A long-distance move is challenging by itself. Add pets into the equation and it becomes even more complex. While your dog or cat may generally be calm and happy at home, moving cross country can put a cramp in your furry friend’s style. After all, you are not the only one that gets stressed from all of the continuous errands, piles of boxes, and a slowly-emptying house.
Fortunately, there are steps that you can take to ensure that your dog or cat is comfortable throughout the packing process, on moving day, and during the transition to the new home. At Doorage, we’re all about making moving easier with our door to door movingsolutions. Continue reading to learn how to make moving long-distance with cats or dogs easier and avoid overstressing your pet.
During the Packing Process
Packing can be one of the most stressful parts of moving, for both you and your pet. All of the commotion caused by moving things around can make both dogs and cats – especially sensitive ones – nervous. Here are a few things you can do to get your pet ready for a long-distance move during the packing process.
Pack Up Your Pet’s Items in a Separate Container
In addition to packing up all of your belongings during this stage of the moving process, you’ll want to be sure to get your pet’s belongings packed up as well. The container will likely be kept in the car that you and your part are traveling in, so make sure you don’t forget any essentials that could make the ride more comfortable, including food and water, dishes, treats, blankets, toys, etc. Having these items ready to go come moving day will help ensure your pet has a trip with minimal stress.
Get Them Used to a Crate
If you don’t plan on letting your pet roam free in your car, you’ll definitely want to get them used to a crate or carrier. If you plan far enough ahead of time, you can get your pet accustomed to using a crate, which would definitely come in handy for a long-distance move. If your pet is not used to crates, be patient. They can be an incredibly frightening aspect of an already frightening experience.
Start Making Your Car Cozy
While you are packing all of your belongings, you’ll also want to consider how your vehicle will be arranged. Ideally, you should have a comfortable and safe space for your pet to lay or sleep. If you plan on using a crate, make sure your vehicle has enough room for it. Dogs tend to need a lot of human touch, so try to create a space in your car that is close enough to you that they can be reached for a quick pet. Similarly, cats should be kept in an area where they can see you. Take the necessary measures during this time to make sure that your pet is comfortable.
On Moving Day
When moving day finally arrives, you’re definitely going to have your hands full. With movers arriving at your home and packing up everything into your car and the moving truck, there certainly is a lot going on. However, it is important to take the time to make sure that your pet is comfortable and ready for the long haul ahead.
Keep an Eye on Your Pet
The last thing you want when you’re about to embark on a cross country move with a dog or cat is to lose them on the day of your departure. Unfortunately, losing a pet is far too easy on moving day. With people going in and out of your home, it can be easy for your pet to get outside and run off. For that reason, you should place your pet somewhere safe where they can’t escape. You can put them in a back room that doesn’t need to be opened, an enclosed yard, or a crate. You could also get someone to watch your dog or cat while you are loading up everything.
Make Sure They Get Plenty of Exercise
Depending on where you are moving from and where you are moving to, you and your pet may be cooped up in your vehicle for a while. For this reason, it is important that they get plenty of exercise on moving day. Even if it means getting up earlier in the morning that you’d like, take the time to exercise your pet. This could be a walk around the neighborhood with your dog or using small toys to get your cat running around. When pets are well-exercised, the day will be much less stressful for them, not to mention it will give you a nice jolt of endorphins.
Give them Extra Attention
If you are utilizing a professional moving company or door to door moving solutions you will have plenty of time to give your pet some extra love and attention. Giving your pet attention is incredibly important on moving day, with strangers in your home and a lot of activity. Ideally, you’ll want to keep them in a calm environment with people they are used to being around. Encourage play with their favorite toys, toss them their favorite treats, or simply sit down and give your furry friend a good pet.
During the Move
Once everything is loaded up and you’re ready to go, it’s time to hit the road with your pet. Here are a few tips that will make the trip to your new home easier.
Take Breaks
Your pet needs bathroom breaks too, so be sure to offer them often. For dogs, bathroom breaks are as simple as stopping at a nearby rest stop to let them do their business. For cats, on the other hand, you’ll need to figure out a litter box situation. Ideally, you will want a travel litter box that is large enough for your cat to sit in, but small enough to fit in their crate or carrier. If you are going to be staying in hotel rooms during your move, make sure you take the necessary steps to allow for bathroom breaks.
Keep Tags On
It’s unlikely that your pet will break free and go missing, but if they do, you want to be able to find them. Make sure your pet has a collar with an ID tag on them. Since you are moving, your address may not be as important as phone numbers. It is best to use the tag space for your phone number, as well as your partner’s number if applicable, or if not, the phone number of someone back home or in your new home.
