If you have the option of moving during off-peak season, and you know which time period that encompasses, by all means do so. If you need help understanding peak moving season where you live or where you’re headed, ask your moving company, realtor, or other local professionals to help you.
In this blog, we offer some general facts about peak moving season that hold true no matter the location. We also help you out with a few tips to get through a peak season move.
A Few Facts About Peak Moving Seasons
Peak moving season in nearly every U.S. city is consistent. If it’s a busy moving weekend in your hometown, it will likely be a busy moving weekend in your new city. Expect a general peak season in any area to be the months between May and August.
The reason for a peak summer season is that military members often get their orders to change command during the spring and summer months. In addition, parents often plan moves to new homes in summer months, so they’re relocating while their children are on school break. This fact means there’s a mad rush for half of the spring season-and nearly all summer-to rent moving vans, crews, and relocation coordinators.
If you live near a university, expect peak moving seasons in the vicinity to correspond with the beginning and end of terms for university students. The beginning of fall term may be a good time to schedule a moving van to pick your items up for a long-distance move. There will be many vans in the university area doing one-way long-distance moves into student and staff dorms. This schedule may not work if you’re moving locally, however, since all local movers may be booked solid.
Temporary workers and interns also may hire every moving crew in an area when their jobs or internships are over. This group includes people with jobs at busy seasonal tourist attractions, training camps, teaching hospitals, and other venues. Between local realtors, rental agents, and your moving company, someone will know exactly which dates are the peak moving seasons for the school, camp, or facility near you if you ask around.
5 Tips for Surviving a Peak-Season Relocation
Book Your Move ASAP
The first thing you must do is book your moving van as soon as possible to confirm your date. Relocation experts recommend that you reserve your moving company’s vehicles and services at least four weeks in advance of a move. If you know your move is occurring during a peak moving season in your departure or arrival location, book your moving van even sooner.
Hire a Crew to Move Your Stuff
Let the professionals handle the planning, packing, loading, van driving, and unloading for you during peak season. There will be many DIYers on the road alongside all of those extra busy moving company vans. Let a professional driver and crew handle the big truck on the highway and the sofa up the stairs. When you hire experts to deal with the hard parts of moving, you get to focus on the comfort of your family and yourself as you head toward your new home.
Book a Relocation Coordinator
If the thought of actually planning your move is overwhelming to you, go ahead and hire a moving planner through your moving company. You’ll receive expert care to help with the logistics of your relocation. A dedicated relocation coordinator makes moving a dream compared to doing it yourself. The planner helps with a variety of issues from connecting your utilities to ordering specialty boxes for your most precious items.
Know the Laws Wherever You Drive
Research the laws in the various states where you’ll be driving to make certain your vehicle, insurance coverage, car seats, and driving habits are legal in each state. You may receive a ticket in some states for having a radar detector, heavily-tinted glass, or some other forbidden or missing car component. Smoking with kids in the car is a bad idea, and it gets you an instant ticket in some locations. Ignorance of the law rarely works when it comes to reducing traffic fines, so be aware of the laws before you leave home.
Stock the Car for Comfort
Pack a cooler with ice and plenty of bottled water and fruit juice for a hot weather trip. Also, hire a qualified mechanic to check your air conditioning and coolant systems thoroughly before you head out of town. Few things are worse than being hot, cranky, lost, and driving around with no AC. Lastly, toss a tote or backpack full of snacks, games, and other distractions for passengers in the vehicle, too.
Contact Wheaton World Wide Moving today to learn more about peak moving seasons, relocation planning, and our full range of services and payment methods. We have the experience and staff to provide you with a professional and successful move no matter where you’re headed next.
