As I mentioned in my last post, we arrived in California safe and sound. Thankfully, we didn’t lose any belongings. However, even though things went pretty smoothly, that’s not to say we didn’t plan for the worst.

After all, that’s what insurance is for. Here’s what we did throughout the course of our move:

1) Bought extra insurance from the movers, and specifically inventoried “high-value” items. Basic mover insurance is very minimal—something like 9 cents per pound. If something were to happen to anything more valuable, that wouldn’t even come close to covering it. We chose a high-deductible premium to cover our stuff en route–meaning we would pay more out of pocket if something did happen, but a lower amount for the insurance itself .

2) Bought insurance for our storage locker. Something I was surprised to learn is that your homeowners or renters insurance policy does NOT cover storage lockers. You need separate insurance for this—most storage lockers offer it as a part of their monthly payment plans.

3) Got a new renters insurance plan for our temporary apartment and added riders to it for high-value things like jewelry and china.

4) Maintained our homeowners insurance at our condo, which we’ll keep active until we close on the sale.

5) Switched to my husband’s company’s medical insurance for all three of us.

6) Insured the rental car we drove for over a week while we waited for my car to arrive.

7) Bought car insurance for my husband’s new ride. More on this soon, but we were a one car family back in Chicago. A new car meant a new policy.

All of this, added up, is kind of costly. However, I firmly believe in Murphy’s Law, which states, loosely, that if any thing bad can happen, it will. So being prepared is like my own little prevention against bad things happening. If you buy it, you’ll most likely be OK.