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Get Rid of Your Clutter: Downsizing for Your Move

Moving takes a ton of time and effort. Packing everything up, loading it on a truck, unloading it all, then unpacking it. It’s quite a challenge.

Sometimes you unpack everything only to realize there’s not enough room for it in your new space. It can be a daunting and overwhelming feeling.

That’s why downsizing your belongings prior to a move can save you from a ton of stress. And it can lower your moving expenses, too.

We compiled some tips to help you downsize before your next move.

Downsizing: Storage and Utility Areas

Storage areas such as basements, garages, and sheds are where you’ll find most unnecessary items. It’s easiest to leave behind the belongings you don’t use often. These areas usually take the most time as well so it’s a good place to start.

Most people will pull out things they had no idea they still had. Sometimes you’ll rediscover something great but mostly, they’re filled with junk.

You might get lucky and find your favorite sweatshirt you totally forgot about. But usually, it’s old shoes and half-broken appliances you can toss.

This is where you’ll probably find the most clutter you can get rid of. But now that you’ve gotten that out of the way, it’s time to move onto the kitchen or your closet.

Sort Your Undesired Materials

Now that you’ve got your unwanted belongings, it’s time to decide what to do with it all. Unless you want it all to wind up back in a closet at your new place.

Categorize everything into a donate, sell, or throw out/recycle.

Donate

If you have unwanted items that are still in good shape, donating is one of the best things you can do. Find local charities or shelters that will accept donated materials. Some may even offer a pick up option.

Sell

This may also be an opportunity to earn some cash. If you have time to hold a yard sale, that’s a good way to get rid of items as well. Websites like Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist are good as well.

Throw Out/Recycle

Things like batteries, computers, and mattresses are commonly recycled is their still usable. Some items are in too poor condition to give to someone else. These, for the most part, can be thrown away or recycled.

Don’t Wait Until the Last Minute

Downsizing, and moving in general, can be a stressful process. It’s difficult for many people to get rid of things that may hold some sentimental value. It’s perfectly normal to feel reservations about getting rid of your belongings.

Whenever you decide to move, it’s best to start the downsizing process early. That way you won’t feel rushed and end up taking unnecessary items with you.

Bringing the clutter with you may actually lead to more stress and guilt. Sit down and take the time to declutter your home before you go.

Need Help for an Upcoming Move?

If you’ve got an upcoming move in the Cheyenne, Salt Lake, Colorado Springs, or San Antonio area, let Arrow Moving & Storage help you out.

Fill out the form to receive your free moving quote from us today!

Your Home Moving Checklist

Moving is a part of life that most people experience many times. On average, Americans move about a dozen times throughout the course of their lives.

Even if you’re a seasoned pro at moving, there are still a million and one things that you could forget to do. Whether it’s registering the kids for a new school, or finding temporary storage, or forwarding mail to your new address, there’s a lot on your plate. And we haven’t even gotten started yet.

But there are ways to alleviate the stress that often comes with a big move. It’s just a matter of being organized and planning. We’ve compiled a few tips on creating a moving checklist. Keep reading below to find out how.

1. Get a Good Team of Movers

One of the best things you can do is hire a competent moving company Too often, people put off hiring movers until it’s almost too late.

You want to be sure that you are working with a company that you can trust. The movers with the best reputation are often in high demand, and you’ll have to plan ahead.

Be willing to put in the time and effort to hire the right company Interview companies over the phone if you can as well. Once you’ve found movers you trust, book them for your dates and cross that off your moving into a new house checklist.

2. Collect Materials

One of the worst things to do in a move is run out of boxes or packing tape or another crucial moving supply. Always try to oversupply your move, that way you can be sure you’ll have enough material.

You know you’ll need boxes of a variety of shapes and sizes. You’re going to want to stock up on packing tape as well as bubble wrap for those fragile items.

3. Take it One Room at a Time

Trying to pack an entire house is a huge undertaking so you’ll want to take it one room at a time. Each room should be separated on your checklist.

Take this chance to get rid of some of the items that you don’t really need. All those years of throwing things in the closet allow unnecessary items to pile up.

Chances are you don’t really need everything that’s in your house so moving is a great time to examine everything you own.

Ready to Put Together Your Moving Checklist?

Moving can be an exciting yet overwhelming process. Creating a moving checklist is a great way to remain organized and alleviate stress.

It’ll keep you focused and on task. Stay focused and excited.

We’re happy to answer any questions you may have.

Moving with Pets

Moving is pretty high on the list of most stressful life events. Add a pet to the chaos of moving, and you and your little furry friend are in for a stressful few days.

Luckily, there are a number of steps you can take to help your pet grow accustomed to their new home. Take a look at our list of helpful tips for moving with pets.

Walk Around the Neighborhood

Before the big day, it might be a good idea to walk around the new neighborhood without your pet.

