Expert: Ralph Meyer - 1/29/2012

Question
Hi Ralph,

My husband and I are planning to move to Calgary from Toronto sometime in July this year. We have lived a couple of years in Toronto, and the big city life is a bit too busy for us, and after researching Calgary and the feel of the city, we decided to go there.
One question would be how to organize the move in a more efficient way? We have a 1 bedroom worth of stuff and would like to take everything with us. But, I believe we won't find rent remotely, we need to be there in person, that would mean putting our stuff in storage for a while. Do you know of good, reliable and cost-effective moving companies that would load our stuff, put it into storage and then as soon as we find a place bring it over to us and unload it?

Another question that I had, was where should we rent. We are considering NW and SW, with a budget of approximately $900, a 1-2 bedroom apartment. We are not party people, would like to avoid downtown. Also, we like to stay in and have friends over rather than partying all night. We'd like a neighborhood that is safe, easy commute downtown and overall a nice area (perhaps with a park nearby).

Unfortunately, we do not have a job for us waiting there, but with our experience, hopefully it will pretty fast. I just wanted to ask what would be the best approach? Internet searches, or finding specific companies we are interested in and applying in person? We are looking at financial institutions, administrative work, and perhaps security officer jobs.

Thanks for reading all this :)
Anna

Answer
Anna,

A lot of questions, but here it goes.  For the movers, Place all the boxes in uniform sized boxes, ie the 2 cube moving boxes or the boxes office paper come in. Ex Staples or Grand & Toy box, then I would place these in one room. I call this type of Moving staging Moving. One Man I moved, had 3 bedrooms of furniture and stuff in two rooms. This knocked two plus hours off his move.  Second room, would be the room, where any furniture or other items would be placed in.
Storage, I suggest two companies, here Sentinel 403-879-1606 or 403-252-7162 and or Public Storage 403-693-4046.  

When you get here, 2 options, one stay in a long term residences or Holiday Inn Avenida, long term rentals or Morguard long term residence ie at Horton Road SW or Bonaventure dr ( I believe its called Wyldewood).  If you write me personally through rmmt.ca, I can forward you more direct contacts.

I can suggest S.W. or SE areas, like Acadia, Haysboro, Southwood, Mayfair, Windsor, Glamorgan  just to name a few areas. I would need to know more about your life style, what you like, whether your bus people or 1 car or 2 car people.

Jobs, what are your career requirements etc. Some positions may hire you from out of town.

This is the information, I can offer you in this short frame of time.

Bless you, and Good luck,

Ralph Meyer