Just because the holiday season is over doesn’t mean winter is. There are still a few months of cold weather left. And if you’re not planning on hiring an Austin moving company during that time, you’re going to run into a bit more trouble than usual. So we’ve put together this list of three challenges of moving during winter and how to overcome them.

The Challenges

Regardless of what you’re doing, the cold and snow bring on many challenges. Here are some of the biggest ones to be aware of as you prepare to move.

Moving Wooden Furniture

Even if you protect your wooden furniture well, the wood could get warped or broken during the move if it gets wet. This is mainly a problem in low humidity environments because they will create air pockets for the water to seep into, making the damage even more severe.

Securing Fragile Items

Fragile items always have the chance to break during a move, but the likelihood of that happening increases significantly during the winter. Freezing temperatures make things like glass and electrical components more brittle, which can lead them to shatter or snap under pressure more easily.

Driving on Dangerous Roads

The most important challenge to remember is driving on the roads. Even if it’s not snowing that day, the ground can still be slippery, especially if it’s below freezing out. Not only is this a problem for driving, but it can be an issue when walking boxes out to the truck.

The Fixes

Of course, this list covering the challenges of moving during winter and how to overcome them would be no good if we didn’t tell you how to fix these issues, so here are some tips.

Keep Up With Weather Announcements

The number one way to avoid these potential problems is to avidly watch the weather. If there’s a blizzard on its way or a large cold front about to pass through, you’ll want to push back your moving date. If that’s not a possibility for whatever reason, you should find the calmest part of the day. Once you actually start moving boxes, the work shouldn’t take more than a few hours. So you can still possibly escape the worst of the weather.

Use Weatherproof Packaging

When it comes to protecting your breakable items and wooden furniture, you have some options for weatherproofing them. Using plastic crates instead of cardboard boxes will keep much of the water and cold away from your personal items.

You can also cover fragile items in bubble wrap or put them in boxes with packing peanuts. This will keep them a bit warmer while protecting them from damage. For large wooden pieces of furniture, you can use cling wrap to cover the exposed wood. This will block out any wetness that might come their way.

Hire a Moving Company

Our last bit of advice is to hire a moving company. This is particularly important if you live in an apartment with outdoor stairwells. If those get icy, they will be quite dangerous to use. Fortunately, our team of movers in Austin has the gear and experience to deal with such an issue.

Learn more: https://notahobbymoving.com/three-challenges-of-moving-during-winter-and-how-to-overcome-them/

The Benefits of Hiring Professional Movers

One of the biggest decisions that come with a move is whether you should try to do it yourself or look at hiring local Austin moving companies to do most of the work for you. While both sides have their pros and cons, for this blog post, we’re primarily going to focus on the benefits of hiring professional movers to help you get all your stuff to your new home.

They’re the Experts

Probably the main reason you should consider hiring a moving company is that they’re the experts in this department. Even if you move frequently, there’s a good chance that whoever you hire will have tons more experience than you do. They know how to move heavy objects without hurting themselves, and they know just the right way to pack a truck that will limit the possibility of damaged goods.

If you really want a company that can do all that for you and more, then look no further than Not a Hobby Moving Company. We are a local moving company in Austin, TX, that takes you and your valuable possessions seriously. We want to ensure that you have the most seamless move possible.

They Can Offer Other Services

On top of being pros, many moving companies offer their clients other services to sweeten the deal as well. A common service that they offer is packing and unpacking services. This will keep you from needing to do anything since all of your boxes will get packed up and unpacked for you. Another useful service is giving you the option to hold your possessions in storage for a certain amount of time. Not all moves happen in a short timeframe, so it’s nice to have the option to store your stuff somewhere while you wait on your new home to be ready.

Of course, many moving companies offer comprehensive insurance, too. Even though they might be experts, that doesn’t mean mistakes don’t happen, so when they do, it’ll give you peace of mind to know that the company will cover any damages.

