express | Friday, Aug. 8, 2014 | Your guide to D.C.-area apartments and home rentals
Moveit without losingit Try these tips to get to your new rental and avoid headaches (and cops) Moving When Molly Olsen, 21, and her roommates were preparing to move to Capitol Hill in May, they expected hours of packing, heavy lifting, sweat and stress. What they didn’t expect was the police. Olsen heard the telltale sirens while driving a U-Haul truck just blocks from the White House. Olsen, a new George Washington University graduate, was informed she was passing through a no-truck zone. “They let us off [with a warning],” she says. “They saw how frazzled and flustered we were.” Still, Olsen says, the experience made her “never, ever, ever want to move again.” Moving is notoriously annoying, and the D.C. area offers its own special set of hurdles. But take heart: Here are some ways to make the process smoother, if not entirely enjoyable.
Plan ahead Moving starts long before you pack up and haul your belongings across town. It requires planning — and lots of it. “Being prepared is 80 percent of it,” says Lisa Wise, the owner of boutique property management company Nest DC (3634 Georgia Ave. No. 3; 202-540-8038, nest-dc.com). One big thing: “Make sure that you don’t get caught without a mover,” Wise says. It’s not just moving companies that get booked up in advance, truck rentals and even friends do, too. To make sure you DANIEL FISHEL (FOR EXPRESS)
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