The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly When Your Power Is Cutoff During A Move:

There’s a new apparent normal in the Bay Area. October means warmer weather, and now, fire season. In a proactive attempt to prevent fires, PG&E, the Bay Area’s utility company, is strategically cutting power to many homes. Being without power is bad enough during normal times, but right before, or during a move, a potential disaster – or is it?

The Good

Okay, having your power cut off is never a good thing, but when moving, there are worse things that could happen. Despite our digital age, moving is still one of the most analog industries. During blackouts, that’s very good. One could even argue that no power equals no distractions. Grab some boxes, some tape, some packing paper, and pack. Be careful if you want to pack by candlelight. Grab some earbuds and crank up the tunes.

You’ll want to use up as much food as possible before your move. You can still cook if you have a gas stove. If you don’t, fire up the barbecue.

The Bad

No light could make it harder to pack. Cleaning dark drawers and closets can be challenging. While music makes packing easier, you might not be able to spare battery life. Charge your phones in your car, if you can.

The Ugly

You know most of the ugly. If you have an electric stove, it can be impossible to cook that food you desperately need to use up. If you have an electric water heater, you might want to shower and dry your hair at the gym.

The biggest inconvenience happens after the move, when the lack of power makes cleaning almost impossible. If you rent, ask your landlord if you can have a few days extension. Ideally, you should take care of everything needing electricity in advance. Vacuum regularly, especially before a planned blackout. If you need to have the carpet cleaned, do that before the move.

Preparing For Moving Day - Top Tips

The key to being prepared for moving day is being organised, setting tasks and creating a schedule.

Aside from packing, you need to factor in time for getting rid of unwanted stuff, updating contacts with your new address, plotting out and priming your new home, arranging assistance from professional movers or friends, and much more.

Bring in help or DIY?

The first decision you will need to make is whether you are able to handle the move without help or whether you will need to use professional movers for all or some of the tasks on the day.

You can hire movers to simply move bulky items and deal with heavy lifting, to disassemble and reassemble furniture, or you can handover the reigns to the whole operation including packing and unpacking all your belongings. There are a variety of options to suit your schedule, budget and peace of mind.

Prepare a moving schedule, checklist and inventory

Organising your time in the lead up to moving day is essential for the smooth running of the day. As soon as the move is confirmed, you should set tasks leading up to and including moving day.

If you don’t know where to begin, there are apps for both iPhone and Android that can help keep you organised from start to finish.

Plot out your new rooms

Use the floor plans / dimensions of your new home to plot where your current furniture will fit. This will ensure a smooth transition as you will have a clear idea of what will go where, and it will even help you figure out what you will need to get rid of in advance of the move.

Get rid of unwanted things as soon as possible

Moving is a great opportunity to ditch the clutter and get rid of unused and unnecessary stuff that you’ve been piling up at the back of the cupboard or under the bed! No only will this exercise do you good, it could reduce the cost of professional movers if you decide to get rid of a significant amount.

Create piles of things to throw, recycle, sell, or donate, and deal with these items as soon as possible so that you can get stuck into packing up the rest of your home.

Additionally, you should start to use up all your food and condiments in your fridge, freezer and cupboards as these are difficult to transport.

Begin packing as early as possible

The sooner you start packing up boxes, the better. Make sure that your least used belongings are packed up first or placed at the bottom of boxes, with any ’essentials’ placed near the top so you can access them more easily.

Labelling your boxes thoroughly will also save you a lot of time in your new home and allow you to prioritise what you unpack first.

It’s a good idea to pack an overnight bag with the necessities including basic toiletries, medication, a change of clothes, phone charger, and perhaps even tea, coffee and a small amount of cutlery and crockery.

Allow time to clean, paint and prime your new home

If you are lucky enough to have the option of an overlap of time between homes, use this to clean, paint, and fix anything in need before moving day. You should also factor in time to clean your existing home before the new occupants arrive.

Change your address

It’s important that you update everyone with your new address, giving as much notice as possible. This includes utility companies, insurance companies, banks, and other organisations, as well as friends and family.

You can also arrange to have your post forwarded for a short period of time.

Ask for help

Ask friends and family for help in advance of your move-in date, whether for heavy lifting, unpacking, or just to look after your children or pets on moving day.