self-service office move is chosen most often on the basic principles of reduced goods and cost. When you are only moving a small office and team, you will not need the larger trailers and data center options that corporations require. A small office move can be done with only the self-service move options of a truck and driver.

With the Office Self Service Move option, a professional truck driver will take care of the driving and make sure that your possessions arrive at your new destination safely. We will co-ordinate the delivery of the truck to your business and you take care of packing, loading and then unloading your packed items. The driver will take your goods and drive to your new office location.

Consider a Self-service Office Move for your small business needs.

The stress of long distance moving due to a change in employement is something that you should not take lightly. When a corporation requests that an employee undergo a long distance move, the decision is made because the corporation knows that the employee is not only worth keeping, but that they are vital enough to be needed at another location, expenses paid. Because of this need, the employee is often given incentives such as increased salary or benefits.

The incentive of increased salary or benefits is often enough to make an employee agree to move long distance, however the long distance move itself is something that will affect your entire family.

Long distance moving ranks along with divorce and death of a loved one in sheer stress. A long distance move is something that the entire family must agree on and participate in for the move to be successful and for the family to make it through emotionally intact.
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If you are an employee that has been asked by your company to move long distance, you should take the time to talk the long distance move over with your family and gain their support.

It is possible that the long distance move will result in a bigger home for your family, a better community and school systems. While this is a compelling reason for most parents, these arguments will often fall of deaf ears to kids.

A long distance move will also mean that children will have to find new friends and attend new schools, leaving old friends far behind. Do not try to minimize this trauma to your children, but instead understand their fears and attempt to engage them in the adventure of a long distance move.
A long distance move due to a corporation relocation is a stressful event for the entire family, so try to include them in the decision.

We have come to the end of our series on creating a budget for your local move. Working with a budget first is one of most cost and energy efficient plans for your move because a budget for your local move will help you stay focused and keep your finances on target.

If you are the type of person who wants to rush headlong into the labor-intensive part of your local move, we hope that we have convinced you to take a step back and create a budget first. The boxes will still be there, ready be filled, and the moving truck will not arrive until you set a date, so there is no need to rush. Take the time to plan out a budget for your local move and save yourself lots of time and money in the process.

Now that you have areas listed for the general costs of your local move and you have gained your estimates, it is time to tally everything up to come up with your total cost.

This can be done easily by using your software template to calculate the final tally. Once you have that number, remember to multiply it by 5-7% for any contingencies.
With everything laid out in front of you, this is the perfect time to see where you can trip your expenses to save, and where you can add a little extra to keep you sane. For instance, if you have saved a lot on your local move budget by deciding on a self-service move instead of a full-service move, then perhaps you could use some of the saved money to increase your insurance protection for your household items.