Curtis Specialized Moving crew carefully installing framed artwork and photographs on a staircase wall

It's More Than Just Moving Day

By Jamie Furrate

It has been said that moving is one of the 5 biggest stressors in life, along with the death of a loved one, marriage, divorce, and loss of a job.  When you consider moving all the possessions in your home to another home and to potentially several other destinations, it is easy to understand why.  In order to keep your stress level as low as possible during the moving process there are several things you can do.


Adequate preparation for your move is a critical factor.  Too often people do not begin preparing for their move early enough. Household moves in affluent neighborhoods such as the Park Cities, can take several days to several weeks or longer (this article is not intended to address issues related to moving, such as change of mailing address, banking, credit cards, utilities, etc.).  The larger the move, the earlier preparation needs to begin.  Even in the peak summer moving season, sometimes people do not reach out to movers until days from the time when the move needs to be completed. Talk about increasing your stress level!  One of the universal laws of moving is, the process always takes longer than what the homeowner expectations are.  When the homeowner is downsizing, many fail to realize the process of selling, donating or giving items away is harder and more time consuming than they believed it would be. 

Since COVID it has become much harder to donate items to charity.  Often your children have no interest in your big, heavy armoires, antique furniture or what you would consider heirlooms. People are also surprised at how value their used furniture holds.  Life can also get in the way of your best intentions, and now it is time to move, and you have not accomplished much of what you intended and have not packed much of anything either.  If you have contracted with a mover that provided an estimate based on your representation of the scope of the move, and now the scope is larger and more time consuming, do not be surprised when the cost is significantly higher.  This, of course leads to increased stress and worry as you may now miss the date you contracted to be out of the sold house.

This leads to, what are your expectations of your mover, and do they have the adequate skill set and time to complete what you need performed?  On one occasion a client decided moving was a commodity undertaking, and they hired the cheapest mover they could find.  Two days before they had contracted to be out of the home the homeowner called in a panic as their mover could not perform everything that was required. We were brought in and had to construct crates on site in the front yard (highly unorthodox) to safely prepare and transport valuable items the “low cost” movers could not properly move.

If you engage a professional, white glove mover, they will generally prepare a detailed proposal outlining the schedule and activity the mover is performing by the day, from packing, prepping furniture, loading, transporting, unloading, placement of rugs and furniture pieces, installing beds, unpacking and any other specialty needs such as art hanging and chandelier installation. The professional, white glove mover will also be able to address items going to multiple locations including storage.  This all contributes to a much lower stress level for the homeowner.

Curtis Specialized Moving & Storage