Avoiding Post-Move Pitfalls: What to Tackle FirstWritten by dan the roommate man
Your spouse arrives home one day with news that he or she has been offered a job transfer. The opportunity is too good to pass up, and within a short period, you're headed across country to begin a new life in a new city. You barely have time to select a new home, let alone consider where you're going to enroll your child in preschool. Which school would be best for your child? Which one is closest to your new home? You figure you'll explore your options after you move into your new home.Unfortunately, plumbing problems greet you when you arrive in your "new" residence, and you're tied up for a couple of days. When you finally make some phone calls, locate preschool and head there for registration, you're asked to produce your child's medical records. In which box were those packed? By time you head home, find records and return to school, what are your chances of landing your child in preschool of your choice? Moving into a new residence is one of most exciting events in anyone's life, particularly if you're a first-time homebuyer. The amount of preparations required to successfully pull off a move is exhausting. When you're moving, you're so busy during period leading up to move that you're likely to give no thought to what needs to be done just as soon as boxes hit floor in your new home. Unpacking just might be least of your priorities - and yet, it's what we tackle first because we want life to resume some sense of normalcy. If you've got school-aged children, enroll your children in their new schools before you even move, if you can help it. Registration can be a stressful event, and it will take a load off your mind as well as your children's to know that arrangements have been made for school year. If you're planning on enrolling your children in school after you arrive in your new home, pack their medical records in a safe, accessible place so you won't have to search your entire home top to bottom to locate them. Another thing you should do well before you move is to fill out a change of address form. Otherwise, you're going to have some unhappy creditors slapping you with late charges; when, in fact, your bills either failed to make it to your new home, or buyers of your old home decided to forward them to you three weeks after they arrived. Your local post office makes it extremely easy to change your address. You'll want to fill out a change of address card approximately one month in advance of your move, in order to allow time for transition to take place. If you wait until last minute, you'll experience a "lag time" for receipt of your mail.
| | One-Stop Resource Solves Moving HasslesWritten by dan the roommate man
You've just received news that you're being transferred to another branch office in another state ... in two weeks. In excitement and stress of selecting a new home, selling, subletting, or simply preparing to leave your old one, packing, and worrying about your new role in company, you hardly have time to consider who you need to contact about your forthcoming change of address. Most of us have so many monthly bills (credit cards, student loans, and car insurance, for example) to pay that just notifying those companies is a day's work in itself. But your work doesn't stop there. Your utility companies need to be notified, you need to change your personal information for voter registration, you're going to need new license plates ... and all of this pressure arrives at precisely time when you're knee deep in boxes. You may not even know where your phone book is located. There's a solution to this madness: Don't pack your computer just yet. Instead, log onto Utility Connections, Inc., a one-stop change-of-address center both for residential and commercial moves.Utility Connections, based in North Miami Beach, Fla., is an online database that enables movers to notify in a matter of minutes their electric, telephone, long distance, water, cable/satellite, sewer, gas, garbage, change of postal address, voter's registration, driver's license, auto tags, vehicle registration, and others. Utility Connections also assumes responsibility of handling your connections, disconnections, and transfers of service. It's an online godsend for all of us overwhelmed movers. Another bonus of using Utility Connections: You don't have to stand in line to change your address -- for example, at Post Office or your local Department of Public Safety. Such offices typically are open only during business hours, meaning that you have to reshuffle your schedule at office and take time away to take care of these little responsibilities that eat up valuable personal time when you need it most. The company offers its residential customers continued services after they are settled in their new homes; Utility Connections expands its available services to its customers, offering low-cost options, and may serve as customers' point of contact if they choose to purchase additional services in future. Initial residential service includes various option packages -- disconnection, connection, transfer of service, and change of address for electricity, telephone, water/sewer, gas, local newspaper, cable/satellite, garbage/waste removal, change of postal address, voter's registration, driver's license, vehicle registration, and auto tags. Option packages are priced according to number of services client selects.
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