Moving in America

“If we were meant to stay in one place, we’d have roots instead of feet…” — Rachel Wolchin

Americans are obsessed with moving, and the reality is that Americans move house more than any other nationality. Many have postulated reasons for this, including the belief that moving house is part of American culture. People embracing this argument point out that America has always been a country of travel from the days of settling in the wild west through to the gold rush, urban migration of the industrial revolution, and suburban migration of the fifties and sixties. 

Moving house represents a new start, or as some would say, a new beginning but behind that new beginning is a whole lot of planning and organization. For example, where will you move to, and how will you move. Will you try to complete the entire moving process yourself or hire professional movers such as Moving Lowell.

Packing an important part of any move
“Home is where the heart is, even if you can’t remember which box you packed it in.” 

Moving house is a new beginning, a fresh start, and while that might be exciting, it is also tremendously challenging. Behind the scenes of moving, there is a vast amount of careful planning and organizing, especially as far as the packing is concerned.

Here are some handy hints to help make the moving house process easier, less time-consuming, and less stressful.
  1. Plan in advance and start packing early. Leave yourself plenty of time because packing invariably takes longer than anticipated.
  2. If your house is 2 or more levels begin packing from the top levels
  3. Always pack heavy items into smaller boxes
  4. Wrap individual items individually using bubble wrap and paper
  5. Always use a professional removalist company like Moving Lowell
  6. Pack one room at a time and label the items according to what they are and which room they belong to
  7. Try to minimize the weight of the boxes so as to avoid injury
  8. Pack important items such as birth certificates, passports, school records, marriage certificates in one place so you know where to find them
  9. Keep all boxes for a particular room together and clearly labeled
Think and plan ahead
“The hardest thing about moving is getting everything to fit into a box.”
Moving is quite a complicated, time-consuming exercise but it can be made significantly easier with a little bit of thinking and planning ahead.

For starters, it is always best to decide well in advance which removalist company you want to use. Do not veer towards the cheapest price because too often you will get what you pay for. Instead, try and find a happy medium with a company like Moving Lowell that offers competitive rates and has a good reputation.

Thinking ahead and planning are particularly applicable when it comes to packing. Here are some more handy packing tips.
  1. Travel light and pack what you will need later that day and night. This should include essential items such as refreshments, food, a first aid kit, a torch, plates, and cutlery.
  2. Prepare an overnight bag for everyone in your family, making sure it includes things like toilet paper
  3. Before packing finish all your laundry so as to avoid packing damp clothes
  4. Make sure the boxes loaded first are the ones containing things you don’t immediately need.
  5. Make sure you have all the contact details of your chosen removalist company like Moving Lowell
Why people move house.
The simple truth is Americans move house a lot more than Europeans and there are some very valid reasons why. Firstly, moving home is part of American culture. Historically America has always been a land of travel and relocation. Take for example the development of the so-called “Wild West”. During the early 17th Century there was extensive exploration and migration to the west, so much so that by the late 17th century the American west reached sufficient population that there was no longer a recognizable frontier line.

Americans have been moving and developing since the very first days of European discovery and people theorize this is because of a sense of freedom and curiosity and a sense of adventure and a new beginning.  

In current times Americans are still moving but instead of wagons they now use professional removal companies like Moving Lowell

There are some logistical factors which increase the rate of movement of Americans compared to Europeans and these include; America is a much bigger country with more geographical area to explore and there is a common language which supersedes geographical boundaries.

Another factor is that American labour laws are less restrictive than European labour laws which means American bosses have more power to hire and fire. This has resulted in Americans travelling and relocating more than their European counterparts.

Statistics
By far the biggest segment of the moving market is Residential Moving. It is estimated that 15.3 million households move in America every year which represents 70.6% of the overall moves. The vast majority of residential movers will use a professional removalist company like Moving Lowell.

The next biggest segment of the removalist market is commercial moving which represents 11% of the overall market followed by warehouse servicing which represents 11% of the overall market. 

It is estimated that 9.7% of Americans move annually, the average American moves 11.7 times in their lifetime and there are approximately 50 thousand moving trucks in America.