The Ultimate Mover's To Do List

By: Heath RowTue Dec 18, 2007 at 11:54 PM

Here's how you can do a great job at the office and manage to find an interesting neighborhood, a nice house and good doctors in a new city.

How About The Little Things?

Even if you get the big things right - home, school, doctors - getting the little things wrong can turn a dream move into a nightmare. We're talking about packing boxes, finding a mover - ugh! The Web can help with this mundane side of moving.

Many local rental companies offer Web sites with information on truck-rental prices and availability. The big national companies seem strangely halfhearted about doing business online, but some do offer quotes and let you request sales calls over the Web. Ryder Moving Services (www.movingcenter.com/email/ryder.htm) has a rep call you with an estimate - and a 10% discount - if you fill out an online form.

If you want someone else to move you, the Homebuyer's Fair (www.homefair.com) offers a connection to the Center for Mobility Resources. This site helps you estimate the cost of your move and choose a van line or moving company. It also offers other tools, including cost-of-living indexes for more than 1,000 cities worldwide, and crime indexes for more than 500 U.S. cities.

There are other moving headaches, like registering and insuring your car. MoversNet (www.usps.com/moversnet/motor.html), from the U.S. Postal Service, has compiled a directory of 48 motor-vehicle departments. Some states offer online registration; others provide contact information on fees, hours, and locations of offices.

Once you've registered your car and obtained a new driver's license, you can also insure your car online. AAA (www.aaa.com) provides regional "offices" on the Web, some of which include directories of insurance agencies that offer discounts to AAA members. If you're not a member of AAA, check out InsWeb (www.insweb.com). The site's Auto Quotes section lets you compare prices from brand-name insurance companies without dealing with a salesperson. When you're finished comparing quotes, you can apply for insurance online with companies such as American Express, CNA Financial Corp., Liberty Mutual, and State Farm.

No long waits at the motor-vehicle office? No long meetings with insurance agents? It's almost enough to make you want to move!

Heath Row (hrow@fastcompany.com) is an associate editor at Fast Company. Since settling into the Boston area in 1996, he's moved three times.