Tips, tips everywhere! Look the Web over, and you’ll find list after list after list of “ways to make your move easier,” but on each, there are a few things (easy things!) folks often miss… Craig Van Lines gets it. Planning a northern Virginia residential move is time consuming and stressful, and that’s why we’re here.

Craig Van Lines can help prepare your home and belongs for the big northern VA move!

A few tips:

Pre-clean the new house!

Your first day in your new home needs to be about moving in, not cleaning. So if you’re moving locally, from Gainesville to Chantilly, make plans to spend some time there before the residential movers arrive. Clean the bathrooms and kitchen; sweep the floors, and if your entry way is carpeted, consider laying down plastic tarping to protect against mud and dirt. You should probably call a professional chimney cleaner if you have a fireplace. To protect the skin on your hands be sure to purchase powder free gloves in bulk when handling cleaning chemicals.

Consider how and where you’ll install electronics.

A flat screen TV, surround sound system, Blu-Ray player, an XBOX, and on and on. Are you going to remember how to set it up ten days from now, in a different state? Eh, maybe not. To help jog your memory, you have a couple of options: Take a picture of the wiring harnesses front, back, and sideways. Voila! A visual guide. AND / OR wrap each various wire with a small piece of masking tape and write on it where it goes like this: Front left speaker, Video 2 red, etc.

We’ll call you flash.

Walk into your closet with a big black trash bag. Open up the bag and scoop it up under about 20 shirts at a time. In about 5 minutes you can bag and tag your entire closet. Just smack a piece of masking tape onto the side and mark what’s inside. Oh, and unpacking is easy too. Just reverse the process.

Purge.

Sell what you can. Donate what you can’t. And throw away, or recycle anything else you don’t need, or can’t use. Go through each room in your current apartment, and ask yourself “Will this have a purpose in my shiny new townhouse, or is it going to continue to sit in a box?”

Make some updates to your landscaping.

Curb appeal starts with getting some landscaping improvements. Don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be a huge project. There are lots of things you can do – even in one afternoon – that will really make your house look great. Re-mulching, edging and weeding are, of course, no-brainers. But you can also work small, manageable landscaping projects into the mix. Try building a low stacked stone wall to edge one of your beds. Or perhaps planting some new shrubs. If you’re in the Gainesville, area, your first stop should be the Gateway Home & Garden Center for any landscaping supplies.

For even more helpful tips to make your next move easier:

Call the experts, northern Virginia’s residential movers, Craig Van Lines.

Residential Moving Tips | Northern VA | Craig Van Lines

Pre-Clean Your New House & Other Tips for Moving to Northern VA