Saves You Time and Stress

By far, the most significant benefit of hiring professional movers to take over your moving process is the fact that it will save you a lot of time and stress. Packing can be quite tedious, and if you live a busy lifestyle, you might not have enough time between now and your move date to get everything into boxes and onto a truck. Hiring someone else to do all that for you is the perfect solution.

On top of that, the stress of moving will be all but removed by hiring a company to do it for you. Most of the tension during moving comes from the packing and loading processes, so this is just another reason not to handle it yourself.

It Could Save You Money

As a final note, there’s even a chance that hiring some movers could save you money. When moving on your own, you have to pay for all the packing materials, the truck you load everything into, and the gas it’ll take you to get it to your new home. With a moving company, all of that will get taken care of for you. Most people don’t consider that when looking at the upfront cost of moving.

Learn more: https://notahobbymoving.com/the-benefits-of-hiring-professional-movers/

What Should You Pack First When Moving To a New House?

One of the worst parts of packing for a big move is figuring out where to start. The sheer amount of things in your home that you need to box up can be overwhelming at times. That’s why we offer services as residential movers in Austin Texas and why we’ve made this list of what you should pack first when moving to a new house, which will hopefully help get you on the right track.

Items From Storage

No matter what you have in your home, the best place to start is your storage closet. There’s a good chance you haven’t used anything in there for the last year, so the chances of you needing any of it before the move are pretty slim.

The best part is that a bunch of these items are probably already packed into boxes and ready to go. However, you’ll still want to look through everything in order to take an inventory and make sure none of it will be vital to your daily life before packing it away.

Clothes You Aren’t Using

Whether you have a ton of clothes or hardly any, there will be some seasonal items that you aren’t going to wear again until well after the move. You might as well get them out of the way right now. If you find any other clothes that you don’t think you wear before moving out, you should put them into boxes as well. This will save you move time down the line.

Anything That’s Fragile

In the final days before the moving date, you are going to be throwing everything you own into whatever box it’ll fit in. Obviously, you won’t want to do that with anything fragile, so it’ll be best to get those out of the way before things get stressful. This extra time will also help you pack these items more carefully and in a way that won’t break them the second the box gets set in the moving truck.

Speaking of which, if you’re in need of packing services in the Austin, Texas area, be sure to look into our services. We handle our customers’ goods with the utmost care, so you shouldn’t have to worry about anything breaking while using our services.

Learn more: https://notahobbymoving.com/what-should-you-pack-first-when-moving-to-a-new-house/

How To Move To Another State Without a Car

Any move can be stressful—but they’re even worse when you’re moving to a new state and don’t own a car to drive there. If we’ve just described your current situation, there are plenty of options for you. They’re the reason we are movers in Austin and why we listed here in our guide on how to move to another state without a car. After reading through them, you’ll realize how easy it can be.

Rent a Small Moving Truck

If you currently live in a small apartment or don’t have too many belongings, your best course of action is to rent a small moving truck. Your belongings will be easy to load into it, and you can drive the truck to your new home. While this isn’t an ideal situation, it can still work in niche scenarios.

Hire Professional Movers

If you have a lot of belongings, hire a professional moving company. They’ll move everything and you won’t have to worry.

If you’re searching for long-distance moving companies in Austin, Texas, look into our services. We’ll help you ensure your goods are packed securely in one of our trucks, so they’ll be intact upon arrival.

How To Get Yourself To Your New Home

While your items get transported by a professional moving company, you have several options to get yourself to your new home. If it’s far away, the best option is to travel via airplane. As long as you plan far enough in advance, you can get plane tickets for a reasonable price.

If you want to save some money, though, trains and buses are much cheaper. Account for distance when you use this option: coach buses are great for short trips but uncomfortable for longer ones. Trains are far better for longer distances, but they’ll take longer than a plane.

The last choice for how to move to another state without a car is to simply rent one. Depending on what kind you get, the rates can be quite affordable. You’ll have to pay for gas and hotels along the way, but depending on the distance you have to travel, this could be your best option.

