What People Search Online Before Moving Out

By Joshua Green

Updated: Apr 13, 2017

6 min read

Fact-checked by Martin Panayotov

Reviewer & editor

Information is a powerful weapon that can give people a clear advantage during the battle of moving from one home to another. That’s right, moving home often turns into a battlefield of soaring moving expenses and mounting levels of relocation stress that may result in utter confusion about what to do next, followed by sheer frustration from having lost days of precious time. And money.

Be smart! Be informed! A quick search online can save you an enormous amount of time, money, and efforts. Spare your nervous system by learning the right answers to some of the hottest move-related questions out there.

What people want to know when they move is exactly what you must know, too, long before Moving day knocks on your door. Here’s what people search online before moving out – the top 10 burning questions that need to be answered before moving to a new home.

1. Why do people move house?

One thing is clear – moving house is not something that happens on a whim. Residential moving is a serious matter and any decision to move to a new home should be evaluated very carefully as it will inevitably lead to a number of important changes in a person’s life.

Everyone has their good reasons to move out, and there’s a great chance that you do too. By searching for the top reasons why people move to a new house, you may be looking for a way to justify your own resolve to relocate, or you may be just curious about what exactly makes people initiate the moving day countdown.

Unsurprisingly, searching for a new or better job is the number one reason for people to want to move to another part of the country, or even abroad. The desire to be with a loved one, the necessity to move into a more fitting home in a cheaper or safer city, the wish to move to a place with a better climate to maybe enjoy the Golden Years, or the dire need to escape a past filled with bad memories are often listed as the top reasons people move house.

Learn more: Why do people move? (6 good reasons to move house) & 7 signs it’s time to move out

2. Cheapest way to move cross country

Moving house is, among other things, rather expensive. Hiring professional movers usually tops the list of move-related expenses, but it’s never just that, is it? Each additional moving service will cost extra, while any brave attempts at moving house without the assistance of a top-rated moving company will quickly be subjected to the wrath of hidden self-moving costs.

Is it, then, so surprising that everybody’s desperately searching for the cheapest way to move across country? It surely isn’t. In fact, you should be looking for good cost-saving techniques yourself even if you’re not too keen on doing what everyone else is doing. The good news is that you can still move cheaply your way.

How to move cross country on a budget? Finding an affordable mover is your best money-saving tactic, but you should also seriously consider booking your move early, taking with you only the items you will need, selling the things you’re leaving behind, finding free packing materials, and even packing whatever you can by yourself.

More info here: How to save money on a long distance move

3. What to do when moving house (moving checklist)

Oftentimes the process of moving to a new home is not as straightforward as it may have looked and sounded in the very beginning. The unfortunate combination of having too many tasks to complete within a fairly limited period of time is the major reason most people get seriously worried that they won’t be ready on time until their movers show up at the door.

Lost time during the pre-move preparations can easily hurt your chance of a smooth move. The solution? Successful time management. To know what things to do when moving, and equally important – when to do all of those things, is exactly where a good moving checklist will make a huge difference. Don’t be surprised, then, that moving checklist boasts one of the top monthly search volumes of all move-associated keywords.

What should you do before your moving day arrives? Only you know the right answer to that puzzling question. Still, you can surely use some great ideas to organize your time effectively and use every hour of every day to your advantage.

Must-have info: One-sentence moving checklist (more than 120 tips!)

4. How much does it cost to hire movers? + Average moving costs

In the majority of cases, to find a top-rated moving company and hire its quality services is the best way to move household items from one home to another. Regardless of the move distance (same city, neighboring city, neighboring state, cross country, coast to coast, or abroad), trusting one’s prized possessions to experienced hands is the best choice out there.

But here’s the catch: the moving price.

What people search in Google before moving out is how much professional movers charge. You, too, must know how much movers cost in advance so that you can consult with your budget and act accordingly. Once you are familiar with the average moving costs for local and long distance moves, including the way the price of using professional services is calculated, then you should be able to make an informed decision about how to proceed with your household move.

Knowing the average moving costs can be useful in many ways but it’s not until you request accurate moving price estimation from a few reputable movers that you will know what you’re up against price-wise.

Find out more: How much does it cost to hire movers? (local + cross country)

Find out even more: What’s the average moving cost?

5. How to choose a moving company + Compare moving companies

It can’t be just a coincidence that when people want to know how to choose a moving company, what they really mean is How to find cheap movers me. When taking into consideration that people’s hard-earned money will be on the line during the move, any move-related online queries that contain the words cheap, affordable, low-cost and cost saving are more than understandable.

Are you also looking for a cheap moving company that will still offer a high-quality moving service? Of course you are. The task of finding a top-rated yet low-cost local or cross country mover will not be a walk in the park but the truth is that if you do your homework right and spend a bit of time researching the movers you have shortlisted, then the invested time and efforts should pay off handsomely in the end.

You shouldn’t worry too much though, for we’ve got you covered. Follow our detailed 31.5 steps to finding a great moving company, and then use the special Movers Comparison Table to select your dependable relocation partner.

Learn more: How to choose a moving company in 31.5 steps

Learn even more: How to compare moving companies (Movers Comparison Chart)

6. How much to tip movers

Another interesting question that people search online when moving house is how much to tip movers. Basically, there are two major concerns when it comes to tipping movers: (1) some people are not sure whether they are supposed to tip their professional helpers in the first place, and (2) they don’t really know the proper amount they are expected to tip the pros for a job well done.

