Moving, whether across town or across the country, can be a huge pain and can cause a ton of stress on you and your family. On top of upending your entire life and having no real sense of home for a little while, there are also lots of expenses involved with moving, some of which may be unexpected.
To avoid them taking you by surprise, here are four costs associated with moving to a new house or apartment that you may have forgotten about.
Broken Items
Whether you pack everything yourself or pay professional movers to do it, a couple broken items are bound to happen in any big move. Hopefully the things that break aren’t expensive or irreplaceable, but be prepared for them to be and put it into your moving budget so that if it does happen it isn’t a total tragedy.
Moving Or Buying New Furniture
You may have hired professional movers to move all of your heavy furniture such as couches and beds or you may have decided just to move it all yourself with the help of a good buddy or two. Either way, furniture is definitely one of the most difficult and stressful parts of moving. Weigh your options and find out how much it will cost to move everything, then do the math to figure out if buying all new furniture once you get to the new place would cost more or less. If less, consider letting the old stuff go and replacing it.
Dump Runs
Undoubtedly when moving, you will realize that you actually have a bunch of stuff laying around your house that you don’t need. It happens to us all. Downsizing and decluttering is a very healthy thing to do and will feel freeing – you’ll truly be making a fresh start in your new home. Unfortunately, all of those material items you’re getting rid of have to go somewhere. Whether you hire a service to do it for you or take a truckload to the dump yourself, it is going to cost you. Keep this in mind.
Lost Or Missing Mail
Even if you fill out a change of address form, you will likely have to deal with lost mail after moving to a new home. It’s frustrating and can certainly cause some big problems if the piece of mail lost is particularly important. Do everything you can to prevent it by filling out the correct forms wherever possible and having your mail forwarded. If stuff ends up damaged, missing, or completely lost, try to deal with it with a level head.
Don’t let moving or the costs associated with it give you too big of a headache. Prepare yourself and your family for possible expenses ahead of time and you’ll just let them roll right off your back.
