<p>A moving company will be involved. I hate to think of them wrapping up all the china, etc. and then having me unwrap it just two blocks down the road. Should I move the breakables at night, when they aren’t looking?</p>
<p>Any tips for the most streamlined way to do this? It will be during school for high school sophomore; I’m hoping to not disrupt her too much, so I figure to pack her room and the kitchen last.</p>
<p>If you have no pressure on your finances, ask the moving company what are the extra costs of adding on an “unpack” day just for the kitchen and glass breakables.</p>
<p>We moved so many times, and each time let the moving company handle more and more of the packing. But I’d get left with these humongous boxes to unpack, paper to toss, and it took forever.</p>
<p>If all they do is spend a day quickly unpacking and stacking your dishes on the dining table and kitchen counters, you can walk them into cabinets much more readily. Have the moving company remove all those big china boxes and paper at the end of the day; they throw them right onto the truck. That saves you time.</p>
<p>We did a one-day unpack just this last move, because I have physical issues over back-bending into all those deep boxes, so it was worth it to us to pay. I discovered it saved me about 2 weeks and much box-gridlock on the unpack. We could eat in the kitchen same-night and saved a restaurant bill. It was worth it, but you have to cost it out. Also stand right there and tell them which boxes to unpack and exactly where to stack things (nearest cabinets you think might be their homes…) so you’ll end up sane when they leave at day’s end.</p>
<p>Driving valuables across town…I’d sure be tempted. We always had inter-city moves. Still, there could be issues of who’s responsible for breakages, if they see that…so I don’t know. No experience there but I’d sure be tempted.</p>
<p>Most important: have you and D lock all your purses, her computer, anything essential into your CAR that morning. They come in and pack so fast. Most women find their purses packed before they turn around. This makes it harder to drive to your new home :)</p>
<p>We moved around the corner in 2006. We made many trips ourselveswith all the breakables/sentimental stuff. Only had local movers do the really big pieces of furniture. Anything and everything we could move ourselves (including small furniture ) , we did.</p>
<p>aah, it’s coming back now…all the tips:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If your next home has a different room arrangement (one less bedroom, or a family room instead of a dining room, for example), think out how your DESTINATION rooms will be named. Write those down on a list for the mover and label the boxes according to their destination rooms, not rooms of origin from old house.</p></li>
<li><p>Get D to organize every essential school-related paper into one or two
cardboard boxes now, and tell movers to put big stars on them as high priority, or “unpack me first.” They automatically consider any of the kids’ room bedding/linens/pillow the “unpack me first” box and some mark it that way. Otherwise, they’ll look over your’ D’s room and pack for the weight, so maybe some books on the bottom and some lightweight stuff on top; that just won’t do. She shouldn’t have to dig under her teddy bears to find last night’s homework.</p></li>
<li><p>Ask D if she’d rather do a sleepover at friend’s house the night before the actual move, or be right there to see it all happen. Kids differ that way.</p></li>
<li><p>Movers are sorely tempted by liquor bottles. It’s a kindness to move them yourself in the car, if you’re energetic. In all the years, we never lost a penny of loose change, but some bottles walked away unaccounted for.</p></li>
<li><p>Move your own jewelry boxes or silver boxes in your car, since you have the option. Even on inter-city moves, I always handled those myself via car.</p></li>
<li><p>If you can afford it, book a room in a motel that night if you think you need the rest. Generally, they set up your bed as the last thing they do before leaving and toss those “Unpack me First” linen boxes on top of each bed, because they know everybody wants to crash that night. So the motel isn’t asbsolutely necessary. We needed it because ours were intercity moves (we drove 8 hours, same as the truck…) but two blocks away, I think you’ll at least get your beds made before you need to sleep. </p></li>
<li><p>The refrigerator contents. THAT was the hardest to figure out. Moving good food–and you have the chance to do so! Turn on the fridge in the new home a day early. Think about your plan, buy less and less fresh food as they day approaches…etc. Also, let your staples in the pantry wind down, you can do a big grocery shop once the new house is receiving. Why pay them to pack and move your cans of peas?</p></li>
<li><p>How’s the winter weather? Mention to the moving crew that you really care about this and of course they’ll be putting down mats in the walkways of both houses, right?</p></li>
<li><p>DON"T TALK to movers as they work. It’s not nasty, it keeps them safe. My S
worked last summer as a mover. They have to really concentrate on how they lift and turn corners. It’s very dangerous work they do, coming around stairs backwards with furniture. Respect them and let them work. Explain same to kids. I remember thinking as a 14-year-old the movers were “mean” just because they didn’t want to chat with me. Help your D understand it from their point of view.</p></li>
<li><p>If you have a pet, put him in a kennel that day. Trust me, it’s a kindness to all.
The dogs hate to see furniture moved and it trips all their signals to bark and protect. If you tie them outside, they bark and neighbors complain. Maaaybe they can stay in a car, but isn’t a day in a car backseat worse than a kennel? The movers won’t let the pets run around behind their feet, nor should they (see #8).</p></li>
</ol>
<p>10, Have your D pull down the bulletin board contents BEFORE moving day, and put all into a shoebox marked “bulletin board contents.” </p>
<ol>
<li>My H has to dress for work. He said the hardest thing was keeping out a tie and clean shirt ready for the next morning, so he could dance off and leave me to unpack.
