Weeks before moving according to RLepage

According to the Royal Lepage "It's your move" planner's checklists, if you follow their instructions and checklists and planning tools, everything should go smoothly.

I decided to add a couple of things of my own to their well thought out plans.

4 Weeks before moving :

• Begin to use up frozen food and staples.
  
  • I don't think you should start doing that 4 weeks before the move. 2-1 weeks should be fine. Otherwise, 1 week before the move you'll find yourself without peanut butter (or some other equally important condiment) and debate buying a small jar just to make it to the end of the week... Wait, eat your food as you normally would when you're in college thinking "This butter needs to last me another week at least..."
  • Don't try to eat everything just for the sake of eating it. Hold on to it until 1 week before the move and whatever you don't get a chance to eat by then can be donated to a friend or a local shelter. I'm sure they will make good use of it. You don't want to eat stuff you normally wouldn't or over stuff yourself with pie because if you're anything like me, with stress comes heartburn.
    
• Decide which items should be discarded or donated to charity.
  
  • Pick and choose what is worth for you to move and what isn't. Sure, there's a ton of stuff you might not want to bring because they are old and it's always more fun to start fresh with new furniture. Before you decided to discard your couch, make sure you'll have somewhere to sit when you get to your new house! Either purchase your new furniture in advance and arrange for delivery the day after you arrive at destination or move your old stuff and donated when you've found a brand-spankin'-new replacement.
  • Moving costs a ton. Sure, relocating services allow for some reasonable claims but there are a ton of other spending opportunities you can't plan in advance... so you might not be able to go and spend a couple of hundred bucks on your first week at your new home to replace that dinning room set you should have kept. Keep it, move it then get rid of it if you must.
  • When it's all said and done at the end of the day, I'm sure I'll be dead tired, exhausted and emotionally drained. I'll love the comfort of my old futon even if it only becomes a secondary basement couch, it'll be a great home-sickness-support-friend.
  • If you have pets with favorite furniture (a chair, a cushion or in Jack's case, a box) consider moving them so your pets won't be completely lost. They'll take great comfort into finding their long lost pal at their new home. Consider keeping them until your pet has adjusted and found a new favorite spot.
    
• Arrange for transfer of records
  
  • This one is tricky. Most service providers (phone, hydro, roof-over-your-head) ask for 60 days notice before terminating your services. I recommend that you call them as soon as you know you are going to move eventually and finding out how much notice they require. You might want to do that a bit before the 4 weeks mark otherwise you'll end up paying cancellation fees or for services you won't even be here to use. (Thanks, Bell!) You can make arrangements with Relocation Services but remember that you have to foot the bills and provide proof of payment before getting reimbursed.
  • Make sure to get confirmation numbers for your cancellations to be able to track any extra charges they might try to smack on that last invoice.
  • Some doctors might ask that you visit them to make sure everything is in order before they can transfer any records so plan this far enough in advance to accommodate your schedule and your doctor's availability. (Make sure to stock up on reps or prescriptions about a month before the move to make sure you don't get effed. Especially if you are moving to a different province/country.)

3 Weeks before moving :

• Arrange transportation of pets.
  
  • Don't even get me started on this one. Keep in mind, when booking your flight, that relocating services don't book any arrangements for pets. You have to do that yourself. Make sure, when RS books your own travel arrangements that they can accommodate your pets to travel with you. Otherwise, it's a huge pain in the ass (see last post) !!
  • Make sure you have somewhere for your pets to stay during the move. There will be a lot of strangers, coming and going and stepping on paws.
    
• Return anything that needs to be returned.
  
  • I've been running around like a headless chicken returning stuff here and there it seems. I had a couple of things in a bag by the door that I kept forgetting to return to the store. It's now or never!
  • Make sure you get everything and anything you've let friends borrow. If they still have it, I'm not sure they'll happily mail it to you once you're hundreds of kilometers away.
    
• Dispose of flammables.
  
  • Ladies, this includes nail polish, nail polish remover, hair spray. (Nail polishes can be tucked away in your checked luggage because it's not in a pressure can and so teeny!)
    
  • This also includes spot treatments for clothes (like Spray n' wash!) so going to Costco and buying a large quantity of it before moving because it's nice and cheap is not always the best idea in the world.

So this where I'm at now. This is what I've learned so far and was able to recollect over the last 15 minutes. I still have 3 check lists to go : 1 week before moving, Packing day and Moving Out day. I'll blog those as they happen (or as I deal with them). Hope this helps anyone, relocating with the CF or not. It's a really stressful time and this is how I manage things. By over-planning, over-thinking and over-wasting-time-doing-anything-else-but.