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Set Up Utilities: Call to have your utilities turned on the day before you arrive at your new place. Don’t forget cable and internet.
Appraisal of Current Needs: Before you even think about moving things that you don’t even want anymore, consider if you have anything that needs to be replaced. Why move an old mattress when you could have a brand new one waiting in your new home? Think about other large items that will be difficult to transport and consider buying the item new in your new city.
Medical Records: Grab medical records from your school, if you have any.
Transfer Prescriptions
Open Bank Accounts: Some banks have a painless transfer of accounts, although with others it can be a complete mess. Be prepared for the mess, and be pleasantly surprised if one doesn’t happen.
Return Library Books/Rented Videos: If you happen to leave town without taking care of this, you most likely will forget once you are in a new place. This is an annoying task, but not as annoying as the fine that will accrue if you don’t take care of this before you go.
Prepare Your Car for the Road: Have your vehicle serviced (oil change, rotate tires, etc.). Do this as early as you can in case the mechanics find something that will require you to come back for a second visit.
No More Groceries: Don’t go to the grocery store for anything other than essentials. The idea is to begin paring down your food supply so that you have less to move and less to throw away.
Music Scene: Search for the music scene in your new location to find out if there are concerts you want to see soon after you arrive.

*All the Things You Will Miss* Visit all the restaurants, parks, theaters, shops, and anything else that you will not have access to once you move. End your time in this town and on this campus on the best note possible. Do the things you enjoy.

Packing Bikes: Visit a bike shop for a box to pack your bike.
Heavy Boxes: Sit all boxes of books and heavy stuff on the floor so that lighter boxes can go on top.
Stacking Breakables: Find a place on the floor for breakables so that they can’t fall off of anything.
Rental Truck Emergency Kit: Buy some windshield wiper fluid, anti-freeze or coolant, and motor oil. This truck will be pulling a heavy load and it might need more than just gas to get there.
Buy a Lock: Buy a lock so that you can secure the back door to your truck.
Road Supplies: Make a list of things that you want to have in the car with you, either to eat, drink, or occupy your mind.
Lodging Reservations: If you will be stopping in an area with many lodging choices, it is best to grab a room when you arrive to get the best price. But if you don’t want to drive around looking for places, then reserve a room in advance. If you are camping in a state park, it is best to reserve a space before you leave.
Always Double-Check: Double-check reservations at campgrounds, hotels, motels, Aunt Jane’s just to be on the safe side.
Road Trip Essentials: If you are renting a moving trucks, know that they are only equipped with the barest essentials, often without a tape deck or CD player, sometimes even without FM radio. Check your particular truck and decide if you can travel that far without some good tunes. Buying a small radio or MP3 player might be a good investment.
Consider Unloading: If you can, pack such that what you want to come off first is put on last. Mainly items that will be going upstairs or toward the back of the house should be loaded last, so they can come off first.
Towing a Vehicle: If you are towing a vehicle behind your rental truck, make sure the trailer has a working tow package. This means that the brake lights, tail lights, blinkers, and trailer brakes are all in working order.
Parking Your Rental Truck: If you are traveling on multiple nights, make sure to park your truck smartly. Find a wall or a tree or some otherwise immovable place where you can back the truck right up close. This way, if someone happens to break into your truck, they won’t be able to get many items out.
Moving In: If you have items that will just go into storage in your new home, such as in the basement or in a closet, be sure to take these boxes straight there. Don’t just drop off boxes right inside the door because it’s easy. Take them where they need to go because you will end up stepping over them throughout moving day.
One Extra Day: It is a smart idea to compare the pricing difference if you kept the truck one extra day. People often underestimate how draining the whole moving process can be, and if you are hurrying all day so that you can return the truck by five, you will most likely make extra work on yourself by not moving the right things to the right room. Find out what it would be worth to you to be able to take breaks, work at a nice pace, and take the truck back the next day. It could be such a small amount that it will be worth it to pay for the extra time and have the option to be tired and work smartly.
Gas up the Truck: Be sure to take the rental truck back with a full tank of gas, as they will charge you an extraordinary amount per gallon if they have to fill it.