Start Making Your Car Cozy
While you are packing all of your belongings, you’ll also want to consider how your vehicle will be arranged. Ideally, you should have a comfortable and safe space for your pet to lay or sleep. If you plan on using a crate, make sure your vehicle has enough room for it. Dogs tend to need a lot of human touch, so try to create a space in your car that is close enough to you that they can be reached for a quick pet. Similarly, cats should be kept in an area where they can see you. Take the necessary measures during this time to make sure that your pet is comfortable.
Your pets are family, so of course, you want to make sure they are comfortable during a long-distance move. Taking your pet’s personality and stress into consideration will make your relocation more enjoyable for you as well as them.
If you’re moving long-distance, you can make the experience more enjoyable for both you and your pet with door to door moving and storage solutions from Doorage. With Doorage, you pack your belongings into eco-friendly storage containers, have them professionally stored and then delivered to your new home whenever you are ready for them. This will give you less to do on moving day and will create more room in your vehicle to ensure that your pet is comfortable while driving to your new home. To learn more about storage and moving solutions from Doorage, give us a call or send us an email today.
Move To Your New Home With Door to Door Moving Services
With door-to-door moving solutions from Doorage, local moves have never been easier. Rather than working with a moving company or trying to move everything yourself, Doorage offers a more convenient, affordable, and hassle-free way to move your belongings to your new address. Learn more about how door-to-door moving works.
Even if you are planning to move locally, there is still a lot of planning and organizing that needs to be done in order to make the move as easy as possible. If you want to ensure that you are ready to go on moving day, it is important that you start far enough in advance of your move date.
In our last blog post, we shared a moving checklist that covered some of the most essential tasks to complete both two months and one month prior to your move date. If you’re a week out or days away from your moving day, make sure you have everything on this checklist completed!
1 Week Before The Move
You should already have the tasks from our last checklist finished. The handful of days you have prior to your moving date should be used to ensure that the items on this list are taken care of.
Get Rid of Any Hazardous Items
If you haven’t already, get rid of items that are corrosive, flammable, poisonous, or not safe to move with. There are a lot of specific ways to dispose of hazardous items, such as those found in your garage, so make sure you do so properly.
Start Taking Down Electronics
If you have certain electronics that you have still been using, you should start getting them ready for transport a week before the move. If you don’t want to struggle with setting up all of your electronics in your new home, take a quick photo on your phone of how the wires are arranged. This will make setting up computers, televisions, and gaming systems in your new home a breeze.
Pack Up the Items in Your Pantry
Don’t let your pantry go to waste. Defer any extensive baking and cooking plans until after your move — this is the time to indulge in some tasty take-out! If you come across any unopened food that you won’t be using, consider donating it to the local food pantry.
Update Subscription Services
You should have already notified the post office of your address change. If you haven’t already, update your address for the items that are delivered to you. Update your address for any newspaper or magazine subscription services. You should also update your workplace on your new home address.
Do a Deep Clean of Your Home
It may not be your first instinct to clean the property you’re about to leave, but tidying up is an important step of the moving process. Performing a final clean of your place will not only help your odds of getting your security deposit (if applicable) back, but it also gives you the chance to locate any items you may have missed while packing.
The Day of The Move
Can you believe it? Today is the day! By now you should have completed the necessary tasks two months, one month, and one week prior to your move date. Now it’s time to finalize everything and head to your new home!
Keep Essential Items Handy
Even for a local move, it is nice to have essential items handy. Put together a bag of essentials and transport it in your personal vehicle so that the items you need don’t get lost with your other boxes.
Make Sure Nothing Gets Left Behind
We’re sure you’ve already completed this step multiple times, but it doesn’t hurt to do one final walkthrough to ensure that nothing was missed. Your refrigerator should be cleared and all of the cabinets, closets, and drawers should be empty. Check all rooms, and other indoor and outdoor spaces to be sure you didn’t miss anything.
Load Up All of Your Boxes
If you’re using a moving van or truck you’ll need to load up all of your boxes and belongings. It may be helpful to have some friends or family members help you with this process as it can be quite strenuous. If you’re using door-to-door moving services, like those we offer here at Doorage, you should have scheduled your moving containers to be picked up. You don’t have to worry about doing any heavy-lifting — the door-to-door movers will pick up your containers and deliver them to the proper destination when you are ready.
Head to Your New Place
Once everything is packed and ready to go, you can get in your car and head to your new home! Before you do that, though, take the time to say goodbye to the property you are vacating your own special way. We make a lot of memories in our homes and it is nice to remember and reflect upon those that happened at your old home as well as look forward to those that are to come in your new home.
