Complete Guide to Moving Challenges Suddath Can Solve

Our highly experienced moving company can solve plenty of challenges that people encounter when moving DIY. Here are ten commonly encountered issues and how we can smoothly address them for a relocation that’s as stress-free as possible.

#1 Moving Involves Plenty of Physical Labor

From lifting, carrying, and loading heavy pieces of furniture, appliances, and so forth—and then, upon arrival at the destination point—lifting, carrying, and unloading them, moving really is a labor-intensive job. For some people, this is literally something that they can’t do themselves. Their solution can be to find friends and family members, but they may also have physical limitations. This can lead to strained muscles, scrapes and bruises, injuries from tripping and falling, and more—possibly for you, the people who help you, or both.

Besides managing the obviously big and bulky items, moving requires packing, lifting, carrying, and loading numerous boxes of household goods, which can add up to thousands of pounds overall. If time is short, you may find yourself trying to accomplish this in a relatively short amount of time, which can trigger more accidents.

Suddath solves this problem by having skilled moving crews who are trained in lifting and carrying and who are provided with the proper equipment and tools.

#2 Belongings Can Easily Be Damaged

As you’re packing your household goods, damage can easily occur. This can be especially true with fragile possessions although it’s also true that it’s easy to bump and bang heavy belongings as you’re removing them from the home. By factoring in what’s involved when you need to navigate stairs, more potential problems arise.

Then, it can take special expertise to load a moving truck in a way that optimally protects what you’re putting inside: your lifetime of possessions. To add to the challenge, as you’re driving a truck full of belongings, they can become damaged with another time of potential risk taking place when you empty the truck at your new home. Perhaps you’ll have fewer people available to help you unpack, being in a new community, than you did when you were packing to move. This would clearly compound the problem.

Here’s how we can help. Suddath protects your walls, floors, and doors with protective coverings before removing any possessions from your home, which protects both your belongings and your home. Our expert teams know exactly how to pack, load, and transport belongings to keep them safe and protected. This includes using the best packing supplies, creating custom cartons for special belongings, and more. Plus, when you use a professional mover, you benefit from valuation coverage that protects your household goods in transit.

#3 Transporting Household Goods Comes With Challenges

From charting the best routes to navigating through heavy traffic, rerouting because of detours, and otherwise getting your goods where they need to go can be difficult. To add to the challenges, you may not be comfortable with driving a large vehicle or familiar with the areas where you’re traveling.

Because of this unfamiliarity, you’ll want to ensure that you’re driving a bit slower than usual and providing more space between your vehicle and the one in front of you. You’ll need extra space when turning, compared to a typical car or pickup truck, and will need to heavily rely upon mirrors to monitor your surroundings. Expect more blind spots as you drive. You’ll need clarity on clearance levels, height-wise, to park in larger spots, and be especially careful when backing out of one.

Depending upon the size of the vehicle, you could need a commercial driver’s license, so double check that before making plans. If that’s the case, dividing up belongings into two smaller trucks may serve as the solution; that will require a second driver or you making two trips. Or, you could fill up the smaller truck; drive it to your location; unload the contents; drive back home; load up the second half of your household goods; and drive back to your location to upload them.

Or, you could let Suddath solve the problem. Our expert crews know the highways and byways and proactively come up with a backup plan in case of detours, accidents, and bad weather. They know how to navigate large moving trucks, which adds another layer of protection to your belongings housed in the vehicles.

#4 Cross-Country & International Relocations Can Be Intimidating

In each case, you’re moving far away from what you’ve known where you currently live. Of these two possibilities, cross-country moves have one thing in their favor: unless moving to Hawaii, an Alaskan island, or a U.S. territory like Puerto Rico, that move is drivable.

Although some international moves are driveable, such as the United States to Canada, overseas ones are not. So, for an overseas move, you can’t just call up a few friends to load up a vehicle and start driving. Instead, you would need to create a plan that involves transportation by waterways or airways. You’d have to manage customs procedures, documentation, and more, which are things you may not have done before.

Suddath specializes in both long distance and international moves. In fact, we’ve been named the International Mover of the Year by The Forum for Expatriate Management (FEM) six times, most recently in 2024. FEM serves as a prestigious organization in the relocation industry and, with the award we’ve won, it honors how well Suddath manages international moves and serves the expatriate community.

#5 You May Have Specialized Needs That Require Specialized Solutions

Examples include how you may need to have a car, motorcycle, or boat transported; require fine wine or art collections to be managed with a concierge touch; want pets relocated to your new place; own a piano that needs expertly handled; or require custom crating for unusually shaped belongings.

In each of these cases, Suddath’s specialty moving services provide the solution. With our white glove moving services, our expert teams take every possible precaution to protect your possessions, privacy, and home. We pay close attention to detail, leveraging our company’s century-plus of moving expertise. With these high-end services, there’s little that you need to oversee, allowing you to put your attention face-forward on your upcoming destination.

#6 Packing Can Be a Daunting Task

Not everyone likes to pack—and especially during a hectic time as you’re planning for your new life. So, during your initial planning with Suddath, you may choose our partial packing services where you instruct us what to box up: certain rooms, heavy and/or fragile belongings, and so forth. As the time nears, and you still haven’t gotten the packing to-do completed on your list, let us know. You may decide to change the partial packing solution to a full one. Or, you may add “pack all last minute items” to Suddath’s partial packing list.

The quality of our custom crating services (a box within a box for unique items) also solves plenty of problems for customers. This is another area where our flexibility shines. A Suddath expert can carefully measure a particular belonging and build a box on spec to protect that unique possession. This might occur offsite with the custom crate disassembled before coming to your home on moving day, reassembled with the item safely cushioned inside. Or, we might build the custom crate, from the ground up, at your site. As needed, we add molds or stands that further stabilize and cradle the item in the custom crating.

Our experts pay exceptional attention to the size and shape of the wood, the strength of its construction, and its reinforcement for stability. Special hooks can be added to safely push, pull, lift, and move the crate, and our customized crates are weatherized to protect against climate changes and humidity.

#7 Plans Can Change Suddenly

The sellers of your house might unexpectedly ask for an extension before they move, or you may need to address a significant work or family challenge before you leave. No matter the specifics, not all moving companies are as adaptable as others—but Suddath specializes in flexibility. As an agile moving company, we can pivot as needed. So, don’t panic. Just let us know.

#8 The Need for Storage Solutions Aren’t Cookie Cutter

One of the ways that we can address plans that suddenly changed is through a storage solution designed for your unique needs. Perhaps, when the owner of the home you’ve bought asked for another few weeks before moving out, you contracted with them to pay for your family’s stay in a hotel for that time period and for them to pay for your belongings to be stored in Suddath facilities, delivered once you’re in the home.

Other storage solutions include our declutter and store program where you decide what excess belongings to have our moving crew pick up and store while you stage your home for sale. Or, you may be leaving for a military assignment. In that case, our long-term or vault storage may be the ideal solution.

This is another example of an area where our moving company’s adaptability—as well as our ability to offer innovative, creative solutions—comes into play.

#9 You Can’t Always Get What You Want

At Suddath, though, you can. By choosing the services you want and need from our flexible menus (packing, storage, specialty services, and so forth), you can benefit from a customized move plan designed by our experts. This will allow you to relocate in ways that meet your requirements within your time and budget.

#10 Moving Quotes Can Be Confusing

Let’s say that you’ve decided to gather moving quotes to see if, perhaps, the idea of moving DIY isn’t the best option for you. As you do, you may find a lack of clarity or detail in the estimates. At Suddath, though, we provide transparent, granular cost breakdowns that include ones for labor, transportation, packing materials, valuation, and any additional services. You’ll know what to pay and why.

When you want to investigate costs for packing services, storage solutions, or specialty services, we’ll provide a breakdown of each. That way, you can prioritize what’s most important for you. You might appreciate, for example, professional disconnecting and reconnecting of your appliances and/or custom disassembly and reassembly of furniture and other equipment.

We’ll clearly share the role of mileage and the weight of your belongings in your quote. As a pro tip, before getting your quote, declutter your belongings to reduce their weight. Ways to do that include by:

Then, create a plan to order/ship relevant new items directly to your new home.

Your move date plays a role in the amount of your quote. Moving is a capacity-based business, so ask moving companies for the best days they can offer for you to have a cost-efficient move. If you have the flexibility to choose one of those, you can save money. Monday through Thursday moves are less than weekend ones, all other factors being equal, and there’s more available for movers during the offseason of October through April. Not only will a move in the off-season give you a better price, it’s more likely that you’ll get the best crew possible.

As a final quoting factor, consider your moving valuation coverage (that sounds like insurance but isn’t). All moving companies must provide standard released value coverage at $.60/lb. That translates into protection of $6,000 for every 10,000 pounds of weight. Is that sufficient? If so, great. If not, consider buying additional valuation coverage for some or all of your belongings at either full replacement cost or repair cost.

To get a quote for your move, please reach out for an estimate for a cost-efficient move that’s as stress-free as possible.