Moving Company/Rental Truck: Hire a moving company or reserve a rental truck first thing, especially in a college town. You and everybody else are looking for a truck to rent. Make sure you get one first.
Cleaning Your Apartment: With finals, graduation, your new job, and your lease running out, it will likely be the case that you will be packing all your things in a couple days, maybe even less. But don’t neglect your apartment, dorm, or student housing. They will have no problems fining you for an unkempt apartment. While it is hard to fully clean a place you will never see again, it was part of the lease agreement, and there is no point throwing away good money when all you need to do is a couple hours of cleaning.
College Furniture: If you have furniture, consider how closely you are tied to it. You are a professional now, and it might be time to jettison that old college furniture. Also, it will be cheaper and easier to move to your new city without having to rent a bigger truck for all of your old furniture.
Carpet Cleaning: If your carpet is a mess, and it is up to you to make it right, hire a carpet cleaning service to remedy all the spills and stains in your carpet.
Light Bulbs: Remember to replace all the light bulbs that have burnt out. This is part of most leases, so be sure to do this.
Locating Boxes: If you are looking to locate some cheap boxes, bars and liquor stores always have the best ones. Because of the weight of what is going in their boxes is so heavy, they are built to be sturdy. So don’t worry about books or other heavy objects breaking them.

*Most Important Thing* Find a sticker for your car that shows that you are an alum. This is a great way to meet people, and also might help if another alum spots you having car trouble.

There are two primary reasons why homeowners move into a fixer-upper: to remodel it for resale (and hopefully, profit) and to remodel it for long-term living. The temptation to move into a fixer-upper is a strong one, especially if you’ve found a place in a great location or with great potential. Be aware, however, that creating your dream home (or, if you’re planning on flipping the property, someone else’s dream home) is a difficult task even for those with plenty of experience. Most folks who decide that remodeling for resale is for them will find out quickly that remodeling old houses is easier said than done. This process can, however, be made decidedly more agreeable with a little good advice and a lot of early planning!

Don’t Live in a Space You’re Remodeling for Resale
If you are remodeling for resale, there is a good chance that the property you’ll be working on will not be your primary residence while the work is being done. This scenario is, of course, ideal. Living in a half-functional house is more of a pain than many imagine it will be; if at all possible, don’t live in the space you are planning to renovate.

Those remodeling old houses that they plan on keeping as a long-term residence may have no other choice but to reside in the house they are working on. In this situation, find a nearby storage unit to house your belongings for the duration of the project. Giving yourself more room in your home from storing some of your possessions, can provide a bigger, better work environment in your home. Storage units are fairly inexpensive, and if you find that you cannot go two days without some items, just go back to the unit and get what you need.

Work in Order when Remodeling Old Houses
Renovating a fixer-upper is a big job, but you will make it even bigger if you don’t perform steps in the right order. If you fix and paint all of your plaster walls before you upgrade your wiring, for example, you’ll most likely have to redo a portion of the work you’ve already finished. Folks remodeling old houses are likely to have a huge list of things to do before the home will be considered complete; by planning that list carefully, you’ll avoid the hassle and expense of backtracking.

While there will be exceptions to every rule, you’ll typically want to begin with your roofing, as a leaky roof can cause damage to just about everything underneath it. From there you’ll want to focus on the main systems of the house: electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling. If your floors are sturdy enough to walk on safely, you can leave them until last to avoid scuffing or staining during your other projects, but if they aren’t stable (a common problem when remodeling old houses), you may want to tackle these before you do your walls, counters, and ceilings.

Remodeling for Resale on a Budget
To some, remodeling for resale is serious business; for others, it is more of a hobby that produces a little extra income. For the former, the amount spent during the remodeling process is a key element in the success of the project. Those who flip houses for a living know that some smaller, less expensive improvements can bear considerable fruit when it comes time to sell. Remodeling for resale is a science, and those who do it well understand that it is often these relatively small upgrades that make a home a winner.