Start Unpacking When You Arrive
Once you arrive at your home, do a quick walk-through of your new home to make sure that everything is in place. If everything looks good it’s time to start unpacking — yay! You definitely don’t have to unpack everything, but it is a good idea to put away any perishable food items that you may have brought along and unpack any fragile items or anything that you would like to use in the next 24 hours. If you use door-to-door moving services, your items will arrive when you scheduled them, which can be helpful in preventing the unpacking process from becoming too overwhelming.
Moving is a long, drawn-out process, but there is no better feeling than arriving at your new home! Once you get settled in and are close to having everything unpack you can truly start to enjoy your new home and all the amenities that come along with it.
Move To Your New Home With Door to Door Moving Services
With door-to-door moving solutions from Doorage, local moves have never been easier. Rather than working with a moving company or trying to move everything yourself, Doorage offers a more convenient, affordable, and hassle-free way to move your belongings to your new address. Learn more about how door-to-door moving works.
Planning and organizing for a move is a big undertaking. There are so many different things that need to be done before you leave your existing residence and move to your new house. While local moves are less complex than those that involve long-distance travel, it is still important that you give yourself enough time to progress through all of the necessary moving preparations.
One of the biggest fears that people have when preparing for a move is failing to finish all of the pre-move tasks on time, usually due to a lack of proper preparation and organization. Since there’s so much to keep up with, our moving experts put together a checklist that will help make sure you don’t forget about the essential tasks.
2 Months Before The Move
Listen… your move date will be here before you know it. Even with a local move, it’s easier to get ahead of the game and set yourself up for an easy transition rather than playing from behind and struggling to catch up before time runs out. Two months before the move, start diving into these tasks.
Create a Moving Folder
Moving typically involves a lot of documentation. Documents that aren’t digital can be easy to lose in the shuffle of boxes and papers. To make things easier on yourself, create a folder to put these documents in when you receive them. These include moving estimates from local movers, insurance records, and your lease terms, if applicable. For easier organization, scan all hard copies of important documents and create a digital folder on your computer or external hard drive to store everything. All of these documents will come in handy come tax season!
Know the Size of Your Move
Two months out is a great time to start considering how you want to get your belongings from Point A to Point B. Do you have a friend with a pick-up truck that is willing to lend a hand and would allow you to do everything yourself? Or would you prefer to outsource the heavy-lifting to a local moving company? Start taking a mental inventory of all the things that will be going with you to your new home to get a better idea of what moving solutions you will need.
Pick a Moving Date
If you are already starting to prep, chances are you have a time frame of when you would like to move in mind. Consider whether you have to be out of your existing residence by a certain time to get a better idea of when the move needs to happen. If you plan on working with a moving service provider, it is worth reaching out to see if they will be able to work with you on your desired date.
Start Decluttering
The more stuff you have, the more difficult it will be to move. Now is the perfect time to start decluttering your home. As you declutter, only throw away stuff that you find useless. You can host a garage sale, sell items on social marketplaces, or better yet, donate items to local non-profit organizations.
Find Moving Solutions
If you aren’t going the do-it-yourself route, you need to find a moving service to help you with your move. Moving companies can be expensive, even for local moves. Find a moving solution that fits your needs and budget. At Doorage, we offer door to door moving services that make transporting your items to your new home easier than ever before.
1 Month Before The Move
It’s getting closer! You should have a moving date in mind as well as have a way to move your belongings from your current home to your new one. Make sure to get these tasks done one month before your move.
Start Packing
You may have already started to gather some things here and there, but now is the time to really get into packing mode. Develop a system for packing your belongings. It helps to go by room. If you don’t have moving boxes make sure you get some. Unless, however, you are using door to door moving services from Doorage where durable moving containers are shipped right to your door. If that’s the case, you’re good to go.
Go Crazy With Labeling
Labeling is a simple task that can go a long way in making unpacking in your new home easier. It is worth it to take the time to label, marking the room where each box came from and what is inside. Make sure you don’t forget to properly label any boxes or containers with items that are breakable. Clearly write “Fragile” (or FRA-GEE-LAY) on these boxes so that you or anyone handling your moving boxes will know to be careful.
Notify Utility Companies
Set up disconnect/reconnect dates with your phone, water, cable, internet, gas, and electricity providers. Check if your cable and internet providers are in your new city. If they are, let them know you’re moving. If not, shop around and see what other options are out there. You can also use this opportunity to pay any deposits for new utility services in advance.
