Moving During COVID-19: Challenges and Tips

The novel coronavirus and COVID-19 pandemic has caused a huge amount of upheaval in our society, especially economically. Many people have lost their jobs and are seeking new employment opportunities. For those lucky enough to find something new, an important question is what should you do if it requires moving to a new place? In this article we’ll guide you through both the challenges of planning a move during a pandemic and some tips and advice for doing it safely. We hope this information soon becomes obsolete with the development and distribution of effective vaccines and treatments. How long that will take remains to be seen. And if there’s ever another serious pandemic…well, let’s not even go there. Stay positive!

Busy Bee Movers Can Move You Safely During the Pandemic

If you need to move to Indianapolis from anywhere in Indiana or need to move out of Indiana to some other place, Busy Bee Movers stands ready to provide as much assistance as you need. And to allow moving during COVID-19 to happen with health and safety in mind. 

We want you to know we are following all the procedures and best practices to operate safely during the COVID-19 pandemic. The safety and health of our customers and team members is our top priority as we continue providing our moving services. We are closely monitoring the ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak and the guidelines and recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 

The preventative measures to prevent the spread of and exposure to the virus include staying home when sick or with a fever of 100.4, cough and sneeze etiquette, hand hygiene, wearing face masks, and social distancing. Our trucks, equipment, and facilities are routinely deep-cleaned and sanitized, and our staff is provided with disposable wipes for commonly used surfaces. 

Adapting to Pandemic Pandemonium

It’s mind-boggling how quickly everyone’s lives were turned upside down, not to mention the economy coming to a screeching halt, when the pandemic hit hard earlier this year. Here we are seven months into this crisis and new cases are on the rise in many places as more efforts are made to reopen things and get the economy going, and still no vaccines or effective treatments are widely available. Everyone is anxious to get back to normal, but we’re finding out the hard way that this pandemic is far from over and still needs to be taken seriously. 

Like many companies that haven’t shut down entirely, moving companies like ours have to figure out how to adapt to pandemic conditions. After all, given the state of the economy, many people need to move in order to find new jobs and provide for their families. The big question on everyone’s mind is how to do what needs to be done with health and safety still being a primary concern. 

Essential Tips When Moving During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Making a move under normal conditions can be stressful enough but moving during COVID-19 adds in all kinds of new stresses and anxieties. One woman wrote about her and husband’s experience of moving during COVID-19, including what she wished she had known ahead of time, in a USA Today article. Some key tips that come from her experience include the following:

1. Overbuy Packing Materials. No one wants to make multiple trips to the local big box or local hardware store when you realize you don’t have enough packing materials (boxes, tape, bubble wrap, etc.). To minimize your risk of exposure to the novel coronavirus, this is one situation where you should definitely go ahead and overbuy moving materials to avoid unnecessary trips to high-traffic stores. Donate the leftovers to others who may need them!
2. Safely Donating Unwanted Items: It’s a very sensible thing when moving to pare down the amount of stuff you have to pack and move by donating items you no longer need or want to various charitable organizations that will take them and pass them on or sell them to others. Each donation site (Goodwill, Salvation Army, thrift stores, etc.) is going to have different protocols and procedures for how they take donations during the pandemic, so be sure to investigate their websites or call them out so you know ahead of time how it will work.
3. Speak Up if Needed with Movers: If you hire a moving company, what will you do if the movers don’t stick to the safety protocols you were told would be practiced? You need to be willing to speak up and enforce such protocols, whether it’s mask wearing or hand washing or social distancing. And don’t pack away every bar of soap, because loading a moving truck is going to take hours, which means you and the movers are going to need to use the bathroom at some point. Also have plenty of hand sanitizer available as well.
4. Allow Extra Time: As you’ve no doubt discovered on multiple occasions over the last several months, everything is harder in pandemic conditions, so be sure you build extra time into your moving schedule and go easy on yourself and others. Every emotion you feel when making a move in normal times will be amplified because of the pandemic. We’re all doing the best we can in these crazy times, so give yourself and others a break.

An article on the Good Housekeeping website made some other good points we endorse:

1. Minimize the People Involved: In pre-pandemic times, moving was something that often became a kind of party with all manner of friends and family dropping by to lend a hand and wish you well. This, of course, would not be wise as it just ups the potential risk of being exposed to the virus. The idea now is to minimize the number of people involved from both the moving company and the family being moved. 
2. Ask Questions: Also don’t be timid about asking questions of potential moving companies you might hire. suggested these questions: “How often are they monitoring or screening the health of their crew members? What kind of supplies, including face masks, gloves, and hand sanitizers, are being made available to movers on a daily basis?” Also, hiring a moving company often involves a lot of paperwork, and it would be better if all that could be handled online instead of in-person.

Other tips we’ve come across that we think are useful for planning a move during the pandemic include the following:

1. Virtual Quote: In normal times, a moving company might come and do a walk-through of your home in order to see what you have and then formulate their quote based on what they see. This process can still happen if the moving company is willing to do it virtually by having you walking around your home during a live videoconference call using your smartphone or tablet.
2. No-Contact Moves: Some moving companies are willing to do no-contact moves. When it’s time for the movers to arrive, the family exits the home and leaves the door unlocked so the movers can do their work. This option works best if everything is already packed ahead of time. 
3. Unpack Yourself: If the place you’re moving to has a garage and you really want to stay safe, have the movers unload all the boxes into the garage and let them sit or disinfect them before you start unpacking things yourself. 
4. Tipping: It’s common to hand out tips to movers but during the pandemic ask if you can add mover tips to the overall bill and pay via credit card online. 

Moving companies have been deemed essential services from the beginning of the pandemic, but that doesn’t mean you should be any less vigilant because working with movers is going to increase your risk of exposure to the novel coronavirus, so take all safety and health precautions you can, including all the CDC guidelines!

Busy Bee Movers: Trusted Moving Services in Indianapolis and Beyond

When it comes to making a move to or from Indianapolis and other communities across the state of Indiana, Busy Bee Movers is the company you can trust to handle as much or as little of your move as you want. We offer a full range of moving services, including the following:

• Working with you to create a moving plan customized to your needs.
• Packing and unpacking services.
• Packing supplies such as moving boxes, tape, bubble wrap, furniture pads, and more.
• Storage facilities if you need to set some items aside for a period of time.
• Moving all sorts of heavy objects, including pianos.
• Residential or commercial moving services.
• Special handling of fragile items, including moving antiques and fine art.
• Moving large items to relocated them within a home or business.

Moving yourself or your family and all its belongings is a big task made even more complicated by the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 pandemic. But you can rest assured knowing Busy Bee will provide our moving services with health and safety in mind, not just for your sake but also for the sake of our valued employees. Let us know what questions and concerns you may have and we’ll address them, including our plan for following coronavirus guidelines of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the state of Indiana. 

Quality professional moving services can take a lot of the work off your shoulders, and of course a stress-free move comes at a cost, but we’ve kept our prices very competitive and we think you’ll be pleased not just with the price, but the value your get for your money. Contact us through our website, where you can get a quick free online quote or a more detailed estimate, or just call us directly at 317-695-9927 to start planning your move!