When that happens, you may find yourself in a bit of a conundrum. You’ll either have to spend some time without your furniture, or you’ll have to find a way to store your furniture until you arrive. Below, we’ve given you tips and instructions so that in the unlikely event that something like this happens, you’ll know exactly what to do.
What to Do If You Arrive Before Your Belongings
When you relocate your belongings with a moving company, the movers will give you a window of time when your household belongings will arrive. Ideally, you arrive at that location a day or so before the movers do, and you meet the movers at your new house so they can immediately unload your property.
However, if something happens where you arrive very early or the movers suffer significant delays, you may end up at your new home for days without any furniture or cooking utensils. Here’s what you should do in the meantime:
1. Find a hotel.
If you have to wait a few days or even a couple weeks for your belongings, you’ll still want to sleep in a bed. Even if you brought pillows and blankets on your drive or flight to your new home, sleeping on the ground probably isn’t ideal. Find a hotel that fits your budget and stay there instead. You’ll also have access to towels, soap, shampoo, television, and other comforts.
2. Buy essentials for your home.
Even though you can’t use this time to unpack, you should still do some preparation-you’ll feel better about the delay if you do a little nesting in the meantime. Go out and buy necessary items for your home, including:
- Nonperishable foods: Stock your pantry. You will use it soon, and if you stock it beforehand, you won’t have to worry about it after the stress of unpacking your belongings.
- Perishable foods: If your new home came with a fridge or cooler, you can also stock that with necessary food items.
- Hand soap: Place hand soap dispensers by every sink and put a stock of them in your preferred storage area. You’ll want the soap around when you start to unpack boxes and move furniture.
- Dish and laundry detergent: You probably won’t start washing anything for a few days. However, if you buy detergent beforehand, you won’t have to go through the stress of buying it in the middle of unpacking.
- Cleaners: The same principles apply here. If you have some time to kill, buy these items beforehand so you don’t have to stress about them after unpacking your household goods.
Once you purchase all these items, you’ll have all the essentials so you can relax when your belongings do arrive.
3. Clean your home.
Unloading will make a mess. But you can take care of many cleaning opportunities while you have an empty house. You could call an exterminator to set off a bug bomb so you’ll have a pest-free house. You could also have the windows cleaned inside and out, or you could call the carpet cleaner. You could even take this opportunity to repaint walls or replace certain features-you won’t have any furniture to get in your way.
What to Do If You Arrive After Your Belongings
No matter what, if something goes wrong with the timing of your move, you should call your moving company and work out all the issues. If you know that a crash, a natural disaster, an illness, or any other catastrophe will push back your arrival time, call your moving company. They may be able to make arrangements to arrive later as well.
However, if you can’t make arrangements for a delayed delivery, you’ll have to find other options:
1. Arrange for your belongings to go to a storage facility.
Can you negotiate to have your belongings go into a storage facility instead of to your doorstep? Ask your moving company about storage options. If you have advanced warning about the delay, you could ask the moving company to store your property in their own facility.
2. Call family or friends in the area to come get your belongings.
Do you know and trust anyone in the area? They could come and start moving your property into your new home if they have a key. They could also store your belongings at their homes or in a storage facility if they don’t have a key. However, this is not recommended because an inventory assessment is needed when your belongings arrive and who better to know your household goods, other than you.
These circumstances rarely happen. And if they do happen, Wheaton World Wide Moving will accommodate the extenuating circumstances. If you are planning a move between now and May, Wheaton World Wide Moving is offering a special discount program which includes a time-span delivery guarantee. If your belongings do not arrive in the agreed upon window, then we will pay you $250 a day! Talk to your local agent to learn more about this special discount program. So don’t stress about your belongings arriving before or after you do. Use the tips above to keep yourself prepared for the worst.
