You are organized beyond your own expectations! You have packed everything perfectly and labeled accordingly. You even thought to contact your physician and the vet to get everyone’s medical records. But something is nagging you….what did you forget? Here a few things that you may have overlooked or not even have thought about.
Cancel any recurring charges. Taking care of a gym membership or other subscription services may fall by the wayside during the madness leading up to moving day. Worse, those recurring charges will keep mounting on your credit card while you’re in the throes of unpacking. Get a jump on canceling these at least a month before your last expected day of use, especially since many gyms require a 30-day notice. Can’t get out of your contract or transfer your gym membership to another gym by your new home? Sell it through online classifieds such as Gym Transfer (yes, most gyms allow this!). Don’t forget to unload any prepaid class cards, too. On the flip side, important recurring charges on your credit card such as mail order vitamins, might be canceled if your address change hasn’t caught up with billing information. So compile a list of charges and make the effort to call these companies and give them a heads up to avoid disruption in service. You will need those vitamins!
Car insurance. The DMV advises people in the process of moving to closely manage their car insurance during the transition, as states have varying levels of required coverage. Even if you’re staying in the same city, rates can differ from neighborhood to neighborhood. So call your insurer well before the move to find out what you need to do as far as updating coverage at your new address.
Address forwarding. Most people know the U.S. Postal Service offers an online form to quickly change an address for all of your mail, but that doesn’t mean you should wait until the last minute to fill it out. USPS says at least two weeks before is a good idea so you will have your mail by the time of moving in to your new home.
Don’t forget your bills! Losing track of bills among piles of boxes is all too easy. Set up systems before a move that can easily transition from old home to new. For monthly bills such as phone, rent, or mortgage, it can really help to set them up for autopay, which you can typically do through your bank or the billing company. And as moving often incurs unexpected costs, be sure that you’ll have enough money in designated accounts at time of payment.
This one is my favorite…..Snap pictures of electronics before disassembly. Those cables in the back of your TV and modem that keep your life wired….well they don’t make sense now and will make even less sense when they are tangled in a box. A simple solution is to snap a picture of the setup before you take your electronics apart—and coil the cords and label them!