Start Learning About Your New Neighborhood
You probably already know a bit about the area you are moving to, especially if it is local. However, you should still take the time to learn about your new neighborhood. Research which parks are nearby, see how long it takes to get to the nearest coffee shop and find out what the commute to work will look like. Feel free to ask friends and family who are familiar with the area if they have any recommendations.
Schedule Your Address Change
You’ll need to change your official mailing address with the post office. You can also have any mail that is addressed to and sent to your old mailing address forwarded to your new one after you move.
Don’t worry, we’re not going to leave you hanging. Stay tuned for Part 2 of our Local Moving checklist in our next blog post.
Planning a Move? Save Time and Money with Doorage
If you are planning a move, check out the door to door moving solutions from Doorage. Click to learn more about door to door moving.
There are a lot of decisions that need to be made during the moving process. A big portion of those decisions will be from choosing what will come with you to your new place and what will be staying behind. When it comes to moving, weight and space are money — the more items you need to move to your new place, the higher you can expect the final bill from the moving company to be. With this in mind, many people getting ready for a move often wonder if it’s worth it to have their furniture transported with the rest of their belongings or buy new once they get settled into their new place.
There are a lot of things to consider when deciding the fate of certain pieces of existing furniture. While the idea of having new furniture is enticing, you don’t want to just get rid of something where memories have been made. In this blog, we’ll be sharing a handful of factors to consider that will help you decide whether you should move your furniture or buy new.
Think About Where You Are Moving
Where you are moving can have a significant influence on your decisions regarding bringing certain pieces of furniture or not. Both the distance and size of your new home are huge factors. If you are moving across town, it is typically more cost-effective to hire movers or rent a moving vehicle to bring your existing furniture with you rather than buying new. If you like your current furniture and don’t want to go through the hassle of picking out new furniture and increase your moving-related expenses even more, moving your furniture with you may be worth it. Long-distance moves, on the other hand, can make your decision-making process even more difficult. Unless you have a different long-distance moving solution in place, the cost to move furniture and other large items is going to be fairly high.
Think About the Size of Your Home
It is also important to consider if the furniture in question will fit in your home. There is no point in going through the hassle of moving furniture that you won’t even be able to use if it’s not a good fit. If the home you are planning to move to has tons of space, it may be worth moving all of your furniture. However, if you are downsizing, it is a good idea to get rid of larger, if not all, of your furniture you have so that your new place isn’t crowded. If you do decide to bring it along, make sure that you have a solid idea of the room layouts and where the existing furniture will go. Take measurements to help visualize how the pieces will be arranged in the new space. It’s also important to think of the style and design of the new home’s interior — you’ll want furniture that will match your new living space. We’re sorry we’re the ones that have to tell you, but an old recliner won’t look great in a new contemporary living room.
Think About Sentimental Value
Sometimes pieces of furniture can have sentimental value attached to them. It is perfectly normal to be soft-hearted for personal belongings, even furniture. You may have a chest or dresser that has been in the family for as long as you remember. Furniture that is a family heirloom is definitely worth holding on to by any means possible. On the other hand, a move can serve as the perfect opportunity to part ways with an old, stained couch that has been around forever. Again, the less you have when moving, the cheaper it typically is. If you can find it in you to part ways with even a few pieces of furniture or cut down on the number of boxes required, you will save yourself a lot of money.
Think About Cost
Cost is perhaps the most important factor to consider. Will it cost more to move your furniture or replace it? Getting a few moving estimates from moving companies can help you determine approximately how much it would cost for you to move your items from Point A to Point B. Similarly, some online browsing of furniture stores can give you an idea of approximately how much buying furniture for your new home would be. While moving is expensive, so is furniture, especially nice, well-made furniture. If you think you can sell some or most of your furniture and other belongings, it may be to your benefit to make some extra cash and buy completely new stuff. Before making any decisions, you should consider the state of items as well. If something is on its last leg, it might be time to let go. If you can sell it, great, but if it’s not worth anything, it’s just time to say goodbye.
Think About Storage
Oftentimes, people use storage facilities when they move so that they can keep their belongings safe and secure while they work on settling in. Putting your belongings into a storage unit buys you some time and is less stressful, but you still have to deal with the hassle of transporting your items to and from the storage facility. You can potentially avoid having to store large furniture pieces by downsizing and buying new furniture, but if you plan on bringing your furniture along with you, make sure you have the right storage solutions in place. Keep in mind that self-storage facilities can be expensive. Door-to-door storage solutions are a more convenient, cost-effective option — your furniture and other items you want to be stored will be picked up from your existing address, stored in a safe and secure storage facility, and can be delivered to your new address when you’re ready.
