The COVID-19 pandemic is still in full swing, and it’s more important than ever to find reliable and safe removalists to help you tackle your move while keeping everyone healthy. The pandemic adds another layer of uncertainty and complications to the already stressful thought of moving, but Easy Peasy Removals are one company that pops up when you search for “safe removalist Melbourne.”
Along with finding a removalist company, you’ll want to have safe moving practices in mind. We’re going to outline how Easy Peasy Removals are working to keep both our staff and customers safe while helping you move. We’ll also give you a few quick tips to ensure that you have a smooth move from start to finish below.
How Easy Peasy Removals Took Steps to Protect Customers and Staff
Our goal was to be safe removalists in Melbourne, Ormond and the surrounds. We’ve taken steps to protect both our staff and customers during the pandemic while continuing to operate under Stage 4 Restrictions. A few of the key points we introduced to our typical routines include:
- All vehicles get cleaned regularly before and after each job as well as regularly throughout the day.
- Each customer gets a COVID-19 pre-check mailed one day before the job with relevant COVID-19 questions.
- Easy Peasy Removals comply with the Victorian government’s directive that mandates wearing facial masks, and we introduced disposable gloves and facial shields for our staff.
- We introduced zero-contact moving.
- Movers check and email their body temperature readings every morning if they’re on the roster to work at the office. We’ve also instructed any mover not to attend work if they have flu-like symptoms or feel sick, and they’re to contact their doctor for further steps.
- Movers must maintain a 1.5-metre social distance at all times.
- We relocated the admin staff to remote work at home.
- We reserve the right to leave any job where the movers feel like they’re at risk.
Steps to Protect Customers
Along with protecting our staff, we advise our customers to take steps to protect themselves and any of our movers they may come into contact with during a job. Currently, Easy Peasy Removals recommend:
- Don’t assist the movers during the job.
- Fill out the pre-check email questionnaire thoroughly.
- Have a colour-coded room plan with matching colour-coded boxes labelled and ready to go.
- Minimise the number of people on-site during a move, down to one person if possible.
- Pay cashless.
- Set up a self-isolating room and provide further instructions to the staff via video or phone call.
- Maintain 1.5-metre social distancing at all times.
- Wear a facial mask at all times.
Seven Tips for Keeping Your Items Safe During a Move
Now more than ever, it’s critical that you keep your items safe during a move. Hiring safe removalists is the first step. But there are so many other things you can do before, during and after your move to protect yourself and your family from COVID-19. We’ve picked out the biggest tips below.
Tip One — Hire an Expert
It’s very tempting to try and perform your own removals. After all, all you need is a few strong friends and a truck, right? We’d highly recommend that you call in safe removalists for this project, especially given the circumstances. Removalists keep up-to-date on all of the latest rules and regulations while having the training to transport your cargo without any damage. Paying for a removalist is a small price to pay to avoid injuries, strains or infections.
You know by now that COVID-19 can spread remarkably easily and quickly if you don’t take precautions. The Delta strain is usually spread by infected friends, family members or work colleagues when they come to visit in your home. When you move from one house to another, the virus can come right along with you.
So, it helps if you try to protect yourself and everyone around you by covering or wrapping everything in plastic wrap or garbage bags before you move. You then put everything into boxes that come specially designed to transport these items. Read safe removalist reviews and pick out a team like Easy Peasy Removals — we screen each mover before we send them out.
Tip Two — Consider Using Our Zero Contact Moving Service
At Easy Peasy Removals, we have a zero contact moving service that we combine with our packing and sending service. Doing so will ensure you don’t have to work hard to move to your new house while maintaining zero contact with our moving team. We offer zero contact services for transporting, moving and deliveries. This is a fantastic option for anyone who has family members that fall under a vulnerable group or who worries about the coronavirus.
We allow our customers to do a virtual survey before we start any removal process before we meet them because it’s much safer than a face-to-face meeting. We make it easy for any potential customer to see applications or websites for our removal services and get a free quote.
You can also check our COVID-19 safety precautions and find out what steps we implemented for our staff. We also recommend calling and talking to one of our staff to see what steps we have in place for our COVID Safe Removalist Process.
