Whether moving into a new home or moving out of your old one, moving is a stressful chore that can quickly go from an affordable inconvenience to an expensive ordeal, especially when things don’t go as planned. Moving is already hard enough as it is, but the additional challenges that come from unexpected events can turn your whole experience into a nightmare.

Many things might go wrong along the way, but knowing some of the possible issues you may encounter can help with your planning process. This article outlines five moving nightmares and how to avoid them to help make your experience as smooth as possible.

1. Hiring a bad moving company

The problem with moving companies is that there are no regulations in place, which means that anyone with a truck or a website can easily set up their own company. Unfortunately, this increases your likelihood of hiring incompetent and unprofessional movers or being a victim of a scam. You’ll experience issues like moving trucks arriving too late or never arriving at all, movers are not careful enough to avoid damaging your things, or they’ll charge extra to your agreed-upon price. 

Solution: The best way to avoid this moving nightmare is to perform competitive research on each company and widen your options. It may not be enough to rely on a few reviews. Thus, you need to apply due diligence a month before you move.

2. Dealing with unlabeled boxes

Once you overcome the troubles with the moving company, dealing with unlabeled boxes becomes your next nightmare. When you don’t know what’s inside your moving boxes, you can’t put them in the room they supposedly belong. This forces you to open the box one be one in the living room to see what’s inside and then tape them up again before you can move them to their rightful place.

Solution: To save time and effort, make sure to sort your things according to the room they go to when packing. For example, pack all your kitchen stuff in the same boxes and label them, which indicates that these boxes belong in the kitchen.

3. Damaging your belongings

As mentioned earlier, clumsy and incompetent movers may cause damage to your belongings. But mistakes and accidents can still happen even to the best of them. Or, if it’s not the movers, you or your family members could accidentally drop boxes when trying to move or pack them.

Solution: To minimize the risk of damaging your items, cover breakable items with bubble wrap and properly secure fragile items when packing. Also, label boxes with fragile contents to increase caution.

4. You’re not done packing on moving day

When you underestimate the time it takes to pack, you may not finish packing in time for the movers' arrival. It will be a nightmare if this happens because it may cause you to panic, which could lead to lost or misplaced items.

Solution: To avoid running out of time, set your moving day as late as possible and pack your belongings a few days before the scheduled date. Moreover, take this time to sort out some of the stuff you no longer use or need and leave them.

5. Hurting yourself during the move

Hiring movers can be expensive, which may compel you to do the moving yourself. But while that decision may save you some money, it may also put you at risk of injuring yourself, especially when you have plenty of heavy furniture and appliances to move around.  

Solution: If you can’t afford a moving company, be sure to apply proper body mechanics. Place your feet shoulder-width apart, bend at the knees and hips only, and always keep your back straight when lifting heavy objects. You should also ask for help from friends and family and never attempt to lift heavy objects on your own.

Conclusion

Moving can be really challenging, and experiencing setbacks from unforeseen events may cost you more than anticipated. And while tapping on movers can help ease the burden, hiring a bad one will only add to your problem. Thankfully, the tips in this article will allow you to have five fewer moving nightmares to worry about.

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