Learn more: https://notahobbymoving.com/how-to-move-to-another-state-without-a-car/

Why Moving Is Stressful (And How To Make It Stress-Free)

No matter who you are or how many times you’ve moved whether it’s to a new home or using an apartment moving company, we’re sure the process of moving brings a certain level of stress along with it. It’s annoying how that always seems to happen. That’s why we wanted to go over why moving is stressful and how to make it stress-free, or at least as stress-free as it can be.

Why It’s So Stressful

Much of the stress and anxiety of moving stems from the fact that there’s so much that you need to do in order for the move to take place. You need to find a new place to live, pack everything into boxes, and figure out how to get it there. Fortunately, we can help you out with that last part. We have residential movers in Austin who will help you pack up a truck and move wherever it is you’re headed.

The more you move, though, the easier that part gets. Despite that, there is an aspect of moving that still stresses everyone out, and that’s more of a mental hurdle. Deep down, everyone struggles with change to some degree. You’re used to your current home, and even if you’re unhappy with it, there are some aspects you are going to miss. No matter how often you move, this problem never entirely goes away—the fear of missing out or leaving things and people behind hits everyone to some degree.

How To Relieve Some of That Stress

Since this blog post is not only about why moving is stressful but also how to make it stress-free, we wanted to cover a couple of strategies that you can use to reach some level of peace while getting ready for your move.

Start As Soon as Possible

In order to relieve much of the stress that comes with the preparations of moving, we’d recommend that you start getting ready as soon as possible. Much of this anxiety comes from being on a time limit, so the more you get done now, the less you’ll need to worry about when the deadline quickly approaches.

Stay Positive

The best way to work on the problems that occur due to the stresses of change and missing out is to keep a positive outlook on your future. We’re sure that there will be some good to come out of this mood, so you should spend more of your time and energy focusing on those good things. Of course, the negatives will still be there, and we don’t want you to entirely forget about them. However, putting your focus on the positives should help relieve some of the stresses you’ll be facing.

Learn more: https://notahobbymoving.com/why-moving-is-stressful-and-how-to-make-it-stress-free/

Moving Etiquette: How To Keep Neighbors Happy When You Move

It’s that time of year again. Your lease is up, and you can afford a nicer place. That means it’s time to pack everything up and move on to your next apartment. Unfortunately, moving will always be a pain— not only for you but your neighbors too, especially in a cramped apartment building. That’s why we’re here to go over proper moving etiquette and how to keep your neighbors happy when you move.

Try Not To Disturb Them

We want to emphasize the “try” in this topic. As much as we’d like for it to happen, carrying a couch down three flights of stairs is never going to be a silent process. However, you can take the steps necessary to ensure that the maximum level of consideration is put into effect. If you want to hire an apartment moving company to assist you, check out our services. We want to make you and your neighbors happy.

Moving the heavy stuff when nobody is home is the best way to do it. Alternatively, you could wait for the weekend when the neighbors won’t care as much about loud noises. Whatever you do, never take care of the noisy stuff early in the morning or late at night. That will be a surefire way to get everybody annoyed.

Don’t Inconvenience Them With Your Stuff

On the day of your move, the space outside the building you used to call home will be crowded with boxes, furniture, and a moving truck or two. If you don’t want to anger anyone who lives in the area, you’ll want to ensure that walkways and roads are clear. This is especially true in tight parking lots. Nobody wants to come outside to find out a truck is blocking their spot, preventing them from leaving. As long as you plan things out beforehand, you shouldn’t have any issues.

Talk To Them Before Moving Day

The most important piece of advice we can give you on moving etiquette for keeping your neighbors happy when you move is simply to talk to them before the big day arrives. Figure out what their schedule looks like and try to work with them to avoid conflicts. If you get everything out in the open before you move, there will be less conflict the day it happens. This will make things easier for everyone involved.

Do It All Again At the New Place

Hopefully, you’ve enjoyed doing all of this—because you get to go through the whole process again with your new neighbors. You could argue that it’s even more vital with the new ones since you’re going to be stuck living next to them for at least the next year, so be sure to give them enough notice before that day comes.

Learn more: https://notahobbymoving.com/moving-etiquette-how-to-keep-neighbors-happy-when-you-move/