Tip Three — Minimise How Many People Are at the Home
With the restriction levels rising and the coronavirus spreading, it’s a good idea to have fewer people on-site for the move. Ideally, the fewer people you have present, the better. Our crew work hard to stay inside social distancing guidelines. So, if a room or area has too many people in it, our crew won’t be able to come in until you clear it out.
Try to minimise the number of people at the house to reduce contact and speed up the entire moving process. If you can’t minimise how many people come to the site, you can set up a “self-isolation” room where you can go and the movers don’t need to enter. You can keep your household members inside this room for the move’s duration. Other ways to help minimise contact include but are not limited to:
- Avoid unnecessary contact with the furniture and boxes during the moving process. If it’s possible, try to open your boxes a full 24 hours after you finish moving because the coronavirus won’t survive 24 hours on cardboard.
- Prepare a colour-coding system for the boxes and rooms. This eliminates a huge portion of the need for person-to-person instructions, and it helps everyone adhere to social distancing rules better.
- Take steps to minimise person-to-person contact. You can do this by sending us email instructions the day before the move, or you can prepare and organise a full instruction list and deliver it to our movers verbally at the start of the moving process. Using these methods allow our crew to work autonomously without needing you there for the duration of the move. The fewer questions we have, the less contact everyone will have.
Tip Four — Clean Your House Before the Move Date
Ideally, you’ll clean and sanitise your belongings before you move so it doesn’t negatively impact the moving process. It’ll help you disinfect both yourself and your old and new home. Also, the staff will disinfect themselves when they come to move your belongings. We took this step because we want to be safe removalists for all of our customers, no matter if we have to move an office or a house.
Tip Five — Make a Point to Maintain Excellent Hygiene
Each member of the Easy Peasy Removals team has hand sanitisers. Additionally, our crew will sanitise their hands before and after each moving project they take on, plus whenever they feel it is necessary during a job. So, we go to each job with clean hands. You can do the same by sanitising your hands before and after you handle your belongings, pack boxes or set up instructions for our team.
Tip Six — Sanitise Your New Home Before You Unpack
Before you unpack anything, you want to take steps to sanitise your new home in Melbourne or St Kilda. If you have a complete COVID safety removalist process you follow, you’ll follow the most recent rules. This includes wearing gloves and other PPE. This is especially important if you’re going to attempt to move without the help of a safe removalist. You shouldn’t try to handle any furniture without sanitising it first, even if you wait 24 hours after the initial move.
COVID-19 can stay alive on plastic for up to 72 hours and cardboard for up to 24 hours. So, if you skip unpacking your items until these times lapse, you’ll be safe. This is also why we recommend opening your boxes 24 hours before the move and not touching them again. If you need to do anything urgent, you should take steps to sanitise everything to prevent a possible infection.
Tip Seven — Label, Label, Label
At the end of the move, the last thing that you want to do is try to guess which items are in your boxes. This is why learning how to label boxes correctly before you pack is key. You should carefully label each box with every item that you have inside it and put which room you got it from. You can use masking tape or buy a label machine to make the process easier. It’s also a good idea to create a colour-coded system for each room.
For example, you could tag your kitchen as red. Put a red post-it note on the doorway in your new home and put all of your kitchen items in boxes with a red sticker or mark.
You want to label the front and each side of all your boxes so you can easily pick out the label or colour by glancing at it and it doesn’t matter how you stack them. This also makes contactless moving much easier for the removalists because they can see your colour-coding system and load or unload the boxes in clearly defined groups that are easy to place in the proper room at your new home. This will also reduce the hassle you go through when it comes time to organise and unpack everything.
Easy Peasy Removals Are Efficient and Safe Removalists
Even though we’re in a pandemic, it’s still possible to move with Easy Peasy Removals. Our staff have all of the training and keep up-to-date on the most current rules and regulations regarding the coronavirus. We have depots in Melbourne, St Kilda, Ormond and Sandringham to help serve our customers.
Our staff are ready to help you move as safely, quickly and easily as we possibly can. You can call 0431 747 411 to ask about our COVID Safety Procedures or get a free quote today.