Ultimately, the decision on whether to move your furniture to your place or to leave it behind mostly depends on the characteristics of the move, the furniture itself, and your personal preferences. For some people, the idea of getting rid of everything and starting fresh is all part of the adventure. For others, it is too much of a hassle to shop for new furniture and easy to keep what they have, especially when they use Doorage’s door-to-door moving services to transport it from one destination to the next.
To let Doorage help with all of your needs, click on storage or moving to get started.
At Doorage, we love labels. We love labels more than Oprah loves bread. Mostly because it ensures that all of your boxes in our Chicago storage warehouse are accounted for so we can easily get them back to you when you need them. So, maybe we should actually change our first statement to, “We love labels on boxes,” because there are a few things that we don’t actually care for labels on, and one of them is ‘love.’
As our buddy Lin Manuel Miranda so beautifully put it in his 2016 Tony’s acceptance speech, “Love is love is love is love is love is love is love… and also, who are these randos from Doorage saying we’re buddies?” He’s right, who are we kidding… maybe we can’t put the label of “Friend” on us and Lin (though, we’ve tried), but we also don’t want to put labels on love. That’s why Doorage is proud to support our Chicago LGBTQ+ community at this year’s PRIDE Parade. Meet us on June 24th at Chicago PRIDE — we’ll be the ones in the bright pink shirts! Follow us on Facebook for more details.
What’s happening at PRIDE?
We’re glad you asked. Doorage is giving away over 2,000 “I [heart] The D” shirts — hint: the D stands for Doorage. Each bright pink shirt will have a special coupon attached, and when you sign up for your first month of Doorage with the signup code ‘PRIDE,’ you can save up to $100 on your first month using our door-to-door storage in Chicago. We’ll also donate $25 to LGBTQ+ organizations for every use of the ‘PRIDE’ coupon code.
So, you already know that the ‘D’ on our “I Love The D” shirts stands for Doorage — but, who said that’s the only thing it can stand for? (What do you mean the ‘D’ is our logo and it does literally represent Doorage?) We’ve got 5 other things the ‘D’ might mean, check them out:
What Does The ‘D’ Stand For?
Donald*
*Glover, of course.
Dumbledore
Our favorite wizard and fictional member of the LBGTQ+ community, the late-great Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, has some of the most memorable and badass moments of the Harry Potter franchise. When it comes to D’s that we love, Dumbledore takes the cake – or, the Pumpkin Pasty if you want to keep it in the HP Universe. Author J.K. Rowling announced in 2007 that Dumbledore was gay and has since served up some of the best Twitter retorts to narrow-minded fans. Our favorite might be her response to a fan who tweeted, “I wonder why you said that Dumbledore is gay because I can’t see him in that way,” to which she responded, “Maybe because gay people just look like… people?” Be still our Hogwarts hearts!
Dogs
Okay, even if you love Doorage and Dumbledore and Donald Glover, you still likely have enough love in your heart for dogs. Dogs, also known as puppers, doggos, floofs, woofers, fluffers, boofers, or occasionally, long bois, depending on their shape, size, and relative sound of their bark (it is a boof? A bork? An arf?), are so good and so pure that truly no one can resist those wittle snoots.
Da Bears
We love da team as well as da classic Saturday Night Live skit. What can we say, we fall in love with our teams here in Chicago. We also like da Cubs, and even though we shunned labels earlier, can we just rejoice in that 2016 World Series champ label a little longer?
Deerfield, Des Plaines, Downers Grove, and Dundee…
These are some of the ‘D’ neighborhoods we offer our door-to-door storage to in Chicago, so of course, we love them. We love our A-E and F-Z neighborhoods, too, of course, but the shirt says “I Love The D” and we’ve already printed them, so it is what it is. Be sure to check out all of the neighborhoods we bring our pickup storage service to!
Store With Pride, Store With Doorage
We are your dedicated Chicago storage solution and as born and raised Chicagoans, we are committed to doing our part to making Chicago and the world a little better. We always donate 1% of gross sales to breast cancer research and another 1% to Chicago after-school programs. During 2018 PRIDE, we are also donating $25 for every use of the discount code ‘PRIDE’ to LBGTQ+ organizations that work to make Chicago and the country a better, safer, and more inclusive place for everyone.
Come Find Us At The Chicago Pride Parade On June 24th!
Again, we’ve got 2000+ of these babies to hand out and tens of thousands of dollars of Chicago storage discounts waiting to be used. Meet us at the 49th annual Chicago PRIDE on June 24th to get your free shirt and Doorage discount. You can learn more about the parade route here, and be sure to follow us on Facebook for the latest updates about where you can find us.
