Dealing with Broken Items During a Move

There are plenty of steps you can take to protect your fragile belongings during a move, but no matter how careful you are, sometimes things get broken anyway. Lifting, moving, and stacking boxes, traveling, unpacking…there are plenty of times for dishes, glasses, lamps, vases, or other breakables to break. Here are several tips to help you deal with the mess that results from broken items during a move:

Moving Insurance

If you want to protect your belongings before you even get started, you should look into moving insurance. Moving insurance helps you fix or replace items that break during the moving process. This is often offered alongside homeowners insurance or from your moving company. You have to decide whether or not it’s worth it to pay for insurance, depending on how many breakables you own and how difficult it would be to replace them if they break.

Unpack ASAP

In order to make sure all of your belongings are taken care of, it’s crucial for you to unpack as soon as possible. Not only does this immediately let you see if any damage has been done, it helps keep things from breaking later from having heavy objects stored on the box or accidents like a stack of boxes being knocked over. Also, insurance in unlikely to cover your broken items if you wait too long to report the problem.

Protect What’s Important to You

Some items are irreplaceable because of their sentimental value, whether it’s a family heirloom, antique, or keepsake. You should be particularly careful when packing and moving such items. You might even consider moving them separately from your other belongings and moving them yourself instead of letting a mover handle it.

Stay Calm

It can be very emotional to find out that a sentimental or expensive item has broken during a move, but it’s best to keep your cool. You are more likely to see results if you can calmly approach the problem. If a friend or family member is at fault or a moving company, yelling at them will rarely provide results. See if you can get compensation, whether it’s from the insurance or the moving company.

Attempt a Fix

Broken items can often be repaired to the point where they are almost like new. Obviously this won’t work if the item has shattered to tiny pieces, but it works more often than you’d think. This is especially important for items of sentimental value that cannot be replaced or practical, crucial items that you can’t afford to replace immediately. Check out information online or at a nearby store that specializes in that kind of item to see if there are any ways to fix it.

Having something break during a move is a terrible experience, and can be super annoying during an already stressful time. Hopefully these tips help you prepare for the possibility of a break or react if it actually happens to you.