Everyone cherishes their most valuable possessions and keepsakes. Perhaps it’s your grandmother’s photo albums, your father’s prized stamp collection, or your mother’s treasured diamond ring. How would you feel if they were all lost? Like most people, the thought is unbearable. If you’re getting ready to move soon, then making sure that your beloved valuables are safe and won’t be lost somewhere during the transit should be one of your top priorities. Here are a few tips on how to protect your family valuables during your move.
Protecting Your Valuables During a Move
As you may guess, the best way to protect your valuables while you’re moving is to simply keep them with you. In doing so, you’ll always know where they are since they’re in your own care. The following items should ideally stay with you if you are moving:
• Important documents and letters
• Valuable jewelry
• Passports, birth certificates, and other personal forms of ID
• Special family photos
• Medications
• Antiques
• Sentimental valuables
• One-of-kind artwork pieces
• High-value electronics (laptops, smartphones, video game equipment)
What else can you do in order to ensure your most prized possessions remain safe during your move? Consider the following tips from the experts who know.
1. Determine and declare your most valuable items.
If you’re going to hire professional movers, it’s crucial that you complete a high-value inventory checklist. Experts recommend that customers fill out this special form for certain items like china or stamp collections, whose value is especially high. All Star Movers tells us, “This will let your carrier know to handle these items with extra special care. Keep in mind that if you fail to fill out this item inventory in writing, it could potentially result in limited coverage if they’re damaged during the move. Therefore, it’s best to make special arrangements on your own in order to safely get these items to their destination.”
2. Personally hang onto your very special items.
It’s best to keep things such as important financial documents, medications, and expensive jewelry with you instead of packing them away with the rest of your things.
3. Use sturdy, quality packing materials.
Don’t use boxes of lesser quality that could potentially give way. The sturdiest boxes are made of corrugated cardboard and will help prevent your valuables from being destroyed or damaged. For example, when you’re packing your fine stemware, it’s best to place each piece inside a separate corrugated cardboard cylinder.
4. Get adequate insurance.
Get enough insurance in order to protect all your precious valuables. Experts suggest that you purchase full replacement coverage from your carrier. This way, the additional protection means any damaged or lost items will be replaced or repaired, or the equivalent in cash will be compensated in order to cover the current market value.
5. Pack with common sense.
When placing your items in boxes, be sure to place the heavier items in first and the lighter ones on top. Pack fragile, smaller items in small-sized boxes. Then put the smaller box inside a larger box to make sure the contents are safe and won’t be lost.
6. Label all your boxes.
Label every box with ‘This End Up’ or ‘Fragile’ to remind either you or the movers to be especially careful with these boxes while moving.
How Moving Companies Safeguard Your Cherished Valuables
If you’re hiring a moving company, it’s likely they offer full coverage of your personal belongings. But, they may have different regulations regarding high-value items in terms of insurance. Keep in mind that some moving companies could potentially transfer your valuable personal belongings to a different truck without your knowing, which is why you should determine these kinds of things in advance to ensure their overall safety.
When you move, it’s understandable to question everything and get it in writing. However, if you really want your most prized treasures and important items to be safe, take care of them yourself.
