Hiring a professional, experienced and reputable moving service is always the best way to protect your valuable items when moving from state to state or across the entire nation. With these companies, the risk of any type of theft of your personal property is virtually zero, but there are still some precautions that you should take to secure items of monetary or sentimental value.
All top moving companies will recommend that specific types of items are not packed with your general possessions. This is not because the moving company doesn’t trust their staff, but because there are a lot of variables that can occur in any move. By securing valuables and using good practices, these valuables will not be stolen, lost or accidentally thrown out in the unpacking process.
Valuable Jewelry or Other Small Items
Jewelry that is valuable for sentimental or monetary reasons should not be packed with your household possessions. Sometimes people think they can hide it in socks or clothing and it will go unnoticed by anyone potentially on the lookout for jewelry boxes or cases.
In reality, the jewelry can easily slide out of pockets of clothing and end up in the bottom of the box. This makes it easy to overlook and ends up with your valuable items being tossed out in the trash. The same goes for other small items like coin collections, stamps, valuable figurines or small art objects of value.
Pack these in a suitcase or a separate bag and bring them with you during the move. You can also have them couriered if you are uncomfortable in placing them in luggage for a flight and don’t want to take them with your carry-on baggage. This will allows you to insure them for their full value as well.
Personal Identification and Information
In this day and age, protecting your personal information is just as important as valuable items. All of your financial records, passports, medical records and any other types of sensitive documentation should travel with you, and the same for documents for the children. This may be required in your new location to set up bank accounts and to transfer kids into a new school.
Large artwork and very valuable antiques can be packed by professional art movers. These companies can provide bonded and insured custom packing and transportation that is specifically geared to these often fragile and very delicate expensive pieces.
These items are much less likely to be stolen, but they can be damaged when moved in a large truck by even highly trained staff at your moving company.
