How to move right now safely if you absolutely need to

In the best of times moving to a new home is a headache. But figuring out how to move during the coronavirus pandemic is likely the very last thing you want to do. Between collecting the boxes, driving a rented moving truck, coordinating with potential movers and perhaps even living with new roommates, moving presents seemingly endless opportunities for coronavirus exposure — a serious stressor in addition to an already stressful change in life.

First things first: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC) strongly recommend staying at home to reduce the spread of coronavirus as much as possible. This involves restricting non-essential travel outside of your immediate area and non-essential local area errands. That means you shouldn't move, if you don't have to move right now. However, often changing residences isn't flexible. I bet you would, if you could push back your move by a few months. Perhaps your lease is up, or maybe you sold your home and the new owners can't make their own move. When it's not an option to change your moving date, the next best thing is to figure out how to minimise your coronavirus exposure while relocating for necessary reasons.

Let's start with a quick reminder about what the experts currently know about how coronavirus disease spreads, because that's key knowledge to help protect yourself. The main way that the SARS-CoV-2 virus (which causes COVID-19) appears to spread is through contact with someone who has the coronavirus, or being close to them. (Experts think this is most likely when people are within six feet of each other.) The respiratory droplets produced when someone with the virus talks, coughs, or sneezes can land on the mouths and noses of others, potentially spreading the infection. Those droplets can also be inhaled from the air.

Experts also believe that touching a contaminated object (such as a cardboard box) and then touching your mouth , nose, or possibly eyes can help you get the disease. Researchers still figure how long the virus lingers on various surfaces. An April study in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that SARS-CoV-2 would live on copper for up to 4 hours, cardboard for up to 24 hours and plastic and stainless steel for up to 72 hours. For certainly knowing how long the virus can hang around on different surface materials further work will be required.

It's pretty easy to see how a typical move could make both modes of transmission possible so what can you do? What amount of sanitization is actually needed during your move? Is it now possible to recruit movers? Below are 11 tips that will help you navigate your way through the coronavirus epidemic in a healthy way. (And as a heads up, we'll stick to tips for a local move here, but if you need a long-distance move, check out our advice on avoiding coronavirus on planes, trains and buses.)

Constantly wash your hands (and sanitise them, if you can't).

Since during your walk you are likely to be in close contact with other people, along with touching a lot of other people 's surfaces, it is important to keep your hands clean. By unintentionally rubbing your nose , mouth, or eyes with unclean hands, there is less risk that you will bring the virus into your body.

Clean your hands regularly during your moving day, with soap and water for at least 20 seconds at a time. Hold in your pocket a bottle of hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol while packing and filling boxes (or if you don't have access to a sink but need to clean your hands). Remember not to touch your face during your entire move regardless of the last time you've cleaned your hands. Below are some suggestions which will help you stop scratching your face.

Buy boxes or use old boxes that you already have, instead of finding recycled ones for free

Picking up boxes is often the first move step. This involves gathering old Amazon boxes for my past activities and asking the staff at local supermarkets and liquor stores if they have any boxes that I can take off their hands. But if you have no (or enough) boxes lying around at home, how do you deal with that aspect of moving now?

"It's probably safest buying your boxes and other moving supplies from a store," says Matthew G. Heinz, M.D., a Tucson Medical Center hospitalist and internist who has treated COVID-19 patients. When they provide no-contact delivery of products to prevent exposing yourself to the virus on a trip to the supermarket, ask local moving companies.

"Most moving companies allow you to ... request boxes and online moving materials for curbside pickup. Some can provide services that allow boxes and materials to be shipped directly to your home, "says Shanina C. Knighton, Ph.D., R.N., a nurse scientist who studies infection prevention and related hygiene.

Also, if you need to, you can try to source free recycled boxes as safe as possible. For example, instead of going to different stores to make special trips to see if they have boxes, fold that task into your next scheduled trip to the grocery store. You can also keep your eye out for boxes in recycling bins around your neighbourhood when, for necessary reasons, you 're on (socially distant) walks or elsewhere outside.

"The very best thing to do will be to stop using them," says Dr. Heinz, who also assisted in responding to the Ebola crisis domestically. But if this is the best option for you, then you can still take precautions to feel safer. Consider stashing recycled boxes in your home 's low-traffic area, washing your hands, then not touching them for a day yet again. If you need to touch them earlier then that's okay, just be sure to wash your hands afterwards. (It's also a good idea to wash your hands afterwards if you've had them moving across canada for more than 24 hours because evidence suggesting that the virus will only survive for up to 24 hours on cardboard is not conclusive.)

Seek to prepare your step when it's not as busy as that

Moving necessarily means you are losing a major preventive mechanism against coronavirus: maintaining your distance from others. During your journey, you'll probably be in near proximity to people with whom you don't already stay, whether they're new friends or roommates, building workers, movers, joggers walking by as you load the truck, or any number of others. The pace of your move may have a major effect on the total number of other people you meet.

If you have flexibility with the day and time it is recommended that you move to opt for a weekday morning instead of a weekend. This will really, under normal conditions, cut down on how many people would be out and about during your transfer. But even now, when most people are sheltering at home, you may be cutting back on the number of people you run into.

If you are moving specifically into or out of an apartment or condo, try not to do so during really busy times of the day when you may be more likely to come in close contact with neighbours in halls, staircases and elevators. Ask property management about the building's traffic patterns, and say you want to move when people are least likely to come and go. You may also clarify why you don't want to drive when there is routine scheduled maintenance or cleaning, so that you can also stop foot traffic.