Fall is the perfect time to move. The process can go smoothly, but it always feels hectic. When you’re relocating the contents of your life, it’s easy to forget the little things. But what seems unimportant in the middle of a residential move in San Antonio can actually cost you later. Here are some small-but-important details that you should probably remember when moving house.
1. Transferring medical records
Accidents happen, and the last thing you want is to end up in a strange doctor’s office in a new city with no medical history in sight. Make sure you remember to contact your general practitioner, pediatrician, dentist, and any specialists you might see before you move. The good news is, you may not need to lug folders with decades’ worth of medical history cross country. Even if they’re not already digitized, many practices will scan your records (for free or a small fee) and send them to you.
2. Sending out change of address notifications
Yeah. Whoops. Just because your snail mail comes in drips and drabs nowadays doesn’t mean you can skip it all together. Luckily for you, there’s an easy solution. While you might have needed to jump through hoops in the days of troll dolls and teased hair, the U.S. Postal Service, most DMVs, and others all offer change of address forms online, so you can get your bills and junk mail in a timely fashion.
3. Picking up, returning, and finding all your lent, borrowed, and hidden belongings
It’s easy to forget about packing things that aren’t actually in your house. Remember to hit up your dry cleaners, repair shops, friends, and relatives for any items you may have sent out or lent. On the other side of the equation, it’s easy to pack things that might not be yours at all—library books and borrowed casserole dishes, for instance. Double-check now to save the hassle of negotiating shipping fees later. And while you’re double-checking, give all your usual hidey-holes another once-over before driving away for good, or risk losing something valuable.
4. Changing the locks
So you’ve managed to get to your new city, correct belongings in tow. Changing the locks on your new home may not seem like it should be up there on your to-do list with turning on your utilities and unpacking your bed sheets, but you may want to consider it. Old contractors, relatives, neighbors—there’s no way to be completely certain who has duplicates of your keys, or just how many duplicates are floating around out there.
5. Registering your car
If you’ve moved to a new state, odds are, you’re not going to be able to forget this for long (try as you might). Dealing with the DMV may be America’s least favorite pastime, but this is something you’re definitely going to want to do soon. And voluntarily.
6. Registering to vote
Unless you’re moving in the middle of election season, registering to vote can probably wait until after you’ve found curtains that fit the weird window in the bathroom and can get to the grocery store across town without Google maps. But it’s still something you should avoid putting off. Each state has its own deadline for registering before an election, and the last thing you want is to accidentally opt out of a basic constitutional right.