This will allow you to get a lay of the land. Be on the lookout for any kids, busy streets and intersections, as well as other dogs or cats. Look out for hazards for them to avoid or something they’ll enjoy.

Pack Their Things Last

The packing process for anyone can be stressful but for pets, it can be an especially confusing experience. 

Wait to pack their things last. Or if they have a favorite room, let them hang out there until you’re ready to go. That way, they’ll have someplace familiar during the chaos of moving.

The Big Day

On moving day, try to maintain their daily routine as much as possible. It’s a confusing experience for them so you’ll want to give them something familiar like timely feeding, walks, playtime, etc.

And be sure they’re kept in a room during the process so they don’t escape while you’re loading the truck.

Transporting Your Four-Legged Friends

You may be worried about taking your pet in a truck or plane to get to your new location.

Take the time prior to the move and acclimate them to a crate if they haven’t been already. Maybe take them for short car rides in the crate so they can get used to it.

Your New Home

It may be a good idea to acclimate them to the new place slowly. The entire experience can be overwhelming for a pet so take them through room by room so they can become accustomed to their new environment

Professional Movers 

If you’re planning a move from Cheyenne, Salt Lake City, Colorado Springs, or San Antonio, contact us at Arrow Moving & Storage to receive your free moving quote today!

Setting up Utilities? Here Are 5 Tips for  Before You Move

Have a move coming up?

If you are, certainly you don’t want to show up to your new place with no water and no power.

That’s why it’s important to set up your utilities before you arrive.

We put together some helpful tips for setting up utilities.

1. Have a Plan

You don’t want to wait until you’ve moved in to call your utilities.

This process should begin a month in advance. Find out how much time you need to give your providers to start or stop service.

These are the most common utilities:

• Water/Sewer
• Electric
• Gas
• Cable/Satellite TV
• Internet
• Security System

If you’re moving locally, you can transfer your account.

Interstate or cross country moves may require the creation of new accounts. It may require deposits and credit checks.

Is your new house ready for your services? Your home may need installations in certain cases.

2. Perform Research and Gather Referrals

Do you know what the local providers are? Your landlord and future neighbors may be able to recommend certain companies or know of good deals.

Look at the reviews on Google, Yelp, and social media to gauge customer satisfaction.

You can get quotes from the provider’s website as well. Shop around for the best price and weigh that against their reviews

3. Set Up Your Utilities

Call your provider or visit their websites again to start service.

Some services like water and electricity don’t require you to be home when you start. Others, such as the Internet, can only be set up if you’re home.

If a provider has offered service to your house before, that should make things easier.

If you’re adding new services, it may take more time to install and may end up costing more.

4. Details are important

Prepare any questions you may have. When you call, take detailed notes.

Things like price and the name of the person you talk to may be handy later.

Your service may have additional costs, such as installation; Make note of these. This will be useful if hidden costs appear on your bill.

Ask whether or not you must be present during installation. Some companies charge for simple things you can do yourself. Ask if you can install equipment you know how to do yourself, like wireless routers.

Make sure your old providers have your forwarding address. You’ll want to be sure to get any refunds your owed or pay any balance that’s outstanding.

5. Cost-Savings

Here’s how to save a bit on your utilities services.

Ask for a Discount

Many companies provide seniors, veterans, and students with discounts. You may even get a new resident or new customer discount.

Call in the Morning

Customer service is better first thing in the morning Customer service reps are in a better mood after a cup of coffee.

Negotiate

Sometimes the rates will go up after a year. They may have provided you with a promotional offer.

Give them a call to negotiate

Now You’re Ready to Move

With these helpful tips, Setting up utilities can be much faster, cheaper, and easier.

If you’re looking for a moving company to take the stress out of moving? Contact Arrow Moving & Storage for a free moving quote.

Tips for alleviating the Stress of Moving

So you’ve found your brand new home.

There’s a lot to be pumped for. And there’s also a lot that’s giving you stress.

That’s just part of the moving process. Along with the joy of creating a new home, there’s the cost of moving, the paperwork, the planning, and you haven’t even lifted a box yet.

We’ve found that just a little help along the way is a giant help to movers. So, we’ve assembled a list of tips to help make your move as stress-free as possible.

Before Your Move Begins

Proper planning can help take a ton of pressure off of your back once the big day arrives. For instance, forgetting to set up utilities is a common mistake that many movers make. You certainly don’t want to show up at a house with no water.

Finding a reputable moving company is also a must, especially for larger movers. Put the time and effort into finding the right team of professional movers so that, come moving day, everything goes as smoothly as possible. 

Tips for the Best Packing System

There are many ways to organize your boxes. Some like to pack based on category, like sorting by books, documents, clothes, etc. On the other hand, you can also sort based on the room your items are in. Either way, be sure to label all your boxes.

Make sure you keep an essentials box handy with your toiletries, cleaning supplies, and a few days worth of clothes and food. You’re not going to unpack everything right away so it’s important to keep everyday items accessible. 