He made this little emergency bag and safeguarded it by his steering wheel. It included a clean shirt and tie.<br></li>
</ol>
<p>Good luck and be happy in your new home!!</p>
<p>Karen,
We did this almost ten years ago – moved from a rental townhouse to a single family home four miles away.</p>
<p>We settled on our house on a Tuesday; I went straight from settlement to the house to start painting the kids’ rooms. The room DS1 was moving into was bright pink. Took five coats of paint. DH kept the home fires going at the townhouse, got the kids fed, and out the door in the morning while I staed at the new house overnight and painted; I picked them up from school, brought them to the new house, and they helped me until DH got there in the evening. (The kids were 6 & 7 at the time.)</p>
<p>We hauled the computers, china, school stuff, bills, food, towels, a week’s worth of clothes – all the things we needed right away/didn’t want damaged – over the course of the week. Movers came on Saturday, loaded up and brought everything else over to the new house. We were able to get away with paying for only four hours of movers. I had labeled everything with color-coded tags and a diagram so we knew where things should go. I packed and unpacked everything myself (it’s the Army brat in me). </p>
<p>Over the years, we did many moves via U-Haul and with me driving – but the hybrid move worked well. </p>
<p>The nicest thing the sellers did (and it’s something I’ll do if we ever dare move out of here) is that they hired a professional cleaning service to come in before we took possession. The house was SPOTLESS. It was such a nice touch. I could focus on geting things set up right away instead of scrubbing floors and toilets.</p>
<p>We’ve only ever moved around the corner or across town, so I’ve done a lot of driving back & forth with the breakables. I always figured it was easier to place the lamps in the back seat of the car than to pay to have them packed in peanuts or whatever they do. And it was easier to keep track of essentials like bills, homework, and the next day’s clothes if we did some packing ourselves.</p>
<p>The kids thought it was a blast to have a fast-food “picnic” on the floor of our unfurnished soon-to-be dining room.</p>
<p>I did this a while ago, a 2 mile move, luckily the dates worked out such that I could take carloads of things over to the new house. First I took all the couch cushions and figured out precisely where I wanted things to end up. Then I worked backward from thhe couch decisions into which accouterments went to each room.</p>
<p>We drove carloads of items over each day until the final day, storing them in an organised fashion in the garage, then had some local movers come and helped us move only the big heavy pieces. This was still almost $1000, so for us it really worked to move as much as we could ourselves.</p>
<p>Once they brought the heavy pieces, we then began to bring all the earlier moved items. We left all our clothes on hangers and moved them directly to the new closet, etc.</p>
<p>We moved around the corner and did the serve lasagne to best friends routine. But we were younger.</p>
<p>I like paying3’s idea of being unpacked. It’s easy to make yourself pack; harder to get the unpacking done.</p>
<p>When I have moved locally, and it was on my dime, I have wrapped breakables in household linens and towels and transported them myself in manageable boxes. You have my sympathy about the moving, rough experience physically. Hopefully you will be settled for holiday celebrations? Good luck. Lorelei</p>
<p>I moved as much as possible during the overlap of having two houses before the move.I bought the big tupperware tubs and used those to move in- handles,didn’t break and could hold a lot of weight I put the kitchen together, moved books and put them right on the bookshelf and took as much as I could in the car. It was so nice to have most things put away so that the moving company just moved the big stuff and the first day already felt like home.</p>
<p>I knew y’all would have some good ideas. Thanks for sharing them.</p>
<p>I have some time to prepare, as we’re looking at mid January. Unfortunately, I’ll be doing some medical stuff in early January that will prohibit me from lifting anything heavy. So, I’ll have to be telling other folks where to put everything. Normally, I’d be horsing a lot of the boxes around by myself in the dead of night.</p>
<p>I helped a friend move a few blocks several years ago. She invited many friends to bring boxes and laundry baskets/tubs to come to her house. Everyone took a room and loaded the stuff into the boxes, etc and into their own cars and drove over to the new house. Dresser drawers were carried full. Clothes were taken on hangers, wrapped in blankets and hung directly in the closets. We had to draw straws to see who got to drive the lawn mower down the street!
At the end of the day, we all went to the corner pub and had pizza. Fun day and not too hard on anyone.</p>
<p>Just pray it doesn’t snow on your moving day in January! Or are you in a sunny clime?</p>
<p>I love these “friends and a handcart” moving stories. On our first move, from one college apt. to another, we had friends but I still remember thinking at the end of the day, “That’s another thing I wouldn’t want to do for a living!” And I was MUCH younger & stronger.</p>
<p>I moved from one condominium to another, in the next unit, and one very strong student CARRIED my washing machine from unit to unit…not a big guy, but very strong! Good idea about having friends bring laundry baskets, etc. Last major move I invested in lots of those larger rubbermaid tubs, and they continue to serve for storage of out of season things. I am comfortable leaving them in the basement, they stack easily, labels can be taped on and easily removed, and they are easy to carry with the handles.</p>
<p>Good point- I should be thankful that there is no chance of snow. Probably no rain either, as the monsoon season is over. Not to gloat, but I forget that we live in a mostly tropical climate…</p>
<p>The kids are still putting up Christmas decorations, so we get to enjoy that, but I am cringing a little at the amount of stuff that is going to have to go back into boxes after Christmas…</p>
<p>I’ve been following this thread as we’ll be moving as soon as the deals close - we’re moving about an hour and a half north of Oakland. I have packed nearly everything as we thought we’d be moving on Dec 7, then it was bumped to Dec 14 then Dec 21…well, its Dec 21. Yesterday I asked what the possibility was that we’d close before the 25th. “No way” - I went out and bought a tree, a few ornaments & lights (I moved our holiday decorations in November to a storage facility up north). I forgot the tree stand is in storage too. So the tree is in a bucket of water with lights and decorations. I may just freecycle all these decorations and lights on the 26th! The buyers of our Oakland home have already started having their mail sent here (?!) - I guess they’re anxious to move in. Happy Holidays everyone!</p>
<p>Oakland Mom- iv’e been following your moving saga- hope it all gets resolved soon. Best of luck to you, I hope you have a relaxing holiday.</p>