Five Tips to Stay Healthy When You’re Moving to Costa Mesa

Five Tips to Stay Healthy When You’re Moving to Costa Mesa

When it comes to moving, it’s a very easy time to get sick or injured. Something that takes so much time can easily result in stress, which can lead to illness. And then when it comes to moving lots of heavy items, you’ll be much more prone to injury. So if you want to stay healthy and well during the moving process, here are our top five tips:

1.Block out some time

When you’re preparing for a move, you’ll need to block out some time to make sure you have plenty of space to plan all the details. If you’re packing on your own, you’ll need even more time. In fact, you should start the packing process at least six weeks before your moving day.

Otherwise, you’re likely to have to pull all-nighters so that you can get it all done. This is likely to lead to illness in the long run, so it’s better to make sure you have time on the front end.

The easiest option here is to block out your weekends when you know you’re getting ready to move. You’ll have to sacrifice some other plans, but it’s well worth making sure that you can get it all done while still getting enough sleep before moving day.

2. Use good body mechanics

Often times, we hear stories from DIY movers of serious back injuries. Even if you’re in good physical condition, you may not know how to properly use your body to pick up particularly large or heavy objects. And bad body mechanics can easily result in back injuries sustained during the moving process. Back injuries can easily linger for months, so you want to be sure you’re using proper mechanics before you start moving your heavy items on your own.

The main goal when moving heavy items is to ensure that your legs – rather than your back – are doing most of the work. If you’re not sure how to make this happen, take time to talk to a physical therapist or check out some YouTube videos that will help you practice and use proper body mechanics.

3. Keep boxes lightweight

There’s a reason that many Costa Mesa moving companies even put weight limits on individual boxes. It’s all too easy to have boxes that get out of hand and very heavy. Smaller boxes can be particularly dangerous because they look lightweight, but can get surprisingly heavy when packed with dense items.

If you’re not sure, keep a scale nearby when you’re packing up your boxes. Keep boxes at or around twenty pounds each. This won’t always be possible, so be sure to mark particularly heavy boxes so that you know before you try to pick them up that they’re heavy. Be sure that even when you’re moving lighter weight boxes, that you use proper body mechanics.

4. Break down furniture

You might think that you can move a dresser full of clothes easily. And sometimes you can. But other times, it’s a better option to disassemble furniture to move it. It’s easy to have an injury when you try to move a heavy piece of furniture, even if you have help. Even though it might take more time, it’s easier to move several lighter weight pieces of furniture than it is to move one large, heavy piece.

Sometimes even pieces that aren’t very heavy should really be taken apart before the moving process. Large pieces that aren’t very heavy can be awkward to move. When you have to position your back oddly, you can easily be injured, even if the piece you’re moving isn’t very heavy.

5. Get some help

Even if a full-service move from Costa Mesa movers isn’t in the budget, you’ll need some help on moving day. Even repetitive lifting of relatively lightweight items can easily cause injury. So be sure to get some volunteers rounded up to help on moving day.

One thing to note, however, is that you’ll need to help protect your volunteers from injury, too. If your volunteers get injured helping you move, you may be on the hook for their expenses. This is one reason that it’s important to consider hiring Costa Mesa movers, because they’ll have their own insurance to cover any potential injuries.