Tips for Moving Day

So you’ve finished packing. The worst is over with right? Well, hopefully, you’ve prepared.

Make sure you pack a cooler with enough food and drinks to get you and your family through the entire day. If you have young kids or pets, it’s probably a good idea to hire a sitter for the day or let them stay with a friend or relative. Moving can be both tedious chaotic for kids and pets.

That way, you don’t have to worry about keeping an eye on them and you can attend to the movers.

Enjoy Your Home

The more quickly the moving process goes, the more quickly you can just sit back, relax and enjoy your new home. However, for some, the process has just begun; next comes unpacking.

Luckily, there are systems you can use to make your unpacking go much more smoothly. 

After your essentials box comes the kitchen. Once you’ve finished setting up the kitchen are the bedrooms. Unpack everyone’s clothes and set up bedding. Then there is all the furniture to assemble: couches, entertainment centers, desks and computers.

Following that are the utility areas like the garage, deck, and basement.

Your Upcoming Move

Hopefully, these tips have been a useful guide for your upcoming move. If you’re looking for a reliable moving company, fill out our form to receive a free moving quote.

After many years, this is still exciting and it’s an important relationship between the UW athletic department and our company,” said Owner, Mike Ottoes. “We’ve been hauling the team’s gear for many, many years. It means a lot to us to be a part of this.” It is exciting to produce a custom truck like this to drive around the country and show the pride we all have in Cowboy Football. People tell us how much they love the truck and they want to take pictures with the truck. It’s a lot of fun, and it’s great to be able to help represent the university.”

 It is a unique project to complete,” said Bill Miller of Western Specialty Manufacturing of Cheyenne, who created the design for the trailer. “It was fun working with Dan (Stinson, Equipment Manager for Cowboy Football) and the athletic department, sorting through photos and trying to find images that would work on the trailer. It was amazing. It took a little bit longer to get done than what we anticipated, but at any rate it was a fun project and a challenging one too.

We’ve done this project before, and we’ve made some changes to past trailers to reflect bowl wins and things like that. But this was a completely different process. We completely body-wrapped this trailer. One of the challenges of doing that was this truck has many, many rivets on it, which made it harder to do. While it was a challenge, that is what makes these types of projects worthwhile.”

Stinson said that he and his staff will load approximately three dozen equipment trunks, including an estimated seven tons of player gear, staff apparel, coaches’ communications systems, sports medicine supplies, radio broadcast equipment and video equipment into the trailer for each road game. The new 53′ trailer also features a lift gate to assist with the loading process.

6 TIPS FOR A NEW MOVER’S HOUSEWARMING PARTY

Americans move a lot. Annually, about 14% of the population relocates to a new home(that’s 40 million people!).

Are you one of those 40 million? Are you settled into your new house?

If you’ve already moved in and would like to celebrate your relocation, a great way of doing so is by hosting a housewarming party.

Don’t have guests over for parties that much? Are you trying to keep it low key?

We put together six tips for throwing a housewarming party.

1. DON’T THROW A PARTY RIGHT AWAY

You don’t want to have tons of people over before you get settled.

Give yourself some time before to really move in before you decide to celebrate. A great housewarming party can be thrown a month and a half after you move in.

2. THE INVITATIONS

You certainly don’t have to mail out invitations to your party.

Email invites will work great, especially for a casual housewarming party. Plus, this makes it easier to keep track of RSVPs and you don’t need to pay to send them out via snail mail.

3. AN OPEN HOUSE IS A GREAT OPTION

One of the best ways to keep it stress-free is by holding an open house party. Give your guests a three house window to drop by.

This will save your party from getting overcrowded any once and you’ll have more opportunities to socialize with your guests if they’re not all showing up at the same time.

4. DON’T FORGET TO INVITE YOUR NEIGHBORS

While organizing a guest list, make sure to include your new neighbors. It’s a good chance to get to know everyone around you. They will surely appreciate the invite.

5. DECOR IS UNNECESSARY

Spending a ton of time and money on decorations isn’t necessary.

Don’t forget, that the whole point of a housewarming party is to show your friends and neighbors how you’ve decorated your new house.

Extra decorations will just hide what you’ve done with the place.
All you need to do is make your house nice and presentable.

6. YOU DON’T NEED A TON OF FOOD

Don’t go overboard with your food options. Your guests won’t expect a fine dining experience.

A good alternative is fun appetizers that guests can help themselves to.

Let your friends help if they want to bring drinks or food to serve. Your friends will enjoy helping and it’s a great way to remove some of the weight off your back.

READY FOR YOUR HOUSEWARMING PARTY

Throwing a housewarming party doesn’t have to be overwhelming or complicated.

If you keep it simple, both you and your guests will enjoy themselves more.

Do you need help moving to your new home? If so, the movers at Arrow Moving & Storage can help.

Contact us today to get a quote or to learn more about our moving services.