Moving from one home to another is a big deal. But what if it’s your office moving?

Many companies decide to pack up and move to another state and sometimes even another country. Reasons cited range from wanting to lower the cost of business to desire to branch out into fresh markets.

If you’re part of this move, you no doubt have tons of questions.

Where do you begin? What to pack first? Who’s in charge of what?

Relocating your workplace is pretty stressful – but lucky for you, we’ve got answers to your questions! Follow these tips and tricks to have a smooth transition to your new office.

Don’t Wait Until The Last Minute

20% of people are affected by procrastination. If you’re one of them, this advice is for you!

We put this tip at the top because it’s just that important. Once you’ve got the green light, start getting your things together.

Talk to the Boss

Now’s a good time to check in with your boss. See if there are any rules you need to follow during your relocation.

Find out what to do with unwanted furniture, old documents, and what the office moving dates are. Having a definitive game plan ahead of time makes a big difference!

Computer Care

Your desktop and other assorted equipment are sensitive and delicate. As such, you’ll need to take extra steps to protect them during the move.

Wrap computers and monitors in thick blankets or bubble wrap. Don’t stack them or put anything else on top of them.

Don’t forget to label your cables! Keep them neat and tidy in clear bags, too.

Update Your Info

Don’t forget about your contacts. Make sure your clients and coworkers know where you will be.

Update everything – your website, your business cards, and your phone number. Make sure you keep a copy of your important contacts, too.

Take Care of Sensitive Documents

Time to tackle the biggest hassle of any office moving adventure: the filing cabinet.

Here’s where your company’s most important files reside. Make sure you pack it up with care and take your time.

Ask if any files are recyclable or if they need to be shredded. Then take the important stuff that’s going with you and put them in clearly labeled boxes, so there’s no confusion at your destination.

Hire a Moving Company

Consider hiring a moving company to help take the stress off of you. That way you’ve got someone to do the heavy lifting for you.

Call them ahead of time – a couple of months if you have that option. It’s best to work out the details as soon as possible.

Bonus tip: make it easy for them and yourself by having the boxes ready to go when they get there. They will move everything – including a garbage can with trash in it.

Office Moving Can Be Fun If You Do It Right!

Plan in advance. Make sure you get ahead of the most stressful parts of office moving so you can make it as smooth as possible.

Want to make it even easier for yourself? Let us help! Contact us today, and we’ll take care of all of your moving needs!

No doubt about it — people in the United States are eager to move, especially Millennials. Collectively, this generation trends toward big-city living, often revitalizing older buildings or relocating to high rise apartments. That’s a whole lot of opportunities for tons of packing, not to mention securing and labeling moving boxes.

And that’s what smart individuals and families do before they leave one home for the next: They add markings to their moving boxes. They don’t always do it in the most efficient way possible.

Planning to relocate soon?

Whether you’re a Millennial, a GenXer, or a Baby Boomer, grab your marker, your labels, and a cup of coffee. This five-minute read will give you the insider tips for labeling moving boxes like the pros.

1. Give All the Rooms in Your New House Names

Sound like it’s too simple to be a good hint for labeling moving boxes? Then consider this scenario:

You’re at your new home, and you realize all the boxes destined for your four-bedroom residence are labeled “bedroom.” What do you do? Probably end up with a hundred moving boxes scattered in the wrong bedrooms.

A better approach is to label the moving boxes something more concrete, such as “Bedroom #1,” “Master Bedroom,” or even “Ethan’s Bedroom.” Then, to help your professional residential moving team, you can post corresponding signs in the doorways to minimize problems.

2. When Labeling Moving Boxes, Use Colors AND Words

In addition to naming each room where moving boxes are distributed, consider giving rooms colors. The living room could be green, the kitchen yellow, the garage orange, etc. Next, tape a piece of colored paper on the door to the corresponding room.

Think you won’t be able to come up with enough colors for your multi-room mansion? Never fear — science says there are about 1,000 shades and tints to choose from.

This technique works because it taps into our visual nature. Plus, if someone who speaks another language, as might happen if you’re moving internationally, he or she will still understand where to place the box.

3. Choose Labels That Will Stick

Now is not the time to pull out those old stickers that have seen better days.

Invest in heavy-duty labels like address labels. Otherwise, all your hard work could end up as a pile of peeled-off stickers in the moving van.