There’s nothing complicated about it, really. Moving companies are part of the service industry and tipping movers is considered the standard way of showing your gratitude provided that you’re really satisfied with how professionally they have handled your move. That’s it – tipping movers is not something you are obliged to do – rather, it’s something that, hopefully, you will want to do at the end of your relocation.

How much to tip local or long distance movers? Percentages won’t really help you determine a good amount to tip your movers, especially if you’re moving across the country. Instead, follow the link to learn the universal movers tipping formula that works great regardless of the type of your residential move.

Good to know: How much to tip movers: Your movers tipping guide

7. Packing tips for moving

Without a shadow of a doubt, packing up a home for a move is the most arduous task in anyone’s moving calendar – a tough job that involves a lot of effort and energy. What’s more, the packing project is usually stretched over the entire period of moving preparations.

Therefore, having in mind the magnitude of the packing challenge ahead – scores of possessions to be wrapped up and boxes safely for the road ahead, it comes as little surprise that good packing tips is exactly what people search for when moving house.

Packing tips come in all shapes and sizes – some of them give general advice on important issues such as when to start packing for a move, what to pack first when moving and how to pack quickly for a move, while others deal with more specialized advice about the best way to pack individual items. The great news here is that a handful of efficient packing tips can save you an enormous amount of time and keep your belongings well protected at the same time.

Packing up an entire home when moving is never a joke but we’ve got what you need: a great packing checklist with hand-picked advice on how to pack a house or an apartment in exactly 60 steps.

8. How to move out of state

The United States is one of the most mobile nations in the world. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, around 40 million people perform residential moves each year, and the average American moves once every 5 years. Or at least that’s what statistics say. And because a great number of those residential moves are interstate ones, people are really interested in what steps they need to take when moving out of state.

Moving to a new state is a bit different than moving across town or to a new city within the same state. Your moving checklist will include tasks that are more specific to the destination state, such as packing warmer clothes if moving to a colder climate, and vice versa, or having to register your vehicle upon arriving in the new state. Naturally, the preparation stage is vital for the success of the whole relocation operation, as is the immediate post-move period when you are expected to find a new family physician, registering your school-age child at a reputable school (if applicable), registering your car and transferring your driver’s license, and so on.

Moving out of state can be tricky, and the happy ending of your interstate adventure lies in finding the best state to state moving company – the best one in terms of fitting into your budget and responding to your concrete needs as a shipper of household goods.

Useful info: Moving to a new state: checklist and tips

9. How to move with no money

There’s one burning question that people search online more often than one would think: how to move without money. And while that search query seems kind of absurd at first, there are a few good options that one shouldn’t dismiss too quickly as being preposterous.

We’ve already mentioned above that moving house is an expensive affair, so your inability to cover the moving expenses should automatically mean END OF STORY. Unless you’re willing to prove that you’re a resourceful person and you won’t give up without a good fight. The very first thing you need to do is to look at the newly-created situation from a different angle and see if you really need to move out right that instant. Maybe you can postpone the relocation until a later date when you’ll have already saved up enough to complete what you couldn’t finish before.

Other possible solutions to not having enough money to move out is to look for a job before the move (easier said than done, right?), to ask for help from parents, friends, or – the best thing you can do under the circumstances is to just bring down the upcoming moving expenses to their absolute minimum. Well, you can always try to improve the money-less situation by selling some items that you won’t need after the move anyway.

Must-know info: How to move with no money: 5 step survival guide

10. Things to do when moving into a new home

Not too surprisingly, sometimes what people google before they move is what they should do the moment they find themselves in their new homes. That’s right – the moving process doesn’t really end when one’s household items get delivered to the new address – there are a number of essential things to do after moving into a new home as well.

When you’ve come that far (far in the sense of surviving your moving preparations and your moving day, and then making it to your new house or apartment in good health), then you surely don’t want to trip on the final stretch. It’s very important how you organize your immediate post relocation time as it will set the tone for the notorious adaptation period that follows most household moves.

Yes, the celebration you’ve planned for after the move can wait as you’ve got more than 20 super important things to do after moving into a new house or apartment. Find what those post-move priorities are by following the link below. Oh, by the way, congratulations for your successful move!

Extremely useful: 21 things to do after moving into a new home

BONUS: Jokes about moving house

We all know that moving house is a rather serious matter, at times so serious that it can endanger people’s health, including wreaking havoc on their mental equilibrium. The heightened stress levels could really do some severe damage during that crazy-busy period of transferring belongings, family members and dear memories from one home into another.

And that’s exactly why it’s somewhat astonishing that one of the things people want to know when they move is jokes about moving house. Do some people think the tough relocation period is nothing but a joke? How is that even possible?

Funny as it may seem, whenever things get tougher than tough at any point during your household move, your best chance of keeping your sanity is to keep your sense of humor alive. Are you serious when you say that you’ve never heard that survival technique before?

Really funny: 4 ways to keep your sense of humor alive when moving

Finally, let’s set the right mood with an exceptionally rare joke about movers. It’s a good one, right?

Knock, knock!

Who’s there?

Your movers.

You’re late!

Movers are never late, nor are they early, they arrive precisely when they mean to.