Boxes Are Critical
Don’t just grab boxes out of some big-box store’s recycle bin. Sure, they’re free, but they’re also used and often abused. The last thing you need is a carton that suddenly collapses in on itself midway through your move.

Pack Light and Tight
If you’re dealing with heavy items, you want to pack smaller boxes so that no one box is challenging to lift and move. “If you’re moving gold bars,” one mover jokes, “Pack one per box and skip the space peanuts.” 50 pounds per box is a good rule of thumb, and if you can find boxes that list their corner crush weight, keep it above 200 pounds if at all possible.

Sweat the Small Stuff
Smaller items like tools, silverware, and the like need to be individually wrapped. It’s a huge pain in the butt if you’re doing it all by yourself, but it’s vital to ensuring that everything arrives without any dings, scratches, or other damage. Very small items like screws and other parts should be duct taped to the furniture or equipment they’re associated with, or put into a plastic or metal box for transport.

Like Attracts Like
Pack things into boxes with similar things. Not only will it make more sense when you’re unpacking, but in general items are less likely to hurt other similar items then they are to hurt items that are very different.

Protect Your Stuff
If you have particularly new and expensive electronics and you don’t have the original packing around to keep it safe, go ask around at retails and find out if they have a similar box that you can use. Without the right packaging, modern electronics are surprisingly damage-prone.

Of course, packing and moving is an enormously complex subject, and there’s a lot we didn’t cover here — talk to your local moving company for more tips and tricks if you’re about ready to move.

Before the Move
About a week before you move, take one room of your home — preferably one you can easily move everything out of before you move the cats in — and make it their ‘saferoom’. Put their beds, water and food bowls, favorite toys, and so forth in it. Start them sleeping in their saferoom as soon as it’s complete, and when the Jersey movers show up to take your stuff, make sure the door to the saferoom is safely closed.

Ideally, you’ll be able to put everything from the kitty saferoom into the trunk of your car right as you walk out the door, cats in their carriers, for the final goodbye to your old home.

Even in the wild, cats maintain a specific territory range for themselves. So when it comes to our housecats, forcing them to uproot and live in a new place is intensely stressful. Though moving is going to put your cat through major stress, there are things you can do to keep kitty calmer through the process.

During the Move
For the ‘packing and loading’ part of your move, hire a moving company to take care of the details for you, for your felines’ sake. A moving company will reduce the amount of time the kitties have to be cooped up, which means a much less stressed-out cat when you finally reach the car. When you drive, make sure you take breaks every couple of hours to let the cats out for potty brakes — just keep them on a harness and keep a tight grip on their leash.

After the Move
A similar “saferoom” concept when moving in is a good idea as well. It immediately establishes a territory that is “theirs” and lets them explore out from their at their own pace. If you have a larger home, you might want to restrict them to one wing or floor for a few days, then slowly expand the area they’re allowed to explore (and claim) over a few weeks until they’re ready to go outdoors.

DIY or Moving Company?
Hiring a moving company will save you a lot of time and stress, because they take care of a significant portion of the physical labor and planning time for you. You can do even more for yourself above and beyond hiring a moving company — and you’ll certainly suffer less if you do (see below) — but the single biggest thing you can do to make a move easy on your family is hire a moving company.

Don’t Plan to Fail
Start with a comprehensive plan. There are a lot of little tasks that you have to do to move your family into a new home. Start at least a month ahead of time (assuming you have that much warning), and spend a few days just brainstorming, looking around your house for things that you will need to take care of during your move. Write them all down, organize them according to priority and what makes simple sense to do last, first, and in the middle.

Only Move What You Need
There’s no particular reason to move your baby brother’s 4th grade macaroni project, or your tax documents from 2001. You certainly can and should keep a few genuine heirlooms, but cut everything else you can out of your life before you start packing for real.

If you do these three things, you’re 90% of the way toward a stress-free move. Talk to you moving company about any other tips they have to make it easy on you, and enjoy your new home!

Step one: Empty the Fridge
Kind of obvious, right? Make sure that everything is out of every part of the fridge and freezer. This includes water and ice, so take the time to get the entire thing down to room temperature before you declare the job done. This means you should take everything out the day before you move.

Step two: Secure the Doors
Once you’re sure the fridge is empty, find a reliable way to make sure the doors won’t come open as you roll. At the most dramatic, you can wrap duct tape around the thing a few times, though in our experience a simple ratchet strap does the job with less stress, less mess, and less ugliness.

Step three: Take a Strap To Your Dolly
Get a professional-grade dolly that can handle several hundred pounds. Scoot it under one side (not the back or front) of the fridge, and then strap it into place with the aforementioned ratchet strap. Wheel the fridge with the person holding the dolly toward the back, going forward, and a second person in front to look out for door frames and help safely navigate bumps and stairs.

Step four: Strap It Into the Truck.
Finally, you want to use that same ratchet strap to attach the fridge to the E-track on the wall, generally with a couple of S-hooks. Ratchet the strap as tight as you can get without hurting anything on the fridge, and move. Repeat everything in reverse at your new home, remembering not to plug the fridge in for a couple of hours after you arrive (to make sure the coolant is all in the right places for the fridge to work easily.)

Presto! You’re good to go. If you research all of your packing with the same diligence that you looked up how to pack a fridge, moving from NJ will be easy and harmless to your family and your stuff.

Ask Us About Timing
Most relocation professionals have a peak season and an off season. Precisely when these seasons begin and end depends a lot on where you are, but if you can manage to arrange a move during the off season, you can often negotiate significant discounts. New Jersey is no exception, with the greatest ‘off season’ being December through February — move in those months and we’ll be happy to give you a decent discount over ‘prime time’.

Distance Matters — How Far is Goodwill?
Having us pack a good portion of your belongings a few miles to the local charity place is a good sight cheaper than having us pack it across the state or across the country. If you sort through the things you actually need and cut your ‘sentimentality costs’, you can save yourself a startling amount of money and still put us to good use packing and removing the knickknacks.

Let Us Pack
This one, we admit, is debatable. We do charge money to pack your stuff — but on the other hand, we know how to pack your stuff. If you arrive at your new location and find that you have to replace your entire stock of dishes and glasses — or worse yet, your new plasma TV — how badly will you wished you had let us pack it for you? After all, we’re insured and bonded, which means if we fail to do our job correctly, we pick up the tab. You have insurance on your home, your life, and your car — why not have it on your move? That’s what hiring a bonded and insured NJ mover does for you.

There are a lot of expenses and stress involved in changing homes — and if you’re not familiar with what we do and how, you might think that hiring us to help you move will cost a lot. In the long run, though, having a moving company on your side is more than worth it, especially if you avoid the fly-by-night unlicensed, uninsured movers that give the rest of us a bad name.

Start Early
If you have plenty of time to work slowly through each room, you’ll be able to do a much better job decluttering than you will if you’re doing it the night before the moving crew arrives to pack your stuff. Give yourself a day for every room in your house, plus a spare room for the greatroom, the kitchen, the shed, the basement, and the attic. Start that many days ahead of time, and do one room (or half of the greatroom/kitchen/etc.) each day.

Getting Rid Of It
Go through each room with three containers: one for trash, one to pack up in long-term storage, and one for donations. You’ll probably fill the trash first — but aim to fill the donations container before you fill the keep it container. Anything you use on a weekly-or-more basis, keep out for the mover. NJ movers will love you for having the long-term-storage stuff already set aside and the clutter gone before they arrive, so only keep out the stuff you actually really use regularly.

Be Realistic
If you haven’t used it in a week, it can probably go in a box until after you move. If you haven’t used it in a month, you can definitely put it in long-term storage (or just get rid of it altogether.) If it has immense emotional value, you can keep it in long-term storage, but keep that to the most important 10% of your sentimental kitsch. You’ll be amazed how you don’t miss it when it’s not there.

Moving is tough, and decluttering is arguably tougher — but doing both at the same time isn’t much harder than doing either one singly. So get your ditch on and look forward to arriving at your new home with a whole pile of new empty space to fill up with new memeories!

The answer, in short, is yes. You do. There are a few reasons why: stress, safety, and speed.

Stress
Any good New Jersey moving company will make moving less rather than more stressful. It might be a bit weird, at first, watching a dude in blue overalls making his way through your bedroom packing up all of your precious knickknacks and whatnots — but think of the alternative. Packing yourself is physically and mentally stressful on several levels. Did you get everything? Do you know the right way to pick up a heavy load? Hiring a moving crew will reduce all of this to a simple checklist and a smile.

Safety
When you pack, you bring the most important things in your life with you. Twelve years worth of pictures of your daughter growing up. That beautiful Thai sword you got decades ago as a graduation present. Do you want those things packed professionally and safely by someone who knows exactly how to keep your stuff safe as you cruise cross-country? Or do you want to do the work yourself and risk your possessions getting damaged by your ignorance of proper packing protocol?

Speed
Packing yourself is a ridiculously slow process. You have work to go to, family to keep fed and slept and happy, and more. A professional crew will take one day, sweep in with the right tools and material for the job, and get you ready to move out in one fell swoop.

When you stop and ponder your options, the risk-benefit analysis is pretty clear: there’s almost zero good reason not to leave the hard work of moving to the professionals.

Step one: The Essentials
The first thing to do is make a single box that has the absolute bare-bones minimum gear that you need to make your new kitchen functional. Your most-used pot and pan; one plate, bowl, mug, fork, spoon, and table knife for each member of the family; your toaster, coffeemaker, your five most-used spices (salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and italian seasoning in our family), and a dishtowel and a dishrag. Keep this box separate from the bulk of your packing. Put it in the truck last so you can get it out first.

Step two: The Durables
Second, separate out everything that you don’t have to worry that much about in the move. Most silverware, solid-state electrical appliances, and soft items like towels, rags, sponges, and so forth can all go into the ‘durable’ pile. Pack these up into boxes and put them on the bottom layer when packing.

Step three: The Fragiles
Basically the same as the durables, except the Fragiles should go on the second layer when packing, and if they’re particularly valuable, you may want to use a ratchet strap to attach the box in question to the side wall of the moving van. Most appliances also fall into the Fragiles category.

Step four: Cleaning Supplies
Never pack cleaning supplies in a box with food, containers that you’re likely to use before thoroughly washing them, or clothing. Never pack anything aerosol or pressurized; use these up or leave them behind before you move. Put each cleaning supply in it’s own sealed ziplock bag, and put things that can be dangerous if combined (like bleach and ammonia, for example) on opposite corners of the ‘cleaning supplies’ box — or in two different ‘cleaning supplies’ boxes if there will be more than one.

Finally: The Food
Food should obviously be packed last (with the exception of the fridge itself). According to our resident New Jersey moving company guy, if your trip is longer than five hours, you’re likely to be better off buying fresh food when you arrive at your new place — anything that was in the fridge is likely to be undesirable upon arrival.

Thomas Eyler is a true success store in the moving industry.  Born with a birth defect that left him with one leg shorter than the other, it’s hard to believe that Tom is a successful moving professional.  Born to a mother who divorced early in her marriage, Tom was forced to leave high school in the 10^th grade to help contribute to the finances of a family in turmoil.

“My father was never there and my mother later became sick with cancer and died when I was in my early twenties; I was left parentless with no financial help from family.  I had only myself as the sole provided for my family,”  said Tom when asked about his childhood.

Despite this all, Tom went on to get his GED and start a family in his mid-twenties.  His daughter Ashley became his focus, the purpose and his motivation for pushing on.  Ashley is a teenage now and Tom can be seen hustling out of work, after a 10 hour day on the trucks, to help coach Ashley’s basketball team.  “I really enjoy coaching the girls and always wanted to be part of my daughter’s life.  Several years ago I decided to get involved with her by helping out.  For the last few years I’ve been the head coach of her basketball team and last year elected to assist with her softball team.  It’s a lot of work but the rewards are priceless.”

Tom Eyler grew up in Cliffside Park, New Jersey in the 70’s and has a great name around town.  When speaking to everyone including local police officers and DPW workers, they all say he was a great guy, hard worker and never had problems with drugs or alcohol.

Thomas Eyler has been driving trucks and working in the moving industry for well over 25 years.  As a teenager he started out as a helper for East Bergen Moving in Cliffside Park, then went to Voyager International as a packer for overseas shipping.  Later he became a delivery driver for Diaco Foods in Paterson.  His big break came in November of 1996 with Cardinal Moving in Westwood where he became a head crew leader and driver directing his own crews.  At Cardinal Tom’s driving was termed “impeccable” by the owner, Jack.  In 2004, Tom left Cardinal and came to Booth Movers and has been working there as their lead driver and crew leader for the last 7 years.   During that period, Tom has grown from the “New Guy” to become Booth Movers “Go to Guy.”  It’s known throughout the organization that when you have a job that needs special care and service, Tom is the crew leader that must be assigned.  He has supervised and lead both large residential and commercial jobs including moving and supervising the President of Stevens Institute of Technology and Maxell Communications.  He knows all aspects of moving and is extremely competent and diligent in his day to day work ethics.

 “As a driver there’s not too much to say about Tom’s driving ability, which to a moving/trucking company is a great thing since a clean record is what we strive for!” says Director of Operations, Fred Klag.  Tom has been behind the wheel of a 26’ Kenworth for 7 years with no chargeable incidents.  Booth Movers also conducts safety seminars and Tom has received many Safety Award Certifications for his participation.

“The decision to join the Atlas family was an easy one,” said Doug Padla, president. “For more than six decades our family-owned moving company has taken great pride in serving the residents and businesses of the New York Tri-State area. We know this is a shared commitment with Atlas and we look forward to better serving our community and its citizens together.”

Founded in 1945, Booth Movers is a full-service relocation company, providing packing, shipping, logistics and storage. The company has over 26,000 square feet of storage space.

“As we move into our busy season,” said Adam Padla, vice president, “We want our customers to know that as an Atlas agent, our customers can continue to expect the same attention to detail and superior service from Booth Movers, now with the extended reach and reliability associated with the Atlas brand.”

“With the addition of Booth Movers to the Atlas family,” said Steve Hermann, vice president of agency development at Atlas Van Lines, “We continue to expand the Atlas commitment across the East Coast.”

About Booth Movers
Booth Movers, founded in 1945, is a full-service moving company, providing packing, shipping, logistics and storage. The company has over 26,000 square feet of storage space, a fleet of 15 vehicles and an expertly trained office and labor staff. Visit www.boothmovers.com for more information on the company.

About Atlas Van Lines
Atlas Van Lines is the largest subsidiary of Atlas World Group, an Evansville, Ind.-based company. Atlas World Group companies employ nearly 700 people throughout North America. More than 500 Atlas interstate agents in the United States and Canada specialize in corporate relocation, household moving services and in the specialized transportation of high-value items such as electronics, fine art, store fixtures and furniture. Visit www.atlasvanlines.com for more information on the company and Atlas agents.

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