4. Put Faith in Permanent Markers in Dark Colors

Prefer to use your handy-dandy thick Sharpie to label your moving boxes boldly? Great idea!

Just be sure it’s not one of the trendy colors like lime green or light pink.

While it’s fun to have all the colors of the rainbow available when you’re doing projects like do-it-yourself nail art, light-hued markers make it tough to read where moving boxes belong.

5. Label All Boxes in the Same Place for Consistency

Is one box labeled in the left upper corner, another in the right lower, another in the middle?

This is a sure recipe for disaster and inefficiency.

Make your life – and your expert moving team‘s lives — simpler by ensuring everyone in your household sticks to a system of labeling moving boxes consistently.

Get Smarter With Every Move

Now that you know how to label your moving boxes with ease don’t forget that you don’t have to move all those boxes alone.

According to data from the US Census Bureau, the average American moves 11 times in his/her lifetime. Just reading that makes us exhausted.

Moving is a challenging process. Condensing all your personal items into manageable boxes takes time and skill. One of the most challenging parts of moving is keeping fragile valuables safe.

But our pros are lending a hand with some tips to help you pack fragile items.

How to Pack Fragile Items

Keep your breakables intact with these pro tips:

1: Stock Up on Essential Supplies

Get plenty of boxes – ideally new ones, because boxes weaken over time. Overstuffed boxes are vulnerable to broken items, so get more boxes than you think you’ll need.

Having the right packing paper is essential too. A newspaper might be cheap, but it can leave ink stains. Use it for extra padding, but get blank and clean packing paper for wrapping individual items.

2: Start Early

Rushing your packing is one of the fastest ways to break your valuables. Instead of procrastinating, you can start packing weeks ahead of time.

Fine China, display cases, and other items aren’t essential day-to-day. Start packing these items first and work up to packing more heavily used items as your move date gets closer.

This also takes away some stress in the final days before the move. In the long run, packing ahead and using paper plates for a few days can pay off.

3: Choose Box Sizes Wisely

Pack fragile items that are heavy in smaller boxes. Lighter items can go in larger boxes. You might consider getting heavyweight boxes for, particularly heavy objects.

4: Use Soft Items

For household moving, get creative with the tools at your disposal. You need to pack your towels and blankets, so why not use them to pad dish boxes?

5: Wrap Each Item

To avoid fragile items clanging together and breaking, wrap each with packing paper. You can secure the paper with tape for extra protection.

For highly fragile items, add an extra layer of packing paper.

Stemmed glasses are tricky. To protect the entire glass, use bubble wrap around the stem first. Then wrap it with packing paper.

6: Leave No Empty Space

Extra space will allow items to rattle around and break. Fill all the space between items with newspaper, packing paper, or another filler material.

An often overlooked packing tip is to fill the space inside hollow items like glasses, too. Stuff them with clean packing paper to support the sides and prevent breakage.

7: Go Vertical

Plates, picture frames, and other flat items should be placed in the box vertically. Placing items in vertically will prevent excess weight on the bottom items. But make sure the box is tall enough to hold the items along with padding at the top, bottom, and sides.

8: Label, Label, and Label Again

When you’ve packed a fragile box, label it “fragile” on EVERY side. It’s a good idea to set these boxes in a separate area, too. If you hire movers (or friends), show them which boxes are fragile.

Mastering Your Move

There are many important aspects of a successful move. Knowing how to pack fragile items is just one.

For more helpful moving tips, check out our blog for moving.

Moving to a new state or even a new country is often an exciting fresh start.

But, it can also be a stressful experience.

Between finding a place to live, saying goodbye to friends and family, and packing your belongings, the to-do list adds up.

You don’t have to do everything alone, though. Consider hiring professional movers to ease the load of your long distance move.

Here are five ways this service can be a huge benefit.

1. Help Packing and Unpacking

At the very least, a team of professional movers is a team of extra hands.

They can help you pack everything from big, bulky furniture to small silverware. This is a huge help when you have an entire house of belongings to move.

It also means you can spend less time packing, and more time preparing other details of your long distance move.

2. Fast and Efficient Service

Speaking of time, you can often expect movers to finish packing and unpacking at lightning speed.

Not to mention the transportation time from one location to another.