Since what prospective buyers want from a house varies considerably from place to place and from year to year, it is impossible to say in one article which projects are the most effective when remodeling for resale. However, we can give you an idea of what many successful small remodeling projects have in common. In general, remodeling older houses is best when improvements focus on bringing modern conveniences to the space without sacrificing the classic feel of the house itself. Fitting a 200 year old house with a modern, energy-efficient central heating and cooling system is probably a good idea; replacing the original wood flooring with modern laminate, on the other hand, is less likely to be beneficial.

When you can only afford smaller improvements, make sure that the projects you choose enhance function as well as form. Regrouting and polishing existing tile in kitchens and bathrooms, for example, is a very inexpensive project, but it will breathe new life into old walls, floors, and counters as well as protect the backing behind those tiles from water damage. To figure out which smaller projects are right for your fixer-upper remodel, all you really have to do is look at the house objectively. Take a walk through the entire house and note everything from sticking doors to two-pronged outlets. Once you’ve got everything down on paper, you can easily look up the material costs for each project and decide which ones will do the most good for the least amount of money!

As with all forms of insurance, the answer to this question boils down to money and statistics. But both of these factors suggest moving insurance is a better idea than most people think. The Department of Transportation registers 4,000 complaints annually, while the Better Business Bureau has seen complaints against moving companies nearly triple in the last decade. At the same, while the exact cost of buying policies will vary considerably, the average cost is usually less than 1.5% of the value of your goods. That said, you need to be fully informed about this type of insurance before make a decision. And it’s more complicated than you think. Here are some of the facts you need to know when considering whether moving insurance is right for you and which kind.

Moving Insurance Myths

• Many people mistakenly believe their belongings are covered from loss and damage through their homeowners insurance. Most homeowners’ insurance policies do not provide coverage for your household goods for moving purposes, although you should check with your agent. Often, you will find that goods are covered against damages while the movers are in your home packing, but not while the goods are in the movers’ possession.
• Ok, but the moving company itself makes guarantees against lost or damaged items, right? Only to a certain extent and often less than you think. They provide valuation for your items. Essentially, if they are found liable, they will pay you a certain percentage of the value of your goods. Most often, these companies pay per pound, usually $.60 per pound (not a good idea if you’re moving stereo equipment, musical instruments, etc.). Sometimes, they provide replacement value. These valuation policies don’t provide you from “acts of God,” as moving insurance does.
• Can’t I buy insurance from my moving company? Usually not. To prevent abuse and scams, in most states moving companies are prohibited by law from selling insurance.

• Types of Moving Insurance
  To be sure that your goods are protected each step of the way, including if your belongings need to go into storage, you must purchase an actual moving insurance policy. Here are two main policy types, as offered by industry leader, Movinginsurance.com:
• Full Replacement Value – Valued Inventory—is offered for Interstate (moving from state to state), Intrastate (moving within the same state) and International shipments. It provides coverage based on an itemized and valued inventory prepared by the assured (the customer buying the policy) prior to the shipment date. Please note that the value assigned to the articles should be the cost of replacement at your new destination. Any settlement based on this type of coverage would be the lesser of repair costs or the amount declared on the valued inventory.
• Example: You have purchased a sofa in 1999 for $400. The current replacement value to purchase a like/kind sofa is $900. You should list the sofa’s value at $900. If you list the value at the $400 purchase price, and the sofa is damaged or destroyed during the move, you would be limited to a maximum repair or replacement settlement at the amount you declared on the high value inventory.
• This option is the most comprehensive and is the best coverage available, as it does not reduce the settlement amount for depreciation or a co-insurance penalty. This completed inventory could also act as a base for your Homeowners’ or Renters’ insurance policy at the new location.
• Full Replacement Value – Lump Sum—is offered for Interstate (from one state to another) and International shipments only. This option provides coverage based on the total declared value/lump sum of the shipment. To avoid being under insured, it is required you declare a value equal to at least $8.00 times the total weight of your shipment and that high value items be specifically declared and valued. In other words, if your shipment weighs 3,000 pounds, you need to insure it for a minimum of $24,000 and indicate the individual value of your high value items.
• With this option, items valued at less than $500.00 per item do not need to be specifically declared and listed on the inventory list, however, to be sure that these items are covered, you MUST include their value in your total Declared Value.

