It’s time to uproot your home and family and transplant them to a new home. Whether it’s just a few miles away or in another state, you’ll find yourself worrying about how to protect your most valuable items during a move. Small things like your most important documents or your jewelry are probably the easiest of all. The best place for them to be is in your hand-luggage.
But what about your heirloom crockery, your precious antiques, or artworks that may have more sentimental than intrinsic value? Let’s look at what you can do to protect your most precious belongings.
1. Choose Your Moving Company Carefully
Choosing a really good moving company is an obvious first step to keeping your most valued items safe when you relocate. This will mean checking out their businesses with care. Are they specialized movers? How long have they been in business? What are their customers saying about them? After that, it’s time to ask them some specific questions about the kind of items you’d worry about most.
2. Package Items Yourself or Supervise Closely
You might want to do some of the packing yourself, even if you’ve taken a full-service move with packing included. Your most precious breakable items can go into hard plastic containers instead of cardboard boxes. Cushion the bottom and sides against impacts using bubble wrap or newspaper, wrap each item carefully, and pack so that items can’t move around during transit.
If you’re happy with your removal firm doing all the packing, focus your attention on the items that matter most to you and supervise closely. Yes, they’d love to have you out from under their feet, but they’re your items, and you’re entitled to keep an eye on things!
3. Protect Against Dirt, Scrapes, and Scratches
A good moving company will arrive with a variety of materials to protect furniture in transit. But before packing, take pictures of your most valuable furniture from every angle. It will serve as proof if you pick up damage later on. Ensure that your movers cover soft furnishings with plastic sheeting and that your precious wooden antiques are wrapped in blankets or bubble wrap to prevent scrapes and scratches.
Watch how they stow items in the truck. There should be sufficient cushioning between each item, and the load should be packed so that nothing can fall over, rub against something else, or be subjected to overly heavy weights.
4. Have Insurance, Just in Case
Although insurance doesn’t put a price on sentimental value, you can at least get cover that represents the intrinsic value of heirlooms and artworks. Chances are, your removal company will offer you insurance that covers the move. Find out what it covers, how the claims process works, and what time-period it covers.
If you think the cover is inadequate, find out if you can add a top-up to your existing household contents insurance to cover your move.
5. Final Steps
Carefully check your valuables on arrival, preferably before the driver leaves the site. If you spot any issues, make sure that they are properly recorded, get copies of documentation, and follow up with your removal company.
If you chose a really good one, it’s entirely possible that you won’t have anything to complain of, but making sure gives you peace of mind and reduces the chances of you getting blamed for damage that happened in transit.
Also read: Moving Home – A Guide to Knowing What Kind of Moving Service You Need