Even across long distances, movers have a method in place to arrive on schedule.

Plus, they make sure to take care of your belongings on every leg of the journey.

3. Insurance Protection

Are you worried about your vintage loveseat or big mirror?

Don’t be.

Make sure your belongings are protected, get insurance through your movers. This covers any damages incurred throughout the packing, transport, and unloading process.

Although, to protect the sentimental value of certain jewelry or photos, just bring them along with you.

4. Cost Savings

Insurance protection gives you the peace of mind to focus on other moving details – like budgeting.

The amount of money you spend can quickly add up during a move, especially across a long distance.

You might think it best to do it yourself at first.

But, when you consider the cost of renting a truck and all the gas, the prices start to add up.

Don’t forget about all the food and hotels you’ll pay for along the way as well.

With the help of movers, you can count on one fee to get the job done, usually at a lower rate.

5. Easier Travel Arrangements

The last benefit of hiring help for your long distance move is how much easier it will be to get from one place to another.

Costs aside, it’s much less convenient to drive thousands of miles than to just fly.

Flying gets you where you need to be as fast as possible.

This means more time to get settled before you start your new job or school schedule. If anything, it at least means less time spent sitting all day in a car!

Hire the Right Team for Your Long Distance Move

It’s one thing to understand the benefits of a professional moving team.

It’s another to know which service to hire!

If you’re in need of reliable Florida long distance movers, contact us today and discover why Browning Moving and Storage is your best option for the job.

The average U.S. citizen will move more than 11 times in her life, so you’ll want to learn the best way to go about it. Making a household move can be exciting, expensive, and stressful, but having a plan of attack can save you big bucks.

Read these five amazing tricks to save on packing during your next household move.

1) Start Packing Early

Most moving companies offer services to pack for you, but if you are on a budget, you may need to pack your things on your own.

If you are still shoving your belongings into boxes when the movers show up, your move is going to take longer, and time is money when your movers are on the clock.

2) Minimize

The fewer items you bring with you, the less it will cost you to move. Have a garage sale. Let this move be the catalyst for cleansing your life of unneeded junk.

Analyze if your furniture is going to work in your new space BEFORE moving. Sell or donate the unusable items ASAP.

Heavy items cost you more in the moving process. Sell off your heavy weights and fitness equipment if you aren’t using them.

Donate heavy food cans or hurricane emergency water to an organization such as Move for Hunger. The bonus is you can claim a tax deduction.

3) Finding Boxes

Check the grocery store for boxes, but sometimes it can be difficult to beat other movers to them. You may want to ask your nearest liquor store–liquor boxes are the perfect size.

Go to social media and ask if anyone has recently moved and has boxes left. You can even check sites like Craigslist or Freecycle for people trying to give them away.

Plastic boxes are great for a household move. They give an added element of protection, and you don’t have to worry about the bottom falling out.

Can’t find extra tubs? Consider renting some from a company that specializes in reusable plastic moving boxes such as BungoBox. They cost 50% less than buying cardboard boxes, and you will be doing your part for the environment.

Already have boxes? Sell your lightly used boxes when you’re finished with them (try Box Cycle).

4) Get Creative With Packing Material

With the amount of online shopping we do these days, you have a fairly steady influx of packages (another excellent source of boxes). Save the packing materials ahead of time by throwing it in garbage bags hidden in your closet.

Use old newspapers and magazines to wrap breakables. Just keep in mind that your hands may get inky.

Wrap your item in your blankets, sheets, and towels. You have to take them with you anyway. Socks work well for small objects.

5) Save Space

The fewer boxes you have, the better. This will save you time and money on multiple levels. When you can, be sure to nestle smaller objects inside larger ones.

Bonus Tip for Your Household Move

Hire a moving company.

That’s right. You may not think of this as saving you money, but in the long run, it truly will.

It’s hard moving everything on your own, so it’s likely you will ask family and friends for help. “Hiring” friends will cost you a few meals at the least.

A hidden cost when moving antiques – you can’t blame friends for breaking them. Avoid that awkward moment altogether and leave it to the pros.

Perhaps most importantly hiring a moving company will save you time. Time is money, and you can’t afford to waste it.

If you realize hiring a moving company for your household move is the best money saving tip for you, then contact Browning Moving & Storage right away. You honestly can’t afford not to.