Remodeling can be a very fun and rewarding experience, especially if the renovation in question has been a long time coming. However, the loud noises, lack of privacy, and overall messiness that comes with living through renovations is enough to drive even the most mellow homeowners batty! In many cases, dealing with home contractors is enough of a hassle that temporarily moving out is well worth the trouble; however, if you can find a way to keep some semblance of normalcy throughout your remodeling project, there is little need to vacate your own premises. Here are some tips to help you deal with remodeling contractors, and a little advice that every homeowner should hear when living through renovations.

Dealing with Home Contractors During Major Remodels
While most of us have no trouble handling a plumber or electrician’s visit that lasts an hour or two, dealing with home contractors that will be on hand for weeks (even months) at a time is a far different story. The constant mess, frequent noise, and never-ending entering and exiting of crew members can be quite a bother, but, as with any relationship, good communication is the most effective tool when living through renovations.

Dealing with home contractors starts well before any service provider ever enters your house, by finding a company you feel comfortable with. Always make sure to talk to and get estimates from at least three (but ideally four or five) companies before you settle on one. If you find a company that you feel comfortable with from the start, it will be much easier to lay down your ground rules and far less difficult to respectfully voice any complaints you have about the work going on, the conduct of your crew, or any other facet of the job that concerns you.

Of course, dealing with home contractors is not only about raising complaints! In most cases, the best homeowner-contractor relationships are a combination of courtesy and mutual respect. If a crew is going to be working in your home for 8 hours a day, they will have certain needs. Designate a spot for lunch and provide information on nearby restaurants; if they don’t bring a port-a-john to the jobsite, allow your crew use of your bathroom. Remember, an ounce of good will goes a long way! If you really want to make your crew’s day, start it off once a week with hot coffee and doughnuts; you may be surprised at how much good will that kind of small courtesy returns.

When Living Through Renovations Is Not an Option
Any contractor that has experience in major renovations knows that the mess and noise his or her crew creates coupled with certain areas of the house being off-limits for long periods of time can add up to a very uncomfortable situation for the homeowner. There is certainly nothing wrong with staying in a hotel or living with family until the project is completed; in fact, it may make the renovations go more smoothly. Before your job begins, talk to your contractor about what you and your family can expect over the duration of the project and whether or not it would be more efficient for you to be away for certain phases.

Of course, some optimistic homeowners view major renovations as the perfect time for a family getaway. A trip to grandma’s house or a vacation spot of your choosing can mean the difference between a week you’re happy to remember and one you can’t wait to forget. As long as you are dealing with a contractor you can trust, you can rest assured that progress will be made while you are gone, and the results will speak for themselves upon your return!

If you have decided to hire professionals to move you and your family, recommendations are a great way to find a moving company. Probably the best way is through a company that prescreens all movers and guarantees that they have the appropriate licensing and insurance. While there are many companies to choose from, there are a few things to keep in mind as you are looking for prospective moving companies. Here are some of them. However, if you are planning to move yourself, or at least pack yourself, click this link to learn how to pack a room.

• Only deal with licensed companies. Ask the representative to demonstrate that it carries worker’s compensation insurance to protect the moving company and its customers.
• Ask about the firm’s experience and client list.Call a few clients to verify references.
• Ask the movers if they are members of any local or national moving trade associations. If so, contact the associations for further information if you really need it. This is a little over the top and probably not worth investigating, but this is just an option in case you want to be extra careful.
• Check out the companies through the Better Business Bureau and the American Moving and Storage Association to see if they have information on them. Again, a little much, but well within your rights if you want to know.
• Get a written estimate and determine whether it’s binding or non-binding. The most accurate way to estimate your moving costs is to get an in-home, visual assessment from the mover. Decide whether you want full service (they pack, unpack and move everything) or self-service (you pack and unpack everything and they move it).
• Insist on a guaranteed price in writing that includes gauranteed pick-up and delivery dates when you are ready to sign the contract. The contract should include a guarantee of how many hours the job will take, allowing an overrun of no more than 10 percent.

Moving Companies
Moving has been ranked by many people as being as one of the most stressful events a family can go through. A good moving company is aware of this stress and can make the whole process much less painful than it has to be.

Many of the items on this checklist can be completed before you actually move, although some of them will have to wait until you arrive and can physically visit a certain office to get your picture taken or sign on the dotted line. The idea is to take care of as many of these items as you can before you move. Doing this will expedite the moving process and ease your transition into a new chapter of your life.

3 Weeks
Research School Systems/Day Care
Search for the music scene in your new location to find out if there are concerts you want to see soon after you arrive.
If you are into sports, locate schedules for the major sporting events in your new city.

2 Weeks
Have the carpets cleaned before you get there. Also a good idea to have the ducts cleaned. The idea is to move into a completely clean, safe home.
If you have a homeowner’s association, find out who to call for plumbing/electrical/other emergency problems.
Find out when the trash is picked up (you will have many things [packing materials] to toss out when you move in and you might need to make special arrangements if you have more than usual to throw away).

1 Week
Have your utilities hooked up, including phone and internet.
Have the lawn mowed the day before you arrive.

After Moving in
Register to Vote
Open Bank Accounts
Find a Local Veterinarian/Doctor/Dentist
Drive around the area to discover what you are close to: restaurants, convenience stores, dry cleaners, parks, grocery stores, theatres, video stores, etc.
Find out what emergency services are close to you: hospital, police station, fire station, pizza delivery place, cheesecake store.
Find out if you have a municipal recycling program. If not, find where some recycling centers are located.
Locate your new church, temple, mosque, synagogue.
Visit the chamber of commerce to find out when festivals will be occurring in your new city.
Register your vehicle at the DMV, get new license.

Set Up Utilities: Call to have your utilities turned on the day before you arrive at your new place. Don’t forget cable and internet.
Appraisal of Current Needs: Before you even think about moving things that you don’t even want anymore, consider if you have anything that needs to be replaced. Why move an old mattress when you could have a brand new one waiting in your new home? Think about other large items that will be difficult to transport and consider buying the item new in your new city.
Medical Records: Grab medical records from your school, if you have any.
Transfer Prescriptions
Open Bank Accounts: Some banks have a painless transfer of accounts, although with others it can be a complete mess. Be prepared for the mess, and be pleasantly surprised if one doesn’t happen.
Return Library Books/Rented Videos: If you happen to leave town without taking care of this, you most likely will forget once you are in a new place. This is an annoying task, but not as annoying as the fine that will accrue if you don’t take care of this before you go.
Prepare Your Car for the Road: Have your vehicle serviced (oil change, rotate tires, etc.). Do this as early as you can in case the mechanics find something that will require you to come back for a second visit.
No More Groceries: Don’t go to the grocery store for anything other than essentials. The idea is to begin paring down your food supply so that you have less to move and less to throw away.
Music Scene: Search for the music scene in your new location to find out if there are concerts you want to see soon after you arrive.

*All the Things You Will Miss* Visit all the restaurants, parks, theaters, shops, and anything else that you will not have access to once you move. End your time in this town and on this campus on the best note possible. Do the things you enjoy.

Reserve the Elevator: If you are moving into a high-rise apartment, reserve use of an elevator (where possible) so that you are not constantly waiting on each load.
Apartment Walk-Through: Make sure that you make note of all the problems in your apartment when you move in so that you aren’t held accountable for them when you move out.