Did Mother Nature interrupt your plans to have a smooth moving day by knocking out your power or bursting your pipes?
Even if a major, weather-related inconvenience has put a damper on your previously scheduled move, you do have options.
In some cases, your move can continue as scheduled if your moving company makes some adjustments.
In other cases, you may need to change your plans so you can still leave while having as little damage to your belongings as possible.
Either way, a stressful situation calls for an easy solution, and we’re here to help you get your sanity back!
See your options for moving in several distressing scenarios and how 3 Men Movers can help you safely settle into your new space.
Scenario 1: It’s Move Day—And Your Power Went Out
Believe it or not, you can absolutely move even if your power goes out.
Why fight the cold when you can move elsewhere (especially if you were planning to do so anyway)?
It may sound too encouraging, but we promise, it’s not.
Having your electricity fail doesn’t mean you have to postpone your move day— our crews can simply move you during the daylight.
What to do if you’re moving without electricity:
- Gather any battery-operated flashlights or power banks to charge your mobile devices. This is important to do even if you’re leaving to go elsewhere.
- Schedule your move for the desired date and choose a morning timeslot only. Flex moves aren’t advised if movers have to come to a home without electricity. Since they’re designed to be adaptable to the time needed for previous moves, flex moves won’t work for you or your movers because your crew needs the surest possibility of full daylight.
- Even if you’re staying at a friend’s house, you can always book the move using their phone or computer, and movers can meet you at your residence. This is why it’s so important to have a charged cell phone in case they call you with updates or questions!
Scenario 2: Your Pipes Burst & You Need To Move Everything, Fast
Unfortunately, wintery weather—or simply bad plumbing—can turn even a dream home into a nightmare.
If this ever happens to you, you know how awful and frustrating it feels.
Besides consulting your homeowner’s insurance or renter’s policy on sudden and accidental water damage (most declarations include them, but some don’t), you’ll probably want to leave before things get any worse.
If you’re really lucky, this may mean moving into an immediately available apartment.
Since an instant apartment is not always a reality for many people who suddenly have a burst pipe to deal with, your goal should be to keep everything as dry as possible and remove furniture as soon as you can.
How to prepare before any pipes are frozen or burst:
- Plumbers are in short supply during winter when pipes are most likely to burst. Still, try to find a 24-hour service as soon as you hear reports of prolonged temps below 32-degrees Fahrenheit (that’s when water freezes).
- Turn on your faucets to a pencil-size stream—not a measly drip.
- **TIP: Use HotHands 12-to-18-hour body warmers in the towels to distribute the heat when temperatures drop. Available at Target, Walmart, and many grocery or dollar stores. You can also try pipe sleeves, heat cables, or heat tape from home improvement stores.
- Open all cabinets housing your pipes so warm air can circulate around them.
- Use extra linens or blankets to insulate heat in areas where it often escapes: via garages, attics, crawlspaces, and doors.
What to do if you’re moving because your pipes burst:
- IMPORTANT: Turn off electricity to any areas with flooding or leaks.
- Turn off your water at the main valve or at the valves under your sinks and near appliances.
- Drain any remaining water from pipes that may not be frozen yet. Do this by turning on your faucets to a pencil-size stream (again, not a drip).
- Move any upholstered pieces to the driest part of your space and manually dry what you can with a hairdryer or towels. (Items need to be dry for movers to handle them, so do this first.)
- Wrap or cover anything that isn’t already wet using garbage bags, shower curtains or basically anything that’s non-porous and non-absorbent. Leaks from burst pipes can appear suddenly, so this helps secure your furniture just in case.
- Schedule your move for as soon as possible. You’ll want to get your items removed immediately, but remember that they need to be dry first.
- Movers can either load your items into a new residence, or place them into a facility of your choice, or house your furniture in our climate-controlled self-storage (Houston area only) or MOVITS™ containers (San Antonio & Houston).
- To minimize additional damage from frozen and stopped pipes, wrap any exposed indoor/outdoor pipes with towels or newspaper, then with plastic or garbage bags to stay dry.
Scenario 3: You Need to Remove Furniture From a Heavily Damaged Area
Maybe you don’t need to completely move out of your home or apartment…
Perhaps you simply need your beloved furnishings to be temporarily moved.
If your current circumstances involve getting furniture out of the way so repairs can be done in a certain area—like a damaged wall or room—our movers can still help you.
In fact, you can book our MOVITS™ storage containers in San Antonio or Houston to stash your furniture until you need it again.
How MOVITS™ storage helps when you’re doing repairs:
- MOVITS™ are perfect for long-term or short-term storage.
- You can get multiple containers, or just one to fit your needs.
- MOVITS™ containers are designed to store the average 2-bedroom apartment, so you don’t need a literal house full of furniture.
- Even if you have no idea when your repairs will be finished—or if you don’t need everything all at once—our crews bring the MOVITS™ directly to you.
What to do when moving furniture out of the way for home repairs:
- Before you, a contractor, or the movers touch anything, take pictures to document and report all damages to your insurer.
- Save any notes or photographic evidence somewhere safe and private (preferably on a digital cloud storage like iCloud, Google Drive, or Dropbox. We’ve made a home inventory sheet for you below!)
- Pack whatever you can using suitcases or boxes you already have.
- To make everyone comfortable, please pack precious or sentimental items before movers arrive.
- Disconnect and drain washers and/or freezers & refrigerators at least 12 hours before the move.
- If you don’t have any packing supplies, tell us and we’ll bring them to pack for you (NOTE: having a crew pack items in boxes is a separate service.)
- After booking your MOVITS™, we bring it to you and load your furniture inside.
- The crew will drive your container back to our climate-controlled warehouse and await your next call.
- Contact us whenever you’re ready, and we will deliver and unload your MOVITS™!
Wrapping Up
So there you have it:
You can still move with us during a power outage, burst pipes, and even while repairs are being done in your home.
Remember, we’re just a click or call away so don’t hesitate to let us help you move in any of these conditions!