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Moving Tips and Experience
Yeah , moving is a pain and every bone of my body is tired. We had a little more to sell , but they were too insignificant and not worth the time so took them to goodwill.
Tips
1. Make sure that you catalog each box , I made it a point to write on the box each and very article that went in. ( we have experienced trying to search for one thing and opening a whole bunch of boxes)
2. Hire movers,it is not worth all the hardwork you do. We have have helped and received helped from many friends and it takes almost the whole day before everything is moved. Though I catalog boxes, when moving people don’t look at where each box has to go and ends up mostly in the garage. When we have friends, we don’t feel like telling them where to put what as we are already feeling obligated.
3. Don’t have loose odds and ends outside till the last day – we were so overwhelmed with the move that we missed a few things , the movers just come with huge boxes and throw odds and ends together and then it is back to square one looking for things.
4. If you know you are going to move in a couple of months, start discarding what you don’t need. If you have not touched or even thought about it in the last two years , then you don’t need it.
5. When you hire movers, make it a pointing to check if they have a license and insurance and what the cost would be. We were kind of inclined towards a mover who asked for a fix rate, we then found someone who was a member for the Better Business Bearau, we hired him and we had no complaints whatsever and the cost came up to be cheaper then the guy who asked for a flat rate. He came at the exact time he promised ( have heard horror stories from friends who have told me that their movers carried one pillow at a time) and moved everything so fast, we could not believe it. We were done moving by 2.45 pm & they started at 9:00am.
6. We had marked all boxes with a big green dot on all fours for all items that stayed in the garage. It really helped coz that saves R the trip of taking them back to the garage.
7. Movers ask for 15 to 20% tips, we did not know that it was so much. We just gave some money as tips and then the the mover told us it was 15% atleast.
I guess this is what I have learnt. Now the part of unpacking….what fun !Have to get this done by the 20th as my neice and nephew will be with us for summer vacation.
We moved 1100 miles and 15% to 20% would have been just too darned much as tip. Our movers did not expect us to tip. The driver of the truck was very principled and kept in touch with us through the entire route. He was mad as hell because the one of the two local kids he hired as help to unload the truck asked for a tip by saying they don’t get paid much.
Our boxes were labeled with the following:
- our new address
- which room they came from in the previous home (so we knew what was in it)
- which room they needed to go to in the new home
They took almost about half a day to load the truck but unloaded it in less than 3 hours. Not a single box was misplaced in transit nor did the movers place a box in the wrong room.
We used Beakins because we had good feedback about them, they are national, and the truck driver was local to Illinois (from where we were moving).
shankari, so finally u have moved..i can understand how much pain it is..and i agree with you.about labeling each carton..even i do the same..it becomes easier while unpacking..happy arranging shankari..
You sound so tired throughout this post!
And I guess the first thing you unpacked was the laptop/system!
Glad you are all moved. We moved all the way from chicago to Simi valley and it was no fun. I just dont want to move again, it was awful.
Glad your move went off well. Take plenty of rest.
Thanks for the worthy tips!
Get plenty of rest before unpacking, thats another episode
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manisha – you had a good mover
, R even took a pic of me blogging…
Thanks Sudha, starry nights,has to be me, krithika, Syam
Srinivas – You hit the nail on the head, you know what, I never packed my laptop. 10 minutes before the movers arrived, I was blogging and after we finished moving, I was on the laptop again
“Make sure that you catalog each box ” – if only we were that organized!! we moved 6 years ago and we’re still uncovering old toys, etc. from unopened boxes in the garage
then again, setting up a new place is fun. kinda makes up for the pain of moving
were/are u in the bay area? which city did u move to?
Nice tips…I also labelled the boxes when I moved ….Enjoy unpacking and Don’t lose ur energy…Be ready to enjoi with ur nephew and niece
thanks balaji , asha. I have started unpacking coz we have to get the house set before the kids comover
I have been in my current home for close to eighteen years and hope to die here. (Many years from now of course.) Before that time, I moved time and again, always with the help of friends instead of a mcving company. The only time I wished I had hired someone was when my new refrigerator got all scatched up….. I would have loved to have had someone to yell at, but you can’t yell at friends doing you a favor now can you? It worked just as well with the scratches…. I was just that I had saved so long for it, and had a crappy one that didn’t keep things cold when I finally bought it, that I was in love with the new one and felt everyone of those scratches as if they had happen to me personally. Happy to tell you, I am not AS attached to things now as I once was. Maybe because I make more money now?