Tips You Need to Know When Moving out of State

KayAnn Gamalinda
4 min readMay 16, 2021

Plan your move in advance, expect the worse case scenario and plan for it if it does happen, you can just ‘wing it’ or you can actually prepare and avoid unnecessary problems and stress.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89MZWuf2LAg

I’ve moved a few times in my life, my father was in the Military so I guess you can say that I have some experience moving.

I lived in Washington state for 18 years, and decided that I needed a change and made the move to Colorado. Moving is a lot of work, it can be stressful, and it can be expensive.

The list that I have put together was from personal experience.

The first thing we did was:

  1. Book a U-Haul (or any other moving company) 3–4 weeks in advance.

We did a lot of research of which size U-Haul we wanted, we watched YouTube videos to see other peoples experience with it and reserved a 5x8 cargo. Only 3 weeks ahead, there were very limited places that had this size. We had to drive an hour or so away from where we lived just to get our U-Haul. The day before our move, I received a call from a U-Haul representative telling me that the U-Haul we reserved was no longer available because, the person that was supposed to drop it off the day we wanted to pick it up, extended their use of it. We were prepared for this… Luckily there was only ONE 4x8 cargo left in Western Washington. So we actually go that size instead.

Getting a U-Haul was our only option and it was in our budget. Like I said before, moving can be expensive. You’ll have to consider your budget and personal needs when choosing the right moving options.

Ask yourself:

What’s my budget?

Do I feel comfortable driving a moving truck long distance?

Can my car pull a U-Haul and do I feel comfortable driving with one hitched to my car?

Do I want to consider contactless moving due to COVID-19?

How much stuff am I moving?

There are a lot of things to consider, but try to get rid of as much clutter as possible. Do you really need xyz? The less stuff you have to move, the easier and more budget friendly your move will be.

If you’re relocating for your job, try to ask your employer if they can cover relocation expenses. This could possibly save you lots of money!

2. Research your desired city and possibly apply for your new place!

It’s important to know more about where you’re moving to. Ideally, you’d take a trip to that specific place and spend some time exploring the area. For me, I have visited Colorado many times because my best friend went to college there and I fell in love with the area. I told myself that one day, I’d move there and I did!

If you can’t visit in person, I’d use Google Maps (satellite view) or Google Earth to explore the area.

If you have a friend in that desired area, have them facetime you and have a virtual trip!

We’ve been actively looking at apartments in our budget (Zillow, apartments.com) also a place that accepted animals. We were able to find our apartment a week before we moved. We didn’t know what it looked like in person, we only saw the virtual floor plan and pictures. The leasing consult was very nice and responsive and made our move stress free.

3. Set aside/save extra money for moving

You want to make sure you have enough money saved up for your move. What I did was that when I get paid biweekly, I’d put some money aside and budget for the next payday. I want to make sure that I have enough money for food, bills, and gas, etc. It also helped that I did photography on the side, so I had some paid gigs before I left and set that income aside as well.

Here are some things to consider:

Gas expenses — you might have to take multiple gas stops if you’re hitching a U-Haul in the back of your car.

Packing supplies such as boxes, packing tape, bubble wrap, etc., can add up quickly. Try finding free boxes, like at Costco — it works!

Hotel rooms if you decide and meals during your move.

Utility deposits, connection fees, security deposit for your apartment, etc.

4. Pack EARLY

Packing early as the days go by is so much easier than waiting for last minute. This’ll help decide if you need more boxes and stuff and it’ll also help you eliminate things you may not need.

We were able to donate a lot of stuff to Goodwill that was unnecessary for our move.

5. Update address, necessary paperwork and records.

You’ll want to make sure you change your address and let any subscriptions, insurers, banking company, etc. know that you’re relocating.

6. Utilities

You want to make sure that when you move into your new place, that everything is up and running.

Depending on your apartments rules, the leasing consult suggest that we register for utilities before we move so that it would be easier for use when we arrived to our new apartment.

--

--

KayAnn Gamalinda

Freelance photographer, amateur blogger, vlogger/youtuber @ikayanndoit.