5 Things to Consider When Choosing a Moving Date

You can’t always choose your own moving date. For instance, if you’re a seller, the buyers of your current home may not have flexibility and have requested a specific date. Perhaps you’re looking to relocate because of a new job and there is a specific timeline offering little flexibility to choose when you move. However, when you are in the position to choose a moving day, there are some good moving tips to follow.

1. Flexibility helps

When you’re looking to relocate, flexibility can often lead to a more affordable move. For example, if you’re shipping items and can handle a delivery window, instead of a guaranteed delivery date, you will spend less. While you may prefer to move on the weekend, being flexible with your preference and instead moving outside of your moving company’s peak times may be cheaper and have higher availability.

2. School schedule

It’s useful to accept this fact: moving will be somewhat disruptive to kids’ schedules. For that reason summer is one of the most common seasons to relocate for families. This may be true, however there is a downside to moving in summer: most moving companies are booked or have low availability. Holiday weekends present the same opportunity and the same conundrum: the kids are out of school, but mover availability is low and friends and family volunteers are busy (there are even things to consider like local road closings for events and parades, which can make moving on a holiday weekend difficult). One of the best moving tips to consider: if you accept that there is really no “perfect” time to move with kids, it leaves you free to choose dates based on other factors like price and overall convenience.

3. Availability of volunteers

Poll your friends and family about their windows of availability to help you move. Having volunteers also presents an upside to the challenges of moving with kids: you might want to choose a moving date when friends or family are available to babysit or even host the kids overnight.

4. Work schedule

If your job has cycles during which it is more or less busy, you may be able to schedule your move around them.This can be advantageous to teachers, making a case for moving in the summer. Unused vacation days also make a case for summer/fall moves.

5. Mover availability

If you’re hiring professional movers and have the flexibility of choosing a moving date, ask them about dates that offer the most availability, and if there are cost variations. What’s the best deal?