Saving Time and Money While Moving: Tips From a Mum

If a person who is moving into an apartment building has only ever lived in houses prior to this move, these are blunders that they may end up making due to their lack of familiarity with this type of residential property.

Assuming that the new furniture they plan to get delivered can be transported to their apartment in the lift

Most modern apartment buildings have lifts. One common error made by people moving into this type of property for the first time is assuming that items included in the new furniture delivery they have arranged can be transported to their apartment via the building's lift. However, if they have ordered items that are either very large or made out of heavy materials, it is possible that these goods, in combination with the weight of the delivery people who would have to travel in the lift with them, might surpass the lift's upper weight limit (particularly if the lift is old and was not built to carry high-weight items or people).

If the person who is moving into the apartment only makes this discovery when the deliverymen have already arrived, the deliverymen might have to take the furniture away and ask that person to rearrange the delivery. The reason for this is that in this situation, the only route the deliverymen could use to transport the furniture would be the apartment building's stairwell. However, carrying heavy furniture up multiple flights of stairs usually takes a long time and requires the use of moving straps and other lifting implements. If the deliverymen were told by the customer that they could use the lift, then they may not have brought these implements with them and may not have set aside the amount of time for this appointment that would be needed to carry the furniture up the stairwell.

Simply by comparing the weight of their new furniture with the weight capacity of the apartment building's lift (and taking into account the extra weight of the deliverymen), people who are moving into apartment buildings can ensure that they don't encounter this issue and that their furniture delivery goes smoothly. Talk with the new furniture delivery team about your building. 

Trying to shove all of their discarded boxes and other packing materials down the building's chute

An apartment building will often have rubbish chutes that enable its residents to throw out their household rubbish, without having to go down to the ground floor and walk out to the building's skips. When a person who has no experience of living in a building like this moves into this type of residential property, they may decide to shove all of the emptied-out boxes, torn bubble-wrap, newspaper and other packing materials they no longer need down the chute opening.

This can end up causing a big mess, as these chutes are designed for the disposal of small amounts of rubbish (such as one or two bags of household rubbish at a time). If a person shoves too much stuff into their building's chute, the chances of that chute getting blocked will be very high.

If this happens, both they and the other residents may not be able to use the chute until the building's maintenance team have time to come and dislodge the packing materials that led to the blockage. This could annoy the person's new neighbours and put a dampener on their experience of settling into life at their new home.