Moving Tips and Suggestions

Twenty years of watching people move house, condensed into the things that actually save time and money.

Start three weeks out

Not with packing — with throwing things away. Most people move at least one carton of things they will never open again. Every carton costs money to move.

Label by room, not by contents

Writing “kitchen” on a box is more useful than listing what is inside. The crew places it in the right room and you unpack when you are ready.

Keep one bag with you

Charger, medicines, a change of clothes, important documents, and something to eat. That bag travels with you, never on the truck.

Photograph the back of your TV

Before anything is unplugged. It takes ten seconds and saves an hour of guesswork at the other end. Same for the router and any AV setup.

Book the lift before you book the movers

In most Bangalore apartments the service lift has to be reserved, sometimes days ahead. A crew standing outside a locked lift is billed time you are paying for.

Do not move gas cylinders

Transporters are not allowed to carry them. Return the cylinder and get a new connection at the other end — it is a form, not a fight.

Empty and defrost the fridge a day before

A fridge moved with water inside leaks over everything below it in the truck. Twenty-four hours unplugged is the rule.