There are a lot of questions to ask yourself when carrying out a long-distance move. One important question to ask yourself is ‘what should I do with my possessions?’. Below are just some of the different approaches you can take.
Dispose of them
A long distance move could be a chance to get rid of everything and start again. Of course, there could be a few precious possessions that you want to take with you, however the rest may be able to be parted with, saving you the cost of transporting possessions. Disposing of your belongings requires you to not be too attached to your stuff. You also need to dedicate enough time to get rid of your stuff – whether you choose to donate, sell or throw away.
Selling your possessions could be a way of raising some money if you need some extra cash for the move. There are many ways of selling your possessions from hosting a yard sale to selling your items online.
Try to donate and recycle as many items as you can that cannot be sold. Hiring a skip could be necessary if you need to get rid of lots of items quickly.
Take them with you
Taking all your possessions with you could be expensive, but may be the only option if you’re eager to keep on to them. There are likely to be different ways of transporting your stuff that are worth looking into.
Transporting items by air is likely to be the most expensive but fastest way of getting your possessions to your new home. A lot of people do this only with their most urgent items.
Alternatively, you could plan to ship your possessions over by sea. You may be able to use moving containers to do this. Shipping possessions by sea is slower but more affordable.
Transporting items by road is another option. This could be the best option if you’re not moving overseas. Ideally you want to be able to move over as many possessions as you can in as few journeys as possible to reduce costs. Hiring a long-distance moving company with a large lorry could be the best option.
Put in temporary storage
If you’re moving somewhere temporarily, you may be able to put your possessions into temporary local storage. This prevents you from having to take them with you, while also preventing you from having to get rid of them. You’ll pay a small rental fee for the temporary storage, but it’s worthwhile.
You can find storage units as specialist storage facilities. Alternatively, you may be able to hire a private barn or garage off of somebody.
A bit of all three?
You don’t have to solely use one of these strategies. In fact, it could be possible to do a bit of all three.
Decluttering is always worthwhile before moving – while you may not be able to get rid of all of your stuff, you could aim to get rid of a large chunk of it. This will reduce the cost of the amount of stuff that you need to transport over. A few items could also be put into temporary storage if you’re not ready to get rid of them yet but also not willing